La Piazza

In line with the award we just received for Best eCommerce Software company as the Best Customer Experience Awards 2012 in Spain, today I want to tell you about some of the key players who have made this possible, that is, my team.

They are the people working at Panda by assisting the first line of support and customer service. People who daily try not to let the customer notice he is having a bad day, people who empathize with the customer and put themselves on his shoes. A team of people who, after each call requests to be evaluated. They make the customer experience worth a ten or a zero. People that, although they are very different from each other, transmit the same feeling. Those people I want to tell you about!

In Panda we measure customer satisfaction through a system that combines several metrics. Today I want to focus on one of them, the NPS method. To begin with, I will explain what NPS consists of.

NPS stands for Net Promoter Score and is a methodology which helps understand and manage customer feedback and measure their degree of loyalty to a company, brand or service.

The NPS system is a simple way to get information through what is called “the ultimate question”:

Would you recommend this service to a friend or relative? (0 to 10)

It segments answers depending on the score, and only those customers who voted 9 or 10 are considered as promoters. As you can see, NPS is really picky, but for us the quality of service is above everything.

Currently, most companies complain about the effectiveness of conducting customer surveys. Mainly because the information we collect is irrelevant. That is because either the questions are not adequate, or most of the time, because they are not quantifiable. This is solved by applying NPS.

In Panda Support and Customer Service, the survey is included in all outgoing written communications, in the telephone survey system, after exiting the Support chat channels and it is also available for all users of the support site. In this way we have a complete picture of the customer satisfaction regarding the service received.

We believe that, by applying these rules, we will make our customers love us even more:

1. We want our customers to call us only ONCE. No more is needed to solve a problem or to clarify their doubts.
2. We want the experience to be as pleasant to the customer as to the technician, so they hang up the phone with a smile in their faces.
3. We do not want to complicate the life of the customer by sending him from form to form in turn driving him crazy. A single channel, whichever he chooses, will be enough.
4. We want our customers to tell us why they have not given us a 9 or a 10 vote and to do that, we need their collaboration.
5. Our objective is to get to the bottom of his query until it is resolved, not to finish the communication with the customer as soon as possible.

People forget names or places, but they never forget what someone or something made them feel like. That is why the emotional component is so important to manage customers. Companies like Apple, Zappos, Starbucks, Virgin or Harley-Davidson, generate good customer experience, and the reason why is because they make us feel really special.

And if I may brag a bit, let me say that I am not exaggerating when I say I have the best Support and Customer Service team in the industry. A team that currently has an NPS rate of 43%, 11 points ahead in the ranking of security companies within our sector (data from 2012).

This is a team committed to grow, to improve and to touch – even if a little bit – your hearts.

Published by Leyre Velasco

A couple of years ago we explained how Technical Support had evolved and adapted to the web 2.0 trends. The term Web 2.0 is associated with web applications which facilitate interactive exchange of information, data sharing, and collaboration on the world wide web. It is thought to have been coined after a conference held by O´Reilly Media in 2004. The web 2.0 philosophy promotes web-based communities, hosted services, web applications, social-networking sites, video-sharing sites, wikis, blogs, not to mention social networks aimed at various sociological profiles.

Companies are more and more implementing community knowledge bases enabling users to solve product and customer service issues on their own. In Panda Security, we are particularly sensitive to this issue and have deviced additional means of Support such as forums, multimedia tutorials, blogs, etc. Check out the Homeusers Support website for proof! The Panda Security International Technical Support Forum for example, enables not only moderators, but users to directly help one another.

These new sources improve the quality of support as massive feedback is obtained directly from the users themselves. Community knowledge bases create smarter, more informed customers and users. Content can be authored by both internal and external resources providing a rich source of information relating to the company’s products and services. What´s more, collaboration is a key issue: It improves decision-making, and enables knowledge workers to meet mission objectives with the best information available. However, for an average user, technology in this regard may have already gone too far, and the user finds himself not really prepared to face the trend in technology, some users even questioning the validity of all these tools.

