An email conversation with Sojish Krishnan, a member of the executive team at Bobcares, who discusses the content of his Wednesday afternoon presentation at next week's HostingCon event.
By Anastasia Tubanos, theWHIR.com
In advance of HostingCon 2008, we're contacting some of the speakers presenting at the event and asking them about the content of their sessions in an effort to give readers a sense of what to expect from HostingCon, and perhaps help them choose which sessions to attend.
July 25, 2008 -- (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) -- Data center and hosting support provider Bobcares (bobcares.com) knows a thing or two about customer support.
Considering it has dedicated its entire business to providing outsourced support as a service to a clientele of over 3.5 million websites for nearly a decade, you could say Bobcares is somewhat of an expert, a connoisseur if you will, of determining which ingredients are necessary to create a great customer service team.
On July 30, Sojish Krishnan, a member of the executive team at Bobcares, will be presenting a session titled "Best Practices of Support Teams for Better Customer Retention," with tips on how to build a "world-class support team" and how this can encourage customer retention.
Krishnan will also touch on the different points to keep in mind when building an effective customer service team as well as how to evaluate a team's performance and keep them motivated.
"Best Practices of Support Teams for Better Customer Retention," will take place Wednesday, July 30 at 3:30 p.m. in room 324.
In your session outline, the term "world-class" pops up a couple of times. What exactly are the characteristics of a world-class support team and why is this criteria, in particular, so important?
SJ: The most important characteristic of a world-class support team is great people. Unless you have the right people to provide support for your customers, you would end up having no customers to provide support. That's why hosting companies should take more effort in hiring, rewarding and retaining the best bunch of people. This is regardless of whether you have an in-house team or outsourced team. The effort taken to build a team will be rewarded through sales and higher customer retention.
After "right people," it's the personalization of support. A superior team goes all out to make each customer feel special with the service. They focus on how to add value to a customer's business, which 'automagically' brings in more sales. Business is all about building relationships. In a highly competitive industry like ours, one has to go that extra mile to build relationships.
What are some of the best practices businesses should keep in mind while building their team?
SJ: Spend time on picking the right guys. It's better to wait until you get the right individual, rather than picking someone because he does not eat into your pocket.
Interview the candidates before hiring. During the interview, spend time figuring out the soft-skills, and don't just concentrate on the technical skills. Hire for attitude and train for skill. The reverse does not hold true, you cannot train for attitude.
Service orientation and stress tolerance are the two core soft-skills you should check before you hire a tech. Those skills make all the difference between a good and bad support tech.
Can you give me a real world example of a scenario where bad customer support led to customer loss?
SJ: Oh, I can give a lot of examples on that because we, Bobcares, usually come into the scene when things are looking weary for a hosting company. One particular incident that comes to my mind happened last year. There was a hosting company ('was' because it was recently sold in one of the largest acquisitions this year) who approached us last year. They were getting close to 40,000 tickets a month and customers were not at all happy. The company was getting thrashed left-n-right in public forums.
When we checked the tickets of previous one month during that time, it was pretty clear why things were bad. Tickets were not responded to in a timely manner, or responses would be [one-liners]. To be frank, I was surprised by the patience of the customers who bothered to send tickets. Bobcares' techs were able to reduce the ticket count to less than 15,000 in less than a month. That's what a good support team does. Reduce the tickets and focus on giving proactive support rather than reactive support.
These days WHT and other similar community sites make it really difficult for hosting companies. One just can't exist with a bad support team backing it. Sad right?
You also mention discussions surrounding how to evaluate a team's performance and how to keep them motivated? Can you elaborate here on the methods you'll be outlining?
SJ: A team comprises of individuals and hence the focus should be on the individuals. Best way to do it is to take a sample of their work on a weekly basis and evaluate it. The result of this evaluation should reach the team members in a timely manner, so that they can learn from the mistake.
Another method is by creating a performance metrics and displaying the performance to all members on real-time basis. When you keep stats open for everyone to see, they will compete to reach the top. That's how you improve the team's performance. You can use the stats to recognize individual performers too. Just a pat on the back or a line of appreciation will make a huge difference.
Focus on the overall development of each member. You can do this by providing training hours to improve their skills. Career development within the organization is also a good option to keep them motivated.
I can vouch for that from my own experience. While working in Bobcares, I was also a CTO of a multi-million dollar hosting company. I joined their support team as a regular tech, and the company owner, whom I respect a lot, set clear goals for each level. It was really tough during the initial days, but the goals were driving me forward. In four years time, I reached the position of CTO and that still remains one of the most treasured moments in my career.
Now consider this factor, I'll be meeting that company owner for the first time only in the next month. Isn't that really exciting? That's the beauty of globalization.
What are the key points you want attendees to take away from this discussion and how can they integrate these into their businesses?
SJ: Hire only the best, set clear goals and monitor the performance regularly, and focus on career and skill development of staff. When you keep your team motivated and spend time in making leaders out of them, they'll in turn make your company a leader in this industry. There is also a hidden rabbit inside the hat, "better customer and employee retention."
