Supporting our Customers

Thursday morning I opened my mail and found this promising mail '2 customers and 2 escalations'.    Because I learned that escalations are potential opportunities I quickly opened the mail.

Without going in too much details I would like to share the common denominator from these mails and customers.

As many other customers this time of the year(year end) , these particular ones where approaching an important milestone in their go-live. The weekend following on the Thursday these companies where planning an upgrade and installation of a new piece of software.

Obviously, during the planning for the weekend the project team ran through the open 'blocking' issues and saw some dark clouds ahead. 

Instead of doing internal investigation with all stakeholders (and there are many in these kind of situations) and make a proper plan of attack,  they turned to the software vendor for a solution and .....  ended in my mailbox. 

As we are in support are ofter considered as 'last resort' we know how to deal with this and could manage their situation. We address the issues (not solve them..) and made sure the weekend planning could continue.

What you can learn from this small anecdote is that since milestones are there to be met, realize that this only works if you properly plan ahead with a focus on possible continuity issues.  There are always surprises waiting for the project team that surface when you least expect them. 

Make sure, in the relationship with the service organization, your vendor is aware of your planning as well. For support issues, put this expectations in the service request so we can plan and prioritize as well. Know that there are many ways of getting extra attention for you priority problem and your technical people should be aware .

Most important learning (as usual) : it all starts with communication between you and support.


Hope to get different mails in the future ;-)    !


Hans


p.s. Consider to attend/download one of the regular planned support trainings like the 'Working Effectively With Support'  sessions where all aspects around our processes ad the way we treat priorities are being trained.