Best Practices for Growing Services Explored at AMM

In a world where smart customers expect and demand more from their suppliers, a strong and vibrant services component is essential for long-term growth and success. IT services executives attending CompTIA’s Annual Member Meeting heard that message Tuesday during a meeting of the CompTIA IT Services and Support Community.

“Service is ‘the’ business to be in for the next several decades,” said James Alexander, founder of Alexander Consulting and author of several books on successful service operations.

The role of the service organization has been elevated in many forward-thinking organizations, and for good reason. Alexander said service is often responsible for 70 to 80 percent of all touch points with customers. In many organizations, service revenue is growing at a rate that’s 25 percent faster than product sales.

Customer relationship management (CRM) is being replaced by customer experience management (CXM).

“If we can give them a good experience it will have a positive impact on customer satisfaction and loyalty,” said Alexander.

Alexander advises looking for leverage points for growth within the elements already present in the services part of the business. One area to look at is to add more training options for customers.

“We’re pre-conditioned to thinking that learning is good and training is good,” Alexander said. “If customers see you as having competence in any area, they will be training from you. Customers trust service folks.”

It’s not surprising for mature service organizations to have 25 percent of total revenues coming from training, he noted. Another under-utilized resource for growing a service operation is the personnel on staff.

Developing new skills and adding enhanced capabilities in a service organization will help customers address their technology assimilation gap. That means more business, more repeat business and more revenue for the service organization.

“Grow your talent,” Alexander advised. “You have technical people who want to learn new skills. They’re already smart people and they can easily add more value.”

Also at Tuesday’s session of the CompTIA IT Services and Support Community, two new members were elected to the community’s executive council: Shawn Mason of Hewlett-Packard and Jim Walters of Samsung Electronics.

Community leaders also announced that the group, in cooperation with the Creating IT Futures Foundation, will make $10,000 in charitable donations to deserving organizations. The money will be earmarked for groups that foster future IT careers for youth through internships, apprenticeships and similar programs, and organizations that help adults who lack opportunities to develop IT career skills.

To get involved with the IT Services and Support Community, click here.