Customer Retention
Almost any company providing a product
or service receives issues or problems from their customers. They might come in
by email, by phone, or even by post, but those issues need to be addressed, and
the process for doing that can be problematic. In many smaller companies there
is no software system (or even process) for dealing with these issues, and
customer satisfaction suffers as a result. Several articles recently have
identified customer retention as a key survival tool in a recession.
Those who provide good customer service will be seen as ‘high value’ providers,
and those who fail to deal with customer issues will lose customers to their
competitors.
You get what you pay for
In the past, ‘Helpdesk’ or
‘Issue Tracking’ systems have been very much a case of ‘you get what you pay
for’. The lower priced systems were simple at best and lacked critical
functionality (like automated issue logging from email), and the better systems
were expensive, often beyond the budget of SME’s. There is an alternative
though, and it looks very promising. rb|it-Consulting has recently been
evaluating the latest version of OTRS (short for ‘Open-source Ticket Request
System’), and is now adopting it as a Helpdesk and Issue Tracking System.
The good news
The software is entirely open source and
free, runs on Microsoft Windows and UNIX/Linux and comes complete with all the
required packages. The installation is simple and works on both Windows Server
and Small Business Server 2003 (the latter requires a tweak to the installation
to avoid clashing with IIS). The end result is a web based system which works
in all browsers (including mobile devices), which can be integrated with your
chosen email system (whatever that may be), and provides an effective and
powerful tool for tracking issues from receipt to conclusion.
Features
- Automated incident logging via email
- Automatic email notification to customers and staff of changes to issue
- Full function web based console for agents and customers
- Built-in escalation of issues and other time based functions
- Calendar support (to define working hours and days)
- Service and SLA Support
- Extensively customisable via the web interface
The default installation would require minimal configuration for a simple setup, but the benefits are potentially huge. Your customers would immediately know that their issue had been received and have a unique reference for their problem, and can log into a web interface to check or update their issue. Your staff can see all the outstanding issues, prioritise them, see which were overdue a response and can assign them to whoever in the organisation (or outside it) is responsible for fixing it. Take a look at the demo version (see http://www.otrs.org/demo/ for details) and try it out for yourself, I think you’ll find a free, powerful and easy to use system which will make your customers happy, and your Financial Director even happier.
Richard Bartlett offers IT consultancy services through his company rb|it-Consulting. Contact him by email richard@rbit-consulting.com or visit his website at http://www.rbit-consulting.com
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