Are you in line with online?

Paper no longer occupies a big part of today's life. Computers dominate the
workplace and profes-sionals as well as entre­preneurs are increasingly relying
on technology for their daily operations. In such a scenario, online support
plays a very important role for any organization.

Appropriate online support and information saves the company huge amounts
that can be incurred for voice and e-mail support. It will also help retain the
customer and ensure repeat business. There is a specific move towards online
support being coupled with the traditional e-mail and voice support.

Despite the above-mentioned facts, only 71.4 percent of channel in India is
happy with the quality of online support vendors are offering to them. This was
revealed in a recent channel satisfaction survey commissioned by DQ Channels and
conducted by IDC.

As per the survey reports, in the 'online support' category, while IBM and HP
scored 74.2 and 73.6 percent, respectively, Seagate and Lenovo were the only
other vendors who could match the national average at 72.8 and 72 percent,
respectively. This shows that for an industry that prides itself on making
technology a part and parcel of life, the vendors are not walking their talk.

Vendors do their bit

Reacting to the survey results, George Paul, Executive VP, HCL claimed, “The
internal customer satisfaction index that we follow for the past so many years
states that we deliver more than

90 percent satisfaction to our customers.”

Throwing light on the service support that HCL provides its partners, he
informed that the company provides 24x7 tele-support for its leaptops to help in
trouble-shooting. “We have dedicated sites for customer support that takes care
of B2C requirements. We have created an ERC that is a pool of technically
qualified and experienced technicians for addressing customer support through
telephone and online services. We have also created a module that offers Online
Remote Assistance,” he noted.

Like HCL, D-Link also provides 24x7 telephonic support and conducts similar
survey at its own end as a standard ongoing practice. “Our figures for the last
two years have constantly been exceeding a 90 percent mark,” claimed Anand C
Mehta, Associate VP-Marketing, D-Link India.

Recently, D-Link started an On-Link E-Studio (live demonstration and
simulation for specific solutions is given on products). Besides Web chat and
FAQ-based support, it has ISMART (helps in online tracking for RMA cases) and
E-Studio.

“On our D-Partner site, partner registration process is currently in progress
(to help partners handle customer queries directly). Our training programs
are-Corporate Training Program; Cabling Technology and Products; Refresher
Course in Cabling Technology and Products; Advance Networking Technology and
Products,” Mehta added.

Another player in this space, Canon provides online portal support to its
channel partners through 'Partner Excellence Program', where they can have
access to product training, business develop­ment programs and constant updates
on technological evolution in products online.

The portal is constantly being updated with new additions and applications to
help the partner manage his business. There are various courses offered online
with a certification on successful completion. Partners can get in touch with
the company directly, and also manage and monitor their business with the vendor
through the business tool, which can show trends, graphs and other business
analysis. “This program also provides CEP registration; criteria for partner
audits and approvals; partner forecasting and sales planning; enables online
training using CAP; information on latest product promotions; and access to the
PEP helpdesk for query resolution,” informed Alok Bharadwaj, Senior VP-India,
Canon.

The company claims that it has been constantly upgrading and improving its
online support, which is simple and user-friendly. “We have also added the
'claims submission module' online, where the partner submits his market
development fund claim through the portal with supporting for clearance. We are
also now registering our resellers on the portal,” Bharadwaj added.

We want more

While vendors are trying their hands in all directions to lure the channel,
it seems as if the 24x7 telesupport, e-mails and web chats are not enough when
it comes to satisfying the overall channel community.

Ranchi-based Sona Infotech deals with Lenovo and Acer. Its Service Manager,
DS Pandey said that though he is happy with Lenovo services, the only problem he
faces is that its call transferring takes time. “Suppose a customer is standing
with his problem, we advice him to dial the toll-free number to lodge complain.
We try to close the call from customers within 24 to 48 hours. Acer provides
good support, co-ordinates well with us, takes our call within five minutes of
complaint login, but Lenovo services need to be improved in this arena. We
wished they would take this support mechanism online and make it faster.”

Girish Madhavan of Chennai-based Quadsel Systems deals with HP, MS, Oracle,
Cisco and Juniper. He finds the online services of Cisco 'OK', but is unhappy
with online support that Juniper provides.

“Time is money, so vendors should spend more money on improving their online
services, which saves a lot of time, both for partners and customers. When
clients contact us with their complaint, and when their problems are answered
instantly, they go back with a satisfying smile. This helps us in building
credibility as well,” he noted.

Sharing the problems that partners face in the online support from vendors,
Madhavan added, “Many a times, people do not know how to access the escalation
matrix properly. Since past two years, we are providing trainings, inductions
and certifications to our engineers. Thus, we can ourselves handle minor
problems, but when high-end solutions are needed, it requires experienced
hands.”

He noted that often when a complaint is lodged to a particular call attendee
at the vendor's call center, they say that they will get back after sometime,
but they rarely do so, and never care to call back. As a result, that complaint
is lost.

Not all is bad

While some partners feel that vendors need to improve their online services,
there are others in the channel who appeared completely satisfied, as far as the
online support is concerned.

B Mukund of Chennai-based Mukesh Infoserve completely agreed with the results
of the DQ Channels-IDC survey. “We primarily deal with HP, and we are very happy
with their online services. Their information transfer is exceptionally faster,
takes almost negligible waiting time, and is always accessible. But as the fact
goes, there is always a scope for improvement, so steps taken for betterment of
services are always welcome,” he asserted.

Agreeing with him and with the results of the 'Channel Satisfaction Survey'
is Ajaya Kumar of New Delhi-based Park Group, who deals with Lenovo, Acer and
HP. “We are very happy with their services. Good online services help in giving
customer satisfaction, which in turn means good business, and the vendors we
deal with are doing a great job in the online space.”

Rachna Gupta

rachnagu@cybermedia.co.in