So, before web 3.0, the natural evolution of web 2.0, spreads, let´s test how web 2.0 you are!!  Simply fill in this quiz on social media and web 2.0 by Quizible and check how many of the 32 icons you recognize!!

Which form of interactive 2.0 means do you prefer? Blogs? Forums?Social networks?

Published by Ana Etxebarria, November 2011

Customer experiences are on the brink of a new era. Web sites have become critical to influencing decision making and building a stronger relationship between the brand and the end-customer. And already the sheer number of devices consumers have at their disposal – and the types of interactions they expect- quickly make today’s “be4st practice” tomorrow’s old news.

Let’s have a brief look at some impressive figures provided by Gartner:

• 30 billion pieces of content were added to Facebook this past month.
• Worldwide IP traffic will quadruple by 2015.
• More than two billion videos were watched on YouTube … yesterday.
• The average teenager sends 4,762 text messages per month.
• 32 billion searches were performed last month … on Twitter.

So, the question is, how is Social Media paving the way for the future of Customer Service & Support Centers?

Like in the majority of areas within an organization, social media is changing the way customer interacts with the software vendor.

YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, blogs, etc. have taken the CRM world by storm and now it is a business norm to interact with customers in real time utilizing this modern technology. Customers that follow companies on social networking sites expect that we will be able to get a fast response. If that need for a response is not met, this has the potential to escalate into increased complaints on social networks and a poor public impression of a company. If customers are pleased with companies, however, they can also use Facebook or Twitter to praise those companies, leading to a more positive public perception.

Panda has already an official Twitter account for Technical Support and Customer Service @PandaTechSup and a Facebook fan page: http://www.facebook.com/PandaSecurity. In 2012, we can expect to have to do more customer service online and dedicate resources to staying on top of online commentary and responding to it in a timely manner. The old saying, “the customer is always right” is more important than ever in a competitive and difficult economy. Customer loyalty and satisfaction is a key component to any organization’s success and bottom line.

Published by Leyre Velasco, January 2011

The saga continues.. After presenting the Support video on how to activate 2011 products, today we would like to show you the new TechSupport video on how to carry out the download process.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0aqc79NpN2M&w=425&h=344]

This video, just like the other Support videos, are accessible both from the Support website as well as from the YouTube.

Published by Aitor Marro, June 10th 2010

“I” am a user myself, but “I” also work in a Tech Support Dept.

“I” understand perfectly well that users sometimes would rather slit their wrists that contact a call-center. It happens to me as well.

“I” have been providing technical support to users for three years now and to be honest with you, sometimes I’d rather slit my wrists too.

As you can see, life is not easy for any of the two “MEs”. However, I do believe it can be a little bit better just by following a few simple tips.

Let’s start…

• Before you call, restart your computer. Actually, this is the first thing that I will ask you to do, so why waste time?

• If you are experiencing some strange error with your browser or similar, just don’t call us explaining that you get a message with the word “ERROR” and some strange numbers. Write them down!  You’ll have to do it sooner or later as this is the second thing that I will ask from you…

• Please remember that “I” can’t see what is going on on your PC. I need data, really. It is not curiosity or the desire to bother you. And finally, one important thing. I can’t always give you a straight answer right away…

If, despite all this, you are still one of those who hate calling me, try the forum. It will probably be “ME” who is answering you, although in this case it might as well be another user. Judging from the visits we get we know it works!
Ah, one last thing.  If you don’t call me again, my two “MEs” will regret having written this post an awful lot.   ‘Cause in the end.. I can’t live without you!!!

If you have ever felt like this, either as users or support technicians, I’d love to have you share your comments with us.

Note: the source idea of this article is this one Get fantastic tech support that I hope you like.

