November 10, 2009 by Brenda Dentinger
Two weeks have passed since the Oct. 22 retail release of Microsoft Windows 7, and we’re wondering how installation efforts are going out there. In particular, we’re curious if any of you have used GoToAssist or GoToAssist Express to migrate your company – or even your family and friends – to the new operating system. Or perhaps you’ve used GoToAssist following a recent installation to provide remote support. If so, we’d like to hear all about it. And we might even share your story with the world.
Here are a few questions to get you started:
- What Windows 7 challenges were you facing that led you to consider and use GoToAssist?
- What happened? How did it go?
- What is the name of your company, how big is it, and what industry is it in?
- What is your job title, and what are your responsibilities?
We’ll post some of the responses here on the blog, and may even contact you about sharing your story with the media.
Thanks!
Tags: win7, Windows 7
Posted in Remote Support Market, Trends | Leave a Comment »
November 3, 2009 by Brenda Dentinger
One of the concerns I’ve heard from the consultants I’ve met is they don’t always want to solve problems more quickly. Consultants often bill by the hour so the longer it takes to solve a problem, the more billable hours they can add to their invoice. I get it. Everyone needs to protect their income.
I’ve also heard from consultants that they can actually make more money if they solve problems faster. Their productivity skyrockets (literally) and they are able to take on more business, manage different types of projects, and charge more for their services. They can remotely serve multiple customers off hours simultaneously for monthly maintenance or updates, increasing their billable hours. They can improve their customer’s satisfaction.
I’ll never forget the conversation I had with a customer (we’ll call her Lori) at a conference who told me this story: Lori was in her car and received a call from a customer. She was about 45 minutes away from her office so she thought she would try to trouble-shoot the problem over the phone. Lori could use the software in her sleep so she thought she would easily be able visualize what her customer was seeing and explaining. She spent the entire 45 minutes on the phone with her customer and never solved the problem. Once at her desk, she booted up her computer, launched a session and solved the problem in 5 minutes. 45 minutes vs 5 minutes.
No doubt, seeing the problem and remotely supporting customers will lead to faster problem resolution. But that is a GOOD thing not a bad one. Consultants can improve customer satisfaction which leads to making more money and they can simply fit more into their days – which, depending on the type of person you are, could also general much more money for you. I’d love to hear your concerns or stories about using remote support in your business.
Photo Credit: Darrren Hester
Tags: consultants, money
Posted in Remote Support Market, Trends | Leave a Comment »
October 30, 2009 by Brenda Dentinger
A profound development is underway in today’s business environment. Leading organizations are discovering how to boost the visibility of their support centers and cultivate the backing they need from the broader organization. The compelling payoff? Services that are more consistent and effective, delivering higher value to customers and the organization.
Join us for a live, interactive Webinar with guest speaker Brad Cleveland, senior advisor to International Customer Management Institute (ICMI). Cleveland will lay out the concrete steps you can and must take now to elevate your services and prepare for what’s coming.
Attend this interactive Webinar to learn:
- Trends in today’s business environment and what customers expect
- The three dimensions of value
- Key metrics: measuring progress and success in customer support
- The processes, technologies and team that can get you there
Date: November 5, 2009
Time: 11am Pacific, 12pm Mountain, 1pm Central, 2pm Eastern
If you can’t attend the live webinar, you can still sign up to view the recorded version on demand. Just click the regisration button above.
Tags: support center, webinar
Posted in Trends, Webinars | Leave a Comment »
October 23, 2009 by Brenda Dentinger
Recently, Frost & Sullivan published a new report called: World Web-based Clientless Remote Support Software Market. In this report, they identify market challenges, drivers and growth opportunities.
There are 3 major points from this report that I will share with you in this post.
- The need for remote support is growing because “Businesses are being compelled to ‘do more with less’ and improve service and support internally for employees and for customer.” says Frost & Sullivan.
- Internal IT and support departments are growing at a faster clip than external support departments. Why? In the past, internal support has made things work with free or legacy tools. IT is a cost center and they haven’t always had the budget for more sophisticated tools that required a fee. Now, “as businesses grow remote employees and mobile users, free tools are not powerful enough to meet the needs of the tech support proffessionals.” says Frost & Sullivan.
- GoToAssist Corporate is noted by Frost & Sullivan as “the worldwide market leader.” Yay!
You can read more about our leadership in this press release.
Tags: forst and sullivan, leadership
Posted in Remote Support Market, Trends | Leave a Comment »
October 16, 2009 by Brenda Dentinger
Today’s workforce is eager for flexibility and is embracing mobility. Firms across all industries are allowing, even encouraging, workers to telecommute and connect to headquarters from the road. With the workforce going mobile, IT faces the challenge of providing reliable, fast tech support while managing costs and productivity. Join us for a live, interactive Webinar with guest speaker Matt Healey, senior research analyst at IDC. Healey will share proven strategies for driving the delivery of reliable and cost-effective remote support for 2010 and beyond.
Register here.
Attend this interactive Webinar to learn:
- How advances in remote-support technology can optimize help desk support
- How to improve internal customer-satisfaction levels while lowering operating costs
- Ways to leverage remote-support technology to close IT tickets faster
- And more…
Date: Thursday, October 22
Time: 11 AM PDT / 2 PM EDT
Speakers:
Matt Healey, IDC senior research analyst
Barry Dacus, Senior Product Line Manager, Citrix Online
Michael Krieger, Moderator
If you can’t make the live webinar, use the registration link above to watch the recorded webinar on-demand.
