Giving Your Customers Some Satisfaction

Measuring customer satisfaction can be a difficult challenge for solution providers because it depends on such factors as the technology deployed, the stated ROI and the impact on the overall efficiency of the organization. One way solution providers can succeed, however, is by ensuring top-notch customer service to their own large corporate customers and delivering promised solutions efficiently.

Customer service is especially important when the Web comes into play because recent surveys show the initial customer Web experience is critical.

As a result, many large companies want to ensure their Web-enablement projects succeed, both from a standpoint of customer satisfaction and internal efficiency.

Three recent large corporate deployments illustrate how customer satisfaction is measured in today's challenging business environment.

At Kawasaki Motors, headquartered in Irvine, Calif., one solution provider saved the company hundreds of thousands of dollars by deploying a solution that allows marketing and customer data to be easily downloaded, manipulated and analyzed. But the project faced a number of challenges, including the issue of changing hardware vendors.

Next up: Web deployment of the critical data so it is available to more company managers.

Greenlee Textron, a manufacturer of tools for wire and cable installation and maintenance systems, needed help in servicing its own customers in an existing call center in Rockford, Ill.. Again, a solution provider met the challenge through an information management system that utilizes the Web to increase efficiency. Again, finding the right vendor was critical, as was the follow-up support and training. How did the solution provider make those choices for the client? What obstacles had to be overcome? What sort of follow-up technology implementations are likely?

Finally, large energy conglomerate Helmerich & Payne turned to a solution partner to meet the challenge of linking more than 80 offshore and land oil rigs in a network that would assure reliable telephone and Internet access. Choosing the right technology turned out to be the key. So did a proven track record, efficient installation and support, and a sharply defined ROI business case.

What motivated the corporation to seek a technology partner? How did the solution provider meet the technical challenges of the installation? What was the real payoff for the multinational customer, both internally and externally?

For the answers to those and a host of other questions about how to meet the needs of top corporate customers, check out our May 14 issue, The IT Spending & Strategy Guide.