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Aitor Marro introduces himself: I’ve been working in Panda since April 2000. I am presently the head of all the Tech Support Departments across all Panda Security subsidiaries, which gives me a global perspective of users’ support needs everywhere in the world. My passions in life are my son, my family, spending as much time as I can on the beach…and of course the Athletic de Bilbao football team

Posted by Leyre Velasco, April 12th, 2010

At Panda Security Support we have always been listening to your needs and Keep an eye on the web trends. Nevertheless, we still felt the urge to continue evolving.

Why? Mainly because we want to get the contents close to you through a much more visual page, easier to browse and user-friendly page. A page whereby, where with only a few clicks, you will find an answer to your queries.

So, let us introduce you to the new Support home page. You will learn more about it through this Virtual Tour.

As you can see, the new page includes the following characteristics:

•    Search engine: the search engine is now more powerful and fully adapted it to the contents of Support.
•    Community: we invite you to be part of the Panda community and be able to formulate questions to our experts through the forum, view geolocalized help videos on YouTube or the new Multimedia page. Or even ask on Twitter, simple be informed or fresh technology news by becoming a Facebook fan or by subscribing to our blog, La Piazza. It is up to the user!
•    Product Knowledge Base: here you will find the basics in order to kick-start your product: Articles on how to download, install and activate and much more.
•    Shortcuts: everything about the customer account including the password reminder, change of email address, details on the online purchase, plus Virus info, etc.

What do you think?

Anyhow, as there are still many changes to come, we will keep you posted!

Published by Ana Etxebarria, 2010

The La Piazza – Panda Security Support Blog is now available in Spanish. With this initiative, we aim to provide the Spanish-speaking community with a communication and participation channel that is closer to them. Members of the Support team will maintain the forum (posting and answering users’ comments).

We want to help clients by answering their queries through different channels:  the Support area on our corporate website, the support forum in Spanish & English, the Twitter support channel and now this new blog. Our Community 2.0 keeps growing.
 
Welcome!!

Published by Blanca, December 15th, 2009

Let us introduce you the Panda Security Germany TV channel.  They broadcast the latest technology news both in German and English. The latest news include a video informing about the Internet-Security for Teens, Best in Test and It is Christmas-Time at Facebook. Check it out!

Hope you like it!!!

Posted by David Verstraeten, November, 13th, 2009

Let me begin by introducing myself, my name is David Verstraeten, I am a support technician at the Panda Security Benelux offices and I have been giving support for both the Retail as well as the Corporate products.
One thing every technician enjoys is solving technical problems, no matter how hard finding the solution was!
To help us find a solution for your problem, you can also help us, and thus help yourself.

Here are a few tips:

If you are ever in need of help, access the TechSupport website, if you still need further help, let our TechSupport Forum expert technicians guide you.
In any case, have at hand the following preliminary information as it will speed up the resolution of your issue:

• Your client details, whether it is your client number, user name or activation code.
  With this information technicians can effectively track your problem and make sure your request for help is logged into our system. If your contact details are different from those you registered with us, that will save you some minutes to look these up while you are on the phone with us.
• Operating System, product and product version for issues regarding the updates and activation of the program. Very often we see that people are using older versions of the product, and certain issues are already solved in later versions, so it is important to make sure you have the latest version of the software involved.
  In the case of incompatibilities with third-party software, please indicate the name of the product and its version.
• And most importantly, a clear description of the problem.
  If you find it hard to describe what is going wrong, take a screenshot of what is occurring and send it to us. The more detailed information you can give us, the better we can analyze your problem and supply you with a solution or workaround.

Of course not all these things will be applicable to all situations, or it might not be clear to you what is.
If that’s the case, just provide whatever information you think is necessary and we’ll do our very best to help.

NOTE: Please use the forum, not the blog to address your technical queries

Thanks!

Tech Support Managers from Spain, USA, UK, Germany, Sweden, Benelux and France, together with the Support Managers in HQ and myself. They are the ones that make it happen everyday!! I’m so proud! Thank you guys, you are great!!!