Creating Customer Self Sufficiency Neeti Seth Sr Manager

Creating Customer Self Sufficiency Neeti Seth Sr. Manager, Customer Support, Mercury

Introduction • Mercury continues to set the benchmark for online service excellence • Leverage the online service experience to build stronger relationships (rather than distance ourselves by avoiding service requests) • Benefits: – – – Scalability Deeper understanding of customer needs Real time understanding of customer sentiment Broader knowledge of customer product feedback Stronger communication channel with customers Mercury Confidential & Proprietary 2

Self Sufficiency Goal 1 Create and Manage a Community v Bring Customers and Partners Together v Encourage Community Participation v Monitor Community Activity v Respond to Customer Sentiment Mercury Confidential & Proprietary 3

Self Sufficiency Goal 2 Provide a range of Service Choices and Self help alternatives v On-line Knowledgebase – – – CSO Knowledgebase Customer Populated Knowledgebase Dedicated Subject Matter Experts Dedicated Technical Knowledgebase Architect ‘Solution of the Week’ v User Discussion Forums v Real Time Access to Call Management System v “Ask the expert” sessions Mercury Confidential & Proprietary 4

Self Sufficiency Goal 3 Provide regular Alerts and Announcements v Communication of Product Alerts & Announcements – The latest product news, information about product releases and upgrades, known product issues, and more are posted on the Support Web Site – Subscribe to “Support Updates”, a biweekly email v Download & Patches – Product Patches – User Populated Samples/Download Repository Mercury Confidential & Proprietary 5

Feedback Make Customer Focused Decisions v Customer Research Analyst – We survey and poll our customers to learn more about how our customers are using our products and services and what their current and future needs may be, trends, sentiment, … v Strategic Support Delivery Team – Provide feedback of the market by proactively reaching out to customers asking for their feedback v Customer Surveys – In addition to quantitative results, we ask customers “What one thing could we do better? ” v Support Website Feedback Thousands of customers have responded, impacting corporate strategy, product strategy, go to market plans, mergers & acquisition, and customer service. Mercury Confidential & Proprietary 6

User Suggestion for Upcoming ‘Ask the Expert’ Events Mercury Confidential & Proprietary 7

CSO Knowledgebase – User Rating System Customers have access to our well written descriptive articles Customers can rate the article, indicate whether or not it solved the problem and provide any other comments Mercury Confidential & Proprietary 8

Awareness v Awareness and promotion of electronic services is paramount to our success v Create awareness through cross section of customer touch points – – – – Customer Support Marketing Product & Documentation Training Sales Improved E-Support Response Customer Incentives Mercury Confidential & Proprietary 9

Adoption Strategies v Quality information and Relationships with other customers v We offer a wide variety of innovative, useful, and easy-to-use Webbased services including the frequent flier-like Customer Reward Program, Community membership, online company store, and much more – Customer Reward Program (“Frequent Flier Program”) • The program rewards community members with “Customer Reward Points” each time they participate in an activity such as: log in, search knowledgebase, post question or answer on discussion forums, post knowledge base article, etc. . . • On-line Company Store - Members can save up their customer reward points to buy merchandise from the On-line Company Store located on the Support Web Site – Promotions places on CSO Web Site • Some examples are “Free Load Test”, “ 3 -for-free” performance monitoring profiles, “Refer A Friend” program for Topaz Mercury Confidential & Proprietary 10

Adoption Success "We have recently switched to Mercury products from a competitor of yours. Your Knowledge Base is an incredible asset and I mention it often to other groups within my company who are still using the other product. Thanks for all of your hard work on it! It makes my job so much easier!" Mercury Confidential & Proprietary 11

Call Avoidance Metric Total Number of instances customers indicated “yes” that a problem was solved by Mercury Knowledge Base in Q 1 2004 4, 922 Number of “ 4” (helpful) and “ 5” (very helpful) votes received for User Knowledge Base articles in Q 1 2004 930 Number of Articles Read in Mercury Knowledge. Base that resulted in resolved issue Number of Posts Read in Discussion Forum that resulted in resolved issue Number of Articles Read in User Knowledge. Base that resulted in resolved issue Users resolving customer support issues by reading and rating content on Mercury support site in Q 1 2004. 3, 186 Source/Calculation Mercury Interactive Knowledge. Base data report Mercury Cognos statistics Number of articles read multiplied by. 01 (318, 563 x. 01 = 3, 186) 2, 014 Number of forum posts read multiplied by. 01 (201, 417 x. 01 = 2, 014) Number of User KB articles read multiplied by. 01 799 (79, 861 x. 01 = 799) Number of call avoidance events 11, 851 (4, 922 + 930 + 3, 186 + 2, 014 + 799) = 11, 851 Mercury Confidential & Proprietary 12

Call Avoidance • Formula for Calculation of Call Avoidance: Total # of instances where customer resolves issue (User votes “Yes” on KB article, “ 4” or “ 5” in User KB, 1% of searches in forums, KB, and User KB) • Number of Cases Avoided – – 2003 Total: 34, 885 Service Request Q 1 2003: 8, 837 Service Request Q 1 2004: 11, 851 Service Request 34% Increase Mercury Confidential & Proprietary 13

Impact Our self sufficiency strategy has been a huge success. Customer adoption of our online services (KB, Discussion forums. . . ) has grown tremendously Mercury Confidential & Proprietary 14

Questions? Thank You