Perspectives on how the changing needs of Customers / Users are driving a need to deliver Service in a new, participative way. Not only does Customer / User Satisfaction increase significantly, but costs reduce to...

1. Delivering IT Service through Communities
Ronald Mackintosh
April 2015
http://uk.linkedin.com/in/rjmackintosh

2. Copyright Differentis 2015Page 2
Changing needs of Customer Service
• Most traditional Customer & IT Service models have tended to focus on a 1:1 interaction between a
user and Customer Service, e.g.:
• In this model, improvements in Customer Satisfaction tend to come from:
There are a number of challenges with this
• Costs – skilled people are expensive
• Knowledge – takes a long time to build and is easily lost through turnover
• Effectiveness – variable devices and operating systems
• Customers needs are changing with higher expectations, including greater transparency and
responsiveness
• Digital communities are increasingly being used to effectively address these customer needs
• Global companies using social media for service have increased customer satisfaction by 20–40%
and reduced customer query unit cost by 50+%
50%
Phone & F2F
20%
email
10%
web FAQ
10%
IM
Call Wait
Time
Agent
Knowledge
1st Time
Fix Rate
Call Back
Time
Source: Forrester Customer Service Survey 2012 & Differentis Service Communities Study 2013

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Vision for the Service Desk
• The focus in customer service will evolve in the years to come. For
every IT Organisation, it is important to take the lead in this evolution.
• Its goal: more satisfied customers at a lower cost.
• A study by McKinsey has revealed a key difference in efficiency
between personal service, self-service and crowd service. If the cost
of personal service is 100% then the cost of self-service amounts to
12% and crowd service to 9%, there’s a huge opportunity there!
• The Ultimate Goal for the Service Desk should be to kill itself off, and
change to something new:
• High Value Add
• Experts who know what the user has already tried before speaking to them
• “A shift to Self-Service while keeping things personal”
Source http://cmsoforum.mckinsey.com/article/higher-satisfaction-at-lower-cost-digitizing-customer-care

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• This table shows an indication of how the split between Personal, Self-
Service and Crowd-Service is changing
• Self & Crowd Service advantages
• Available 24/7 and year-round: the customer has access to customer service on a
permanent basis
• Self-service solutions for mobile devices are easy to design
• Being digital, it is easier for companies to keep records of the interactions than with
personal contact.
• Consumers taking part in a crowd service program feel like they are part of the solution.
They often become ambassadors and this creates an indirect marketing effect.
• Crowd service is a type of personal service. Customers communicate with other
customers.
• This is personal interaction, which builds more of an emotional bond.
A new model for Service
Years Personal Self Crowd
2000-2010 75% 20% 5%
2011-2016 50% 30% 20%
2017-2020 20% 40% 40%
Source: Prof Stephen Van Belleghem: From Personal to Self to Crowd Service

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Differentis External Baseline Study - 2013
• In September 2013, we carried out an External Baseline Study with a
number of global companies to understand their approach to Service
Communities (Self & Crowd Service)
• The global companies in our survey had been developing online communities for over 3
years and had been through many iterations in order to achieve tangible business
benefits
• During this period they experienced a reduction in traffic volumes in traditional customer
helpdesk channels as the demand for customer online channels increased, and
generated tangible satisfaction increases of between 20 and 40%
• Including fully loaded costs, our Survey revealed the cost of was 15% of the cost of call
centre interaction
• Thus the blended or unit cost to handle interactions was at least 50% less as the mix of
online increased
• Most of the companies interviewed alluded to a unit cost reduction of in excess of 50%
• The highest quoted was 90-95% unit cost reduction however, this company had actively
steered users away from call centres to online interaction therefore giving the user little
choice.
• The study was carried out by Bruce Rogow, Senior Differentis Fellow,
Principal at IT Odyssey & Advisory and ex-Head of Gartner Research

