Mar. 2006 -- When they decide to buy an HP product, customers often make the decision based on solid media reports and recommendations from friends and family. They’re looking forward to enjoying products that deliver high performance, state-of-the-art technology and a sleek, elegant look. They may not realize it, but those customers have another reason to feel good about buying HP.
It’s called customer service. Without much ceremony or fanfare, HP’s level of consumer support in Canada is top-notch – and increasingly getting the recognition it deserves.
HP’s expertise was confirmed in November by J.D. Power & Associates, which conducts independent surveys of customer satisfaction, product quality and buyer behaviour. J.D. Power surveyed more than 1,500 HP customers on their telephone, online or product repair experiences, covering nearly 200 aspects of support, including call and repair centres, online support and more.
The results made HP the first consumer technology company to be certified under the new J.D. Power and Associates Certified Technology Service and Support program. The certification recognizes HP’s outstanding customer service supporting the entire consumer product line in North America, from cameras and televisions to printers and PCs.
“By passing the rigorous standards of the certification process, HP demonstrates a strong commitment to providing customers with a consistent, positive experience across its technical service and support operation,” said Steve Carroll, executive vice president at J.D. Power and Associates. “Customer interactions with technical service and support can have a profound and lasting impact on overall customer satisfaction and loyalty.”
Steve didn’t overlook the fact that there are people behind the service: “Such positive customer feedback is not achieved without a great deal of hard work and dedication on the part of HP’s service and support team.”
Jeff Long, Director, Customer Operations for HP says the recognition confirms our leadership across the spectrum. “One thing that differentiates the J.D. Power survey from other measures is that it’s a holistic look at our offerings, so achieving this certification tells us we’re doing a good job in all areas,” he said.
David Ross, Hosted Services Manager and Joanne Muys, Support Planning & Infrastructure Manager
HP Canada’s Consumer Support Team was created about five years ago in response to a growing recognition that consumer expectations and product costs can be very different from those of commercial customers.
“Look at the different types of consumer products you use on a day-to-day basis, such as a car or toaster, and think about what you would expect in the way of support for these products,” says Joanne Muys, Support Planning & Infrastructure Manager. “As the industry lowers the cost of technology, we need to be able to reasonably meet the customer’s expectations of repair or replacement of low-cost products in a variety of ways.”
HP does just this, first by starting with products designed to be user friendly and then by providing a range of Total Care support services including:
• A call centre at 1-800-HP INVENT provides 24/7 coverage
• Real-time chat and online and e-mail support at hp.ca/totalcare allow new product owners to register, get help with set-up and installation, and more
• Repaired products or replacements are delivered by to the customer within days.
HP Canada’s own Customer Satisfaction (CSat) surveys show a steady rise in satisfaction, confirming the J.D. Power recognition.
“We send out a monthly e-mail survey covering every customer case logged to measure customers’ experiences with the call centre,” explains David Ross, Hosted Services Manager responsible for the consumer call centres and repair facilities. “Counting the percentage of ‘extremely satisfied’ and ‘satisfied’ responses to the survey questions gives us our CSat score. For January 2006, 78.2 per cent of customers gave the call centre experience one of these top two rankings.”
Taking the customer’s point of view plays a large part in the high satisfaction rankings. “We make sure calls are picked up quickly,” David says. “Extensive training ensures agents are familiar with the processes, systems, products and any technology issues with them. Calls are scripted for consistency; however, we want our agents to open each call with ‘Thank you for calling Hewlett-Packard, how can I help you?’ This gives a friendly greeting to our customers and helps get to the root of the issue so it can be solved quickly.”
Much work has also gone into the supporting technology, such as Interactive Voice Recognition that directs callers to the appropriate agent, reducing annoying transfers. Another system called ICare helps keep track of prior calls by the same customer, so the caller doesn’t have to repeat information.
“Studies show that 80 per cent of customers now consider support as part of the criteria they use when buying technology,” says Joanne. “We don’t want our customers to have a problem, but if they do, we’re here to help.”
Helping is the name of the game and in this area, the Consumer Support Team employs tactics that make HP support second to none.
Printable version
