VIEWPOINT
COMMENT
www.comms-dealer.com
Your
website is your shop window
DAVE CRUSE, CEO, CONJUNGO
While working on Conjungo (www.conjungo.
com) over the past few years I have seen thousands of websites. As a result, I’ve got a pretty good idea of what is good and what is not. For example, websites that use Flash as an intro’ are extremely annoying. Even if the site states ‘skip intro’ it always gives me the impression that the web designer has found a new piece of technology and wants to show it off. It’s been done before.
Cluttered websites are another bugbear. A site should be clean, dynamic, pleasing on the eye and easy to navigate. Again, many companies use their website as a showcase to get as much information onto one page as possible. This makes it nigh on impossible to find what you are looking for, even to the extent that contact details are hidden. If you are looking to contact a company and can’t find the details, you’ll go elsewhere. Keep it simple! Give a telephone number and let someone call you. Or use an email link.
Remember that your website is your shop window. Also remember who your audience is. Are they technical or business people with little knowledge of ICT and how it can benefit their organisation? Avoid jargon and clearly state your USPs. Compare your site to your competition. Every company says it is the best in its field. That may be the case but explain how and why. Every company delivers the ‘best service’, but it pays to be different and stand out from the crowd.
When word processing software first came out people would often use every font they could lay their hands on in one document. It looked appalling. Now they realise that one type style looks fine. The same applies to websites. In essence your website should state what your company is about, it should be well designed and clearly state your key messages. Your website should also be easy to use and navigate, as well as search engine friendly.
No website is unique. As the adage states, ‘You’re only ever one click away from another’, and that could mean a competitor.
NGN business
update:
Keeping new customers happy while not neglecting an existing customer base is what every operator aims for, but the strategic role that support plays in a customer relationship is sometimes underestimated, writes Andy Hollingworth, Opal’s Director of Wholesale.
Andy Hollingworth
D
elivering the right kind of network support to ensure new and existing customers remain content is not always
as straight forward as it should be. The high cost of technical skills coupled with the need to monitor many disparate aspects of a network are just two of the challenges that many partners face. While software tools can provide part of the answer, they need to be user-friendly to avoid the need for expensive staff training, or taking up unreasonable amounts of agent time.
Fault information also has to be packaged and presented to agents in a way they understand and can use quickly and easily, rather than baffling them with too much in-depth technical information. A traditional set of disparate support tools will only serve to slow support teams down, as agents can’t move seamlessly from one part of the process to another. The net effect is a lower quality of service for customers.
However, today’s modern best-of-breed fault management platforms come in the form of a suite of powerful tools and systems, providing an end-to-end service that resellers can wrap around the services they provide, streamlining the whole process. Efficiency often comes from automation and this is one area where current developments are helping improve service levels.
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For example, Opal has developed an integrated IVR and web-based system that investigates and manages single line faults and allows end-users to self-serve, by going online or reporting a fault over the phone. The system will then test the line remotely,
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identify if there is a fault and route it to the correct department to be dealt with.
It also manages customers’ expectations via SMS (and soon by email), providing them with a reference number, details of what the fault is, when it will be fixed and then alerting them once the problem is resolved.
Another new system that Opal will bring to market this year is set to ease the burden on partners, and minimise the impact on a customer’s business in the event of a major network failure. Using a combination of IVR, SMS and a website, this system can help keep several hundreds of thousands of customers updated on the situation if need be, something a call centre would find it hard to accommodate on its own.
As network sophistication increases and more layers of services are delivered over the same line, such as broadband, a business class service or traffic prioritisation, so the fault diagnosis process becomes harder to manage and troubleshoot. This is where today’s new support tools will help unify support strategies and deal with this growing complexity.
To improve customer service and client retention the channel needs access to intelligent support tools, ones that remove the easy-to-resolve tasks, freeing up resource to focus on more complex diagnostic issues. By addressing technical problems in the most effective way, partners will not only keep their customers’ businesses running smoothly, but will strengthen their relationships and open up new revenue opportunities.
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