Tags: mobile workforce, webinar
Posted in Events, Trends, Webinars | Leave a Comment »
October 14, 2009 by Brenda Dentinger
I recently conducted a survey in which I asked about the benefits of using GoToAssist Corporate. I thought I’d share some results. Here are the top 3 business benefits of using our software:
- Faster problem resolution
- Increased customer satisfaction
- First-contact resolution
None of these are surprising, really, we’ve known the benefits of remtoe support for a long time now (in fact, we actually created these benefits when we launched the product 9 years ago.) The question that remains is how much do these benefits really impact our customer’s businesses. As you know, support and IT departments are cost centers. If you can speed up the resolution of a problem, you can quickly see a reduction of costs and an increase in customer satisfaction.
Using GoToAssist Corporate tools, you’ll have real-life data that you can access and share with your managers about how you’ve make your business more profitable. We are not your average support tool!
Posted in Product Info - Corporate, Trends | 2 Comments »
October 5, 2009 by Brenda Dentinger
Join us for a live Webinar to hear John Ragsdale, VP at The SSPA, share strategies for using surveys to radically improve the customer experience, accurately measure session performance and fortify one of your most important revenue streams.
Attend this interactive Webinar to learn:
- Best practices for developing an effective survey strategy
- How to use survey results to improve first-call resolution and customer satisfaction and loyalty
- How to leverage customizable surveys to identify new revenue streams
- And more…
Date: Thursday, October 8
Time: 11AM Pacific, 12pm Mountain, 1pm Central, 2pm Eastern
If you miss this webinar, you can see the recording on-demand by click the register link above.
Tags: customer satisfaction, surveys, webinar
Posted in Remote Support Market, Training & Guides, Webinars | Leave a Comment »
September 30, 2009 by Brenda Dentinger
Did you know there is a survey tool built right into GoToAssist Corporate? This means you can automatically survey your customers immediately following remote 
support incident. The survey tool is customizable so you can track the metrics important to you and your business. Metrics you can track: first-contact resolution (FCR), customer satisfaction (CSAT), customer loyalty and the return on your investment of a remote support tool (ROI).
There are lots of benefits associated with pushing transactional surveys out to your customers, here is a quick overview:
- Improving customer retention leads to improved revenues. Just read Fred Reichheld’s book, The Ultimate Question. He says “Acquiring a new customer can cost 6 to 7 times more than retaining an existing customer.”
- Measuring your performance allows you to take immediate action to improve your performance. Transactional surveys are sent just after the session. You can review all survey responses. This is an opportunity for you to turn things around for customers who had a negative experience, to praise your reps when things go well or coach them if they need improvement.
- Socialize your metrics. Share your improvement scores with your executive team and your reps. Everyone will be thrilled to hear how you improved FCR by 30% saving the company $100K or more. Or that your improved CSAT by 20%. And make sure you calculate and share your ROI.
There is alot more I could say about surveys. If you want to learn more, please contact your account manager. If you don’t know who your account manager is, call 800-549-8541 to find out.
Tags: customer surveys, fcr, loyalty, roi, satisfaction
Posted in Product Info - Corporate | 2 Comments »
September 22, 2009 by Brenda Dentinger
A colleague recently asked me what my plans are if our kids school closes this winter due to HINI penetrating our community. I looked at him blankly and sighed. In spite of all the hype around the upcoming flu season, I hadn’t really thought of it actually. Being a working mom, I sometimes filter all the data (meaning I don’t have time to watch the news) or I just stay in denial and hope my carefully crafted balancing act won’t be disrupted by things outside of my control (yeah right.)
Well, Eric, you brought up a really good point, and it got me thinking. Fortunately, I work at Citrix Online and we have lots of tools that enable me to work remotely from home, using GoToMyPC I can log into my work PC, I can collaborate online with my colleagues using GoToMeeting, and get support remotely from my IT HelpDesk with GoToAssist. Heck, I can even present in a webinar from home (assuming I’m well enough and don’t have screaming children in the background) using GoToWebinar. I know this seems like a shameless plug for all Citrix Online products but these products have enabled me to have flexiblity in my crazy-busy life.
So like last year, I know that I will work from home when my kids are sick or if their school closes – but I hope they dont’ get too sick (fingers crossed really tightly) and I certainly hope the school doesn’t close. But if it does, there will be lots of families looking for ways to stay connected to their work and some of those people will even be in IT.
The beauty of using GoToAssist is that you can use it from anywhere. You can remotely support your employees from home just as easily as if you are in the office or on the road. Everyone in IT and business should be thinking about business continuity for their companies, see this article from Business Week: Small Business Urged to Prepare for Swine Flu. But have you also thought about business continuity for yourself? How will you support all those employees who have to stay home due to school closures? What will you do if your school closes?
Photo: Collin Anderson
Tags: business continuity, remote support, working remotely
Posted in Remote Support Market, Trends | 2 Comments »
September 17, 2009 by Brenda Dentinger
Many of you already know Chris Pirillo, for those of you who don’t, he is a very funny geek, technology enthusiast, and host of both internet and tv technolgoy shows – among many other things (click on his name to learn more).
Yesterday, Chris wrote a blog called Grow Your Business Using GoToAssist Express. It is a great introduction to why companies need GoToAssist Express for their remote support solution. “Save yourself a whole lot of time, headaches and money by using a piece of software that will pay for itself in a matter of days. It’s simple to use, and a very powerful tool to have.” says Chris Pirillo.
Thanks Chris!
Tags: blog, chris pirillo, GoToAssist Express, remote support
Posted in Product Info - Express, Remote Support Market | Leave a Comment »
