I’ve just been informed that anyone who registers for the webcast Measures, Metrics and Madness: The New World of ‘Guiding, not Grading’ will get the slides and audio sent to them.

Join us to hear from TSIA’s VP of technology research, John Ragsdale, as he interviews Phil Verghis, founder of The Verghis Group. Phil is not only a brilliant strategist and innovator, but also a long-time TSIA community member and a founding member of TSIA’s Expert Alliance Partner program.

Register now for this informative webcast.

What happens when a software company re-invents itself as a subscription-based service business?

That question is becoming increasingly urgent as the “software as a service” (SaaS) model gains momentum. And on September 22, the First Wednesday Roundtable will take you behind the scenes for a candid look at a company that made this transition–and survived. Our guide will be Renee Bochman, VP of Professional Services and Support at Axeda corporation.

http://events.linkedin.com/Surviving-SaaS-migration/pub/369402

http://bit.ly/cg9iQW — I’ll be there…

Well, it has taken me much longer to finish than I thought, but I’ve just put the finishing touches to an interesting new article “Measures, Metrics and Madness”.  It will be the basis for the April 2010 edition of the Verghis View (my newsletter).

Stay tuned… it is truly perhaps the single best method to turbocharge productivity that I have seen.

A highly under-rated and under-used partnership is between marketing and customer support/customer service. I’m working with a large client now where (as part of a larger engagement) we explored and developed a partnership between marketing and customer service that has resulted in more loyal customers that at the same time yields tens of thousands of dollars of incremental revenue a quarter.

Yes, it can be done without turning customer service and support into sales people. They always have to be the customer’s advocate. However, understanding the customer lifecycle, personas and churn risk points and making that part of the support DNA helps. Dramatically.

Embedded in this interesting article from the Economist is something similar that Cablecom (a Swiss cable tv/internet/phone provider) did.

“Like many telecoms providers, Cablecom has grappled with churn.  Using advanced data analytics, Cablecom discovered that although customer defections peaked in the 13th month, the decision to leave was typically around the 9th month (as indicated by things like the number of calls to customer support services).  To reduce defections, Cablecom offered at-risk customers special deals 7 months into their subscription. 

The results were impressive:  customer defections fell from 20% of subscribers a year to under 5%, enabling the firm to save significant marketing acquisition costs while boosting customer satisfaction.”

Sprint has a plan that allows international data roaming for $40 a month. In theory, it is very simple. You to call before you leave the country and sign up for an international data roaming plan (allows you to get mail, web content, radio etc. while traveling to countries where CDMA services are available) and cancel when you get back. This is significantly less expensive than paying by the byte. I’ve done it before, and it works well.

When it works.

My first hint that my last three week global trip may end up with a huge bill came when from ‘Jennifer’ at Sprint Customer Care called to see if I was aware my *upcoming* bill was going to be unusually high. When I asked how high, and she said well about $1,112.23 more than usual. We walked through the sequence of events, and it was clear Sprint had made a mistake. However, she could not authorize the refund because the bill hadn’t posted yet. 

She promised to call me back after the bill had posted. I was skeptical, and set a reminder to call Sprint back a day after the bill posted. Well wouldn’t you know it — ‘Jennifer’ called back and informed me that I would get a paper  bill for the higher amount, but to just pay the normal monthly charge and ignore the rest as she had taken care of it. Sprint sent me a survey after the call and I noted that while I was very happy with the support, I hadn’t seen the bill yet. Based on the survey answer, I got a call from another group following up, by which time the updated bill had posted. I also got a second courtesy call from someone in the Customer Care team making sure that all was fine.

Well done, Jennifer. Well done, Sprint. You have earned my loyalty.

Lessons for service providers:

1. Scour your customer’s bills and call them (don’t just email) *before* the bill posts if there is anything unusual from the customer’s end. While I was unhappy, I would have been far less happy if the first time I learned of the  bill was when I had saw it and had to call in about it.
2. Take personal responsibility. Jennifer called and said she would personally stay on the case until it was resolved. Even though she made notes in the CRM system, it didn’t replace the rapport we had built when she first called me.
3. Set expectations properly. Jennifer warned me that the paper bill would be high, but not to worry about it and the online bill would reflect the right amount. So it has. 
4. Trust  but verify. The follow up call was gravy from Sprint’s part, but well worth while.

Hats off Jennifer. Hats off to you Sprint. I’ve called to let Jennifer’s supervisor know of the work she did, and this is my public thank you to Sprint.

For all of you trying to implement communities – and there are more than just a few of you:

http://bit.ly/cxSghs

Andres Sanchez has published a book titled Technical Support Essentials – Advice you can use to succeed in Technical Support and has cited the Savvy Support model a few times as one of the new models for support.

Read all about it, and much more of what Andres has to say in his book.

After almost 4 weeks of travel (just crossed the 100,000 mile mark with United Airlines this past weekend), I’m back in Boston for a few weeks.

One of the reasons I’m back is the Third Annual Voice of the Customer conference hosted by the First Wednesday Group. There is a terrific lineup of speakers and participants. If the past two years were any indication, it should be a fun event with a lot of provocative ideas. I’m looking forward to seeing many friends, colleagues and customers there.

 (Disclaimer, I am one of the producers of the First Wednesday Group.)