Delivering World-Class Technical Support (Paperback)

by Navtej (Kay) Khandpur (Author), Lori Laub (Author) "To have a successful Technical Support Organization, both company executives and technical support managers must have the same answers to two questions: What is the..." (more)
Key Phrases: support request volumes, customer information management system, includes software patches, Great Plains, Service News, United States (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
A total guide to developing, managing, and marketing a world-class technical support organization

When shopping for computer hardware and software, one thing that every customer looks for is quality technical support. Written by two technical support experts, Delivering World-Class Technical Support tells you everything you need to know to plan, develop, market, and manage a top-flight technical support operation that wins and keeps customers.

Drawing upon their extensive experience at award-winning technical support organizations, Kay Khandpur and Lori Laub tell you everything they know about:

• Which services to offer or not to offer.
• How to recruit, train, and motivate technical support staff.
• Using the Internet and Web to connect with and service your customers.
• Work distribution, scheduling, and other organizational issues.
• How to budget for and staff your department.
• Selecting the right tools for increased productivity.
• How to price and market your support offerings.
• Measuring and improving department performance.
• Using technical support to gather valuable customer information.
• How the efficiency of technical support impacts on your company's bottom line
• Outsourcing and partnering technical support to third parties.

Delivering World-Class Technical Support shows you how to maximize the effectiveness and efficiency of your technical support department while winning new customers.

From the Publisher
Technical support is essential for any computer vendor, whether to answer application questions or to handle the problems that inevitably occur. This book will help any company develop a top-flight technical support department, offering guidelines on organization and development. It discusses such topics as: work distribution, scheduling and organization; measuring and tracking department performance, outsourcing the tech support function, and taking advantage of the Internet as a departmental tool.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Wiley (October 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471155349
• ISBN-13: 978-0471155348
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #212,449 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must-read for anyone involved in technical support, March 16, 1999

By A Customer

This is a down to earth, easy to read, indispensible tool for anyone who has a requirement to provide a technical support function for their company's products. This is not a guide on how to be an excellent help-desk engineer. It is a guide for how to go about ensuring that your company understands the value of the technical support organisation and for enabling you to successfully create, manage and deploy a world-class technical support organisation. This should be read by all those involved in any aspect of planning a technical support delivery role.

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent overview of technical support, April 9, 1999

By A Customer

This book provides an outstanding overview of what it takes to put together a solid support organization. It covers evertything from what technologies to consider including their pros and cons; helpful ideas regarding staffing, retention and incentive programs; and insightful, thought-provoking ideas on how to create and implement processes. The examples are especially helpful and make the book an interesting read. I, my staff, and my company have benefitted from the results.

Best book on the topic that I've read, and I've read a fair number of them.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best books on technical support I have read!, March 23, 2001

By	Linda Zarate "IT Ops Consultant" (Azusa, CA United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

This is one of the most authoritative, information-rich books on technical support that I have read - and as a consultant who specializes in service delivery and problem management processes I have read many.

It hits all of the critical success factors in designing, implementing and managing an effective support organization. It goes far beyond IT help desks - the material here is applicable to support professionals responsible for product support, technical services representatives in customer care organizations, and tier-2 support.

I like the process- and business-oriented approach. The book fully covers all of the parts of mature support processes: people, process and technology. It provides excellent insights into what you should be measuring and reporting, and how to handle gaps in your support processes.

Also, in view of the high turnover in experienced support professionals that most organizations suffer the section on staffing alone is worth the price of the book. It is obvious that the authors have grappled with this critical issue and they provide sound advice on how to overcome the people aspect of technical support.

As a consultant I found the planning and budgeting section to be a big help - the information contained here will not only allow you to determine support costs (which should be factored into product prices if your organization is supporting a product), but also how to effectively manage the cost component of technical support. If you are a consultant, this section will also give you some ideas on how to craft an effective value proposition for providing outsourced technical support services.

This book makes a valuable contribution to the technical support profession and adds considerably to the general body of knowledge. If technical support or service delivery is your business you need this book.