Outsourcing Support
Listening to: Compliments (Shibuyaka Remix By Nick Zinner) - Bloc Party
A few months back I was peripherally involved in a conversation about out sourcing support. I basically said that I thought that, in this context, it was a dumb idea - the company would miss out on useful intangible information about their customers and the customers would come off second best. This was based on personal experience and on a recent set of experiences that the Missus had at her previous job.
Kathy Sierra nailed the issue wonderfully:
Most companies don’t outsource things they need to win a customer, but they have no problem outsourcing things the customer needs to use the product. Technical support. Training. Customer support. Most companies keep sales in-house but then have someone with no passion for the company’s products–help the customer actually use the thing.
Engaging and maintaining a customer in a long term relationship needs to start in-house.
