In my opinion, in Indian technology market place it so
happens that we focus only on technology as a prime selling factor and ignore
some other possible means of repeat business there by improved revenue.
In B2B (Business to Business) technology environment it is
imperative to focus on making your products very innovative to attract new
business/revenue for your business unit/vertical or entire organization. So,
the technology organizations in India are always in a race to hire the best
talent from various technology institutions from across India and there is
nothing wrong in it. However, the same organizations do not chase talented
people for joining there support center. And this, according to me, is little disturbing.
Per my observations thus far, when it comes to recruiting
for technical support related roles, we are ready to compromise on the quality
of the resources that we get on board. We look at our budgets multiple times
and bargain real hard, and if still there is no breakthrough we are prepared to
hire substandard resource for this role. Why? Simple reasons I can think of
are:
- Support is not main function and “anybody” can provide support to customer
- Technical Support is a “Cost Center”
Yes, I agree that sell of our product depends heavily/entirely
upon the quality and innovativeness of the product. So, R&D team is very
much responsible for creating innovative products and QA for assuring the
quality of the product. You sell a product and definitely get the revenue for
sell of the product. Good!
Now, if you do not provide good technical support to your
client, will this client consider you for his next requirement? Will it impact
your organization in any way?
Answer to second question is “YES”. Service provided and quality of service
provided not only defines top line but also contributes heavily to repeat
business. How? It’s very simple. After sales technical support, makes/breaks
impression of your customer-centricity. A strong and efficient technical
support team implies that you care for customer. This means, you cannot and
should not have “anybody” be part of your technical support team. (In my
opinion, Technical support is an attitude rather than just a job function).
Remember, quality of the support service is the key.
A wise sales person will always use Technical Support
organization to boost the top line by selling the services. So, selling technical
support services improve the top line while providing quality support services
will attract new/repeat business. This makes a case where Technical Support
makes money for your organization, thus it’s not a cost center.
Though there are some organizations who are realizing this,
it is yet to become focus area. So, the quality technical support service is an asset to an organization that generates recurring revenue without any hassles.