6. Social Service Communities

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What is a Community?
• A community is a social structure
that shares personal values,
cultural values, business goals,
attitudes, or a broader world
view
• What binds it is a community
culture of social rules and group
dynamics that identify members
• Community is affinity, identity,
and kinship that make room for
ideas, thoughts, and solutions
• In the most concise terms, an
online social community is a
group of like-minded individuals
connected by interactions
• They offer platforms for
discussion of topics that a
community or network finds
mutually interesting or beneficial
Source: Various, including Wikitionary, Wikipedia
Customer Service Examples
Dell Techcenter – Data Center and End User Computing Best Practices
Aims to deliver exceptional customer service on a global scale before, during and after the sale
More than 10,000 registered enterprise members and over 300,000 unique visitors per month
Salesforce – Salesforce’s own customer support community
Answers, help & training, collaboration, ideas, known issues, user groups
Open to all 100,000+ enterprises using salesforce

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Common IT Support Community Features
Answers
• Questions and answers, tips,
techniques
• Forum discussions
• Voting on usefulness
Groups
• Special interest groups, focusing
on particular topics
• In-person meetings
• Linkages to other helpful sites
and services
Chat
• Instant Chat with Service
Agents, covering all areas of
the Community, but linking to
Service Requests
Known Issues
• Description of known issues
and workarounds
• Option for users to say “this
affects me”
Ideas
• Ideas for new functionality in the
Community
• Ideas for new product functionality
• Voting on key issues
Experts
• Experts created by the
contributions, help and support
they provide to others
• Recognition of expertise and those
most helpful

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Service Community
Portals and Online Communities
Static Portal
Information
Online Help
?
FAQs
Company News
User Portal
Product Info
Live Chat
| About | Contact Us | Useful Links |
FAQs
Company News
Static Portals:
Offer no interaction with
customers. Serve more as
an information repository.
User Portals:
Offer more interaction.
Product information can be
shared. Interaction via live
chat.
Controlled access to users
Service Communities:
Full interaction between
community members.
Contains all features of
portals but builds with
further functionality and
open interaction of many to
many, peer to peer.
Answers Groups
Chat
Known
Issues
Ideas Experts
Execution only Views and Advice driven

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Service Community in Action - Example
Company
Community
Involvement
Community
Community
Members
Community shaped
Resolution
Post questions to theCommunity
The issue will beshared with the
Community for their input
Forum articles will be
displayed. Where other
community members have
raised similar searches or
similar posted topics
Training, tutorials and
“How to videos” that
relate to thetopic will be
displayed
User will have known
issues displayed that
relate to thesearch
User checks status of
Company Products/
Services
1
2
3
4
5
6
Share ideas or view ideas of
others towards problems,
workarounds, setup
ideas,futureenhancements
ofProducts and process
User applies information /
resolution to specific
problem
Output of user testing IssueResolved
Call the Helpdesk Use Live Chat
Use the the
Community
A
B C
 Provideanswersto
other members question
 Vote on Polls
 Suggest new ideas
 Can like member posts
and ideas etc
 Can rate members for
how helpful they are
 Can instant message
 Can build networks
 Monitor comments
and questions raised
in the community
 Moderate member
behaviour, comments
and content
 Provide resolutions,
solutions and
workarounds
Information provided by the
community allows the issue
to be resolved
Further information
is required from the
Community
OR
SR Raised
Helpdesk Line 1
Product Specialist
Escalated
Engineer
Customer side IT
Support
Issuerequires helpdesk
attention
Phone Live
Chat
Experts
 ProvideExpert input into
Community raised
questions
 Contactable for a
discussion on an issue
 Hangouts
Help
Status
Issues
Frequently
Asked
Questions
Post in the
Community
Ideas
Case Raised
An Issuehas
occurred with an End
User Desktop
+100
Many Users in the
Community with the
same/similar issues can
be serviced at the same
time

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Next steps
• Interested in talking more about how this could work in your
company?
• Contact me via my linkedin profile