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Customer
relationship management
The WuC project touches on every
facet of running a small company and
indeed may be asked to evidence its
'business case' by a range of potential
funders. At the core of the WuC operation
is the customer/resident who has to
put faith in the product's ability
to do what it does. This usually comes
after having been persuaded of its
benefits by the marketing and publicity.
After delivery of the equipment, the
customer/resident expects to be shown
how to use the equipment properly
and to have the back-up of a home
visit or a helpline if there are ongoing
difficulties with it.
There is a notion that the product
will be fixed under warranty if it
breaks and recognition that if the
resident/customer wishes to upgrade
the product they may do so through
an 'authorised supplier' or run the
risk of invalidating the product warranty.
At a later stage, the customer may
wish to 'trade-in' the old product
for a new gleaming new version of
the same, or something a bit different.
It may be difficult for a project
to understand what their customers/residents
actually want and need. Extensive
market research may be required, plus
an intimate sense of what local people
think. On the other hand, the customers/residents
do not really appreciate how hard
it is to put in place a Wi Fi broadband
network, or to arrange training courses
with a number of training providers,
or to organise local technical support.
And so on.
But while there are any number of
mitigating factors and a deeper understanding
of the intricacies of delivering a
pilot 'access to ICT project' for
a government department, the customers/residents
still want the same decent level of
service and will judge the project
and its equipment exactly on that
level. Even if it is for free and
for a good cause. And so would you,
whether you live in a deprived community
or not.
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Installations
The general principle holds of creating
a customer database to store household
information derived from the application
forms and this is also useful for
GIS mapping at a later stage. The
database will generally help with
the scheduling of delivery of the
equipment by generating standard letters
to potential recipient households.
A log of serial numbers (for audit
and anti-theft purposes) of all equipment
that is delivered can be logged and
cross-referenced from the docket form
signed by the designated householder.
Aborted deliveries can be re-profiled.
Experience from the WuC projects
highlights how even an entirely technology
driven approach to installation and
delivery still needs the 'personal
touch' of a project staff member at
the end of a telephone line (perhaps
explaining to the householder that
the pit-bull terrier wanted to bite
the installers and they had to flee,
but will be back again).
It is certainly useful to include
some local well known faces on the
installation team, but training is
important because they are 'public
face' of the project in the community
and they will be asked questions about
the equipment they are installing.
They are expected to be able to answer
those questions, or at the very least
to provide an information pack about
the project, its aims and the equipment
- see marketing and publicity.
In particular, care should be taken
that all the installers have been
properly vetted and police checked
before they go into resident's homes
or the project runs a major risk in
attracting heaps of bad publicity
resulting in the loss of public confidence.
It is not easy to run a full vetting
procedure and police checks if the
delivery timescale is tight and funders
are pressing for the project to go
live, but it constitutes a major risk
to the project if it is ignored or
glided over.
The project does need to address
whether it will get the supplier to
deliver to resident's home or to a
warehouse for local storage then delivery.
The supplier absorbs a lot of the
risk with the delivery to home model,
but it is invariably a more expensive
route to take with the supplier requesting
a 'delivery premium'.
Delivery to the warehouse poses its
own risks if the warehouse is not
actually all that secure or some of
the equipment begins to disappear
and there are inadequate controls
on stock control.
Given that take-up is rarely 100%
in the target area, early thought
should be given to running a 'waiting
list' of potential recipients in the
neighbouring area. Especially if the
project considers expanding to other
areas as part of its business plan
to achieve longer term sustainability.
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Technical
support
An established principle across all
the WuC projects is that the installed
equipment must be 'supported' in community.
This is based on some hard experience
and the WuC model is as follows:
- Telephone helpdesk - 0845 or 0800
number
- Online help pages on portal -
FAQ
- Installation team/ICT champions
as 'troubleshooters'
Under the terms of their contract
or the service level agreement, suppliers
of the equipment may be expected to
provide a customer services function
with a separate technical support
helpline for technical enquiries.
However, experience shows that the
default position is usually for the
unhappy resident to contact the project
office - especially if the supplier's
support line is busy or previously
the level of support/help offered
by the supplier was deemed below par.
This is where the local installation
team/ICT champions excel in providing
support to residents and some of the
WuC projects went on to develop their
own in-house technical support with
a helpline and trained volunteers
or to sub-contract it to a local community
enterprise.
The type of technology on offer makes
a difference to the level of technical
support required. Set top boxes, once
tuned and configured are not so easily
meddled with, but pcs and their software
system files are particularly prone
to downloaded games, demo/trial software
programmes and CD Roms that seem to
takes over the pc, altering a number
of settings without the user's express
permission.
In these circumstances, the supplier
of the pc equipment should be strongly
pressed to provide a 'recovery disk'
- usually a CD Rom created with Norton
Ghost or something similar that can
reset the software system files. That
it has a propensity to delete a hard
drive means that it should be treated
with a degree of care and probably
only given out to the project's ICT
technical support team. Another factor
with the recovery disk CD Rom is that
its usefulness is diminished if the
hardware supplier makes small changes
to the pc specification.
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Useful
Documents
Practical
Implementation is a PowerPoint
file covering the overall context
for the roll-out of equipment under
a WuC-like scheme, for a local authority
(or other lead body) and produced
by Halcyon
Consultants.
Customer relationship management
A sample
receipt letter and a sample
delivery confirmation letter demonstrate
the need to acknowledge an application
and establish the relationship with
the resident. A sample
service resident letter (drawn
up for a pilot project that became
the Eastserve WuC) shows the importance
of clear communications.
Installations
Preparing
for delivery and taking
care of your computer and yourself
are useful practical guides to the
householders or recipients.
Another document produced by one
project shows how to operate the new
computer with regards to its installed
Cyber
Sentinel content blocking / filtering
software, and CyberSense
is a leaflet about safe use on the
Internet.
A
sample signing off sheet ensures
proper receipt of the equipment, and
all of the necessary documentation
and includes a data protection statement
for signature (see <legal
issues>).
A
sample handbook brings together
practical advice on the best and safest
use of the PC and the Internet.
Technical support
No documents
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Useful
Links
Two examples of online support:
Suffolk
Online maintains an online support
feature
Eastserve
has a front page for help and support
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