NETTING IT OUT

In this report, the next in a series of customer self-service test drives, I describe my experience in helping myself to customer service at Xerox.com by performing key activities of self-service Customer Scenarios and evaluating that experience against our framework for customer self-service.

Overall, Support.xerox.com makes it very easy for you to help yourself to perform many customer service activities across the customer lifecycle. The site delivers excellent support in recommending products that address customer requirements, diagnosing and resolving problems, and managing account information. On the other hand, the site does not provide self-service entitlement initial purchase or renewal, notification facilities, or self-service for case/incident management.

CUSTOMER SELF-SERVICE

Customer Self-Service Case Studies

This report is the next in a series of customer self-service test drives. The series follows and complements our previous customer self-service research: our customer self-service framework[1], matrix[2], and product reviews[3]. In this series, I analyze and evaluate real-world implementations of customer self-service experience by helping myself to companies’ self-service facilities.

Test-Drive Approach

The self-service components of test drives have two parts. In the first part, I take an inventory of a site’s customer service capabilities. In the second part, I describe how I used those capabilities to perform key customer service activities--the activities that hundreds of end customers of companies of many sizes in many industry segments have told us that they want and need to help themselves to perform in order to do business with those companies. They’re activities that cross the phases of the customer lifecycle.

Xerox Corporation

Xerox Corporation (NYSE:XRX) develops, markets, sells, and supports document management products and services. The firm’s hardware products include color and black-and-white printing and publishing systems, digital presses and "book factories," multifunction devices, laser and solid ink network printers, copiers, and fax machines. Its services help businesses: develop online document archives, analyze how their staffs can share documents and knowledge, operate in-house print shops and/or mailrooms, and build Web-based processes for personalizing direct mail, invoices, and marketing collateral. Xerox also offers associated software, support (the focus of this report), and supplies such as toner, paper, and ink.

Xerox was founded in 1906 in Rochester, