THE CORPORATE IMPACT OF REMOTE SUPPORT: How Delivering Value Improves Customer Retention and Boosts Revenue

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1 THE CORPORATE IMPACT OF REMOTE SUPPORT: How Delivering Value Improves Customer Retention and Boosts Revenue A Executive Brief Sponsored by Citrix Online We Accelerate Growth

2 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY When a company controls and enhances the support experience, it can convert potential problems into a range of opportunities that create happier and more loyal customers. With GoToAssist Corporate, a remote service and support solution, Ultimate Software is turning customer calls into collaborative experiences between its support representatives and its customers. The results include higher customer satisfaction, increased loyalty and recurring revenue streams. The advantages of using GoToAssist Corporate for technical support are immediate, bringing benefits that go far beyond the cost-control measures of a support center. This paper explores how Ultimate Software s best-in-class support operation leverages remote-support technology to add value (in the key form of revenue) to the whole organization. Ultimate's case illustrates how the health of a company can be fostered through the revenue that originates in the support center, a seemingly cost-centric entity. HOW SUPPORT IS INTERTWINED WITH A COMPANY'S HEALTH A company's success is primarily determined by its relationship with its customers. Will customers remain loyal? Will they expand their purchasing framework? Will they recommend the products or services to others? The support experience can bring all these questions into a single decisive moment. The ability of the support representative to perform under pressure and to exceed expectations has a clear-cut relationship with future profitability. The support moment often is built on a personal, one-to-one human interaction that involves emotions and rapport. This magnifies the need for the right support tools at that pivotal moment when a representative is interacting with the customer. Fundamental elements in delivering excellent support include: Providing a consistent experience to the customer Streamlining call handling, which reduces the workload for expensive, high-end technical support reps Reducing call times with customers, which lowers overall costs Improving first-contact resolution, which assists with those metrics related to contact, cost and customer satisfaction Consider all the variables that go into how you calculate the worth of your customers and how you monetize that worth. The three most important factors should be 1) customer satisfaction 2) customer loyalty and 3) customer retention. 2

3 The relationship between the first two is clear: High satisfaction is connected with a high probability that a customer will remain a customer. Customer churn is more likely to occur when the customer experiences a negative outcome to an inquiry. This correlation is not news to most observers, but the relationship between positive outcomes and customer retention tends to be overlooked. THE ULTIMATE EXPERIENCE Ultimate Software, founded in 1990, is a leading provider strategic, end-to-end HR, payroll, and talent management solutions to corporate customers. Since 2000, the company has more than doubled its workforce to approximately 900 employees. In 2008, Ultimate was named the #1 best medium-sized company to work for in America by The Great Place to Work Institute. Ultimate's revenue is intimately tied to its ability to successfully deliver service to its customers. Recent growth has been stimulated by the company's success with its softwareas-a-service (SaaS) model particularly benefiting from the recurring revenue that comes from SaaS sales. Another contributing factor has been Ultimate s desire to enhance its delivery of service and support for customers who maintain a hosted environment. GoToAssist Corporate has allowed Ultimate to deliver the highest levels of service and support for customers using Ultimate s SaaS model. "Offering software-as-a-service has allowed us to increase our reach within different markets," explains Ultimate's Director of Technical Support, Heath Propper. "With this subscription, fee-based service, we are servicing more businesses that do not have the upfront capital for implementation or software license investments. Our customer dynamic has really changed. We are now working with HR and payroll practitioners as well as with IT staff focused on corporate initiatives and not necessarily HR or payroll systems. From a corporate point of view, executives regard the SaaS model as a way to propel Ultimate's growth. "It's a significant driver in our recurring revenue model," Propper says. Ultimate's Vice President of Customer Support JC Gonzalez adds, "We typically see almost 80-85% of new sales coming from hosted customers. It's definitely becoming a customer preference." SATISFYING A MORE COMPLEX CUSTOMER BASE When Ultimate started using GoToAssist Corporate to support its more expanding and diversified customer base, the company discovered it could systematically improve the customer experience for both its license and hosted customers. Across the board, call duration went down, and customer satisfaction went up contributing to Ultimate s already industry-leading customer retention. 3

4 For complex support interactions, call duration is one of the most significant measures of success. It can take a long time for a technician to gather information, diagnose the problem, and then (if possible) implement the solution on the first call. First-call resolution is the Holy Grail for the support environment because it leads directly to high levels of customer satisfaction. By using GoToAssist Corporate, Ultimate cuts call times in half. Gonzalez uses this illustration: "Previously, we d be on the phone for 15 minutes listening to somebody explain how an issue arose. Now, we can say 'Let me just log on real quick. We're just going to send you a link. Don t worry because it's 128-bit encrypted. Once you click on it, I'm going to shadow you just like I was standing over your shoulder, then I want you to just show me what you did.' There's a tremendous amount of value in this method." One of Ultimate s differentiators is an intimate relationship between customers and support reps. Customer-feedback surveys indicate that the remote tool builds a rapport during the interactions. In addition to cutting call time in half, the support team can also resolve 95% of issues at the first tier. From the customer s perspective, service is delivered faster and better at the same time. "Word started to spread among our customers that Ultimate had a new remote-support solution we were piloting. Every time a customer received a call back from one of our support reps, the customer immediately asked if we could use GoToAssist Corporate," Propper says. Customers immediately saw the benefits of leveraging the new remote support solution. The support reps loved it, and the customers loved it. GoToAssist has really enhanced our support capabilities." SUPPORT AS A DIFFERENTIATOR According to Gonzalez, Ultimate s superior support environment is a major competitive differentiator. The high level of customer satisfaction and retention resonates strongly with prospective customers. Gonzalez puts concrete examples of how Ultimate manages customer support in front of prospects. "We give prospects a tour of the support environment and demonstrate our superior support programs." 4

5 ULTIMATE REAPS QUANTIFIABLE BENEFITS BOOSTING REVENUES The support organization continues to be an ever increasing contributor to the overall revenue of the company. Ultimate has a 97% rate for customer retention. Support satisfaction contributes to customer retention, which, in turn, affects revenue. Customers who are satisfied with our service stay with us and want more of our product offerings, says Gonzalez. Propper puts it into perspective: "With GoToAssist Corporate, we're able to sustain a good customer experience from initial sale, through implementation, through everyday support. When the customer leaves that interaction, we know he or she has received a high level of service." Whether customers are hosted subscribers or licensees with a maintenance contract, they have what Propper describes as a high value-to-price-paid ratio. Whether customers pay annually or a subscription fee per-employee-per-month, they expect a certain level of service in return. GoToAssist Corporate is a central part of keeping that service-to-price value very high. CUSTOMER FEEDBACK MECHANISM Ultimate has found that the information captured during remote sessions provides an invaluable window into how customers are using its products. 5

6 The value of GoToAssist Corporate is apparent in Ultimate s after-call satisfaction surveys. "We use these surveys to capture customer-satisfaction metrics at the end of sessions," Gonzalez says. "We ask them a few questions about their experience, pull that feedback back into our systems, and run reports immediately to see the customer comments." The data then is used for a reward and recognition program for support employees an "overall fantastic experience" for the reps, according to Gonzalez. This feedback loop boosts the morale of agents as well. The ability to solve problems in tandem with customers increases employee satisfaction. Instead of facing employee burnout and turnover, Ultimate has achieved a remarkable 3% rate for Customer Support Specialist attrition. QUANTIFYING THE RESULTS When using GoToAssist Corporate, Ultimate saw call durations drop by 50% in most cases for support calls. The quicker a customer receives resolution, the higher the satisfaction ratings. Remote support also provides a measurable impact across several areas within Ultimate: An increase in the first-contact resolution rate A reduction in call-handling time The resolution of 95% of all support tickets at the tier-1 level These improvements have contributed to the company s overall high customer retention, high renewal rates and higher long-term revenues. Renewal of contracts for SaaS customers a key source of revenue for the entire company is a remarkable 98%. SUPPORT S VIRTUOUS FEEDBACK LOOP 6

7 CONCLUSION The metrics clearly demonstrate that being "inside" a customer's experience fosters a sense of collaboration for problem solving and further strengthens customer trust in Ultimate s support. A more intimate support experience also produces more useful data to measure and regulate the performance of support representatives. Company training for employees can be based on a more in-depth understanding of what customers need, when they will need it, and who is capable of delivering it in the best way. The result is a more stable workforce that attains a higher level of performance. Therefore, the company as a whole can respond much more quickly to changing business conditions. Ideally, the company that uses the support organization as a tool to better understand its customers moves ahead of its competition. More intimate service allows you to adjust immediately to different circumstances because you know more about your customers and how they respond to you. The business case for a remote solution can be distilled to a simple equation: Happy, satisfied customers lead to higher loyalty and retention, higher maintenance revenues and better renewal rates. Having a world-class support organization creates a feedback loop that provides the company what it needs to create revenue: happy customers that stay customers. 7

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