Let’s face it, I LOVE Hewlett-Packard equipment. I fell in love years ago with their calculators and their test equipment. My experiences were all positive. My HP45 was not my first calculator, but it was the first calculator that I LOVED as a tool.

During years of working in science and engineering, I encountered a number of stories about HP calculators and their quality that convinced me that HP knew what it was doing. The HP trademark was a powerful influence when I started selecting printers. All of the printers have been quality products, but lately, I’ve been having more problems with HP printers and I’ve had to call on their service organization and their web site. This gives me an interesting, ongoing case study in Customer Relationship Management and Customer Facing Systems that I plan to spend some time studying.

Over the next several entries, I plan to review a recent problem and assess what it tells me about HP’s Customer Facing System and the implications for Customer Relationship Management.

Let me make something clear … I’m not searching HERE for a solution to the problem. My interest on this blog is using this as a case study in Customer Facing Systems. Does this experience say anything important about such systems? If it does, then it will have met my objectives.

It’s going to take more space than I want to spend in a single post, so I’ve tentatively split the discussion like this:

The problem - I purchased an Officejet 6310 Printer/Copier/Fax/Scanner combination and I’m having problems with it, particularly with scanning and getting multiple networked computers to access it.

The search - I looked on the HP web site and on the web for answers to my problem and was appalled by the number of hits I got on people who also posted about similar problems

The chat - I tried to connect with HP through their chat line. I don’t know whether it was a real person or a computer I was talking to, but no matter which it was, it failed the Turing Test for demonstrated intelligence on the other end.

The email - I tried to email HP for assistance, even that caused problems. They’ve put enough roadblocks in the way of getting help that it’s hard to resolve the problem.

The future - where to go from here. What the implications are for Customer Facing Systems in general

Let me point out that FIRST - one bad experience doesn’t mean a Customer Facing System is bad. A case study is about a single, particular case and NOT a comprehensive study of the effectiveness of the system. I’m sure that HP can present data showing how satisfied their customers are, but something is missing when searching for solutions to the problem finds so many posts on the Internet about the same problem. Obviously, if HPs metrics say they’re doing well, then there is a blind-spot somewhere.

SECOND - the people I know at HP are dedicated, good people trying their best to provide good service. This seems to be more a case of good people trapped in a bad system, yet one that superficially looks good by some measures. It may only be a glitch in a specific portion of their support services and not a systemic problem at all. Without considerable study internally, I have no way to tell.

THIRD - I’m not focused on this instance because I dislike HP, rather because I think HP is a strong company. It’s important to understand that problems in Customer Facing Systems are not limited to bad companies, ANY company, even one committed to good service, can have problems. Even when they are monitoring the situation carefully, they can make mistakes.

FOURTH - I could do this same type of case study on many experiences with many different companies. I plan to do other case studies in the future, but we need to start somewhere. I’m starting with HP. It’s important to note here that similar problems have occurred with other companies in trying to access service information. Many company web sites are complex mazes of information, so confusing that it’s a miracle that you can find anything useful at all. Instead of taking the load of real people in service centers, it aggravates the problem and causes more frustration on the part of customers.

Let me emphasize again that the focus here in the Customer Facing System and it’s implications for Customer Relationship Management. I’m not looking for a solution to the problem in these posts, but rather insights into more general principles applicable to Customer Facing Systems.

Categories: Call/Contact Centers, Customer Service, Web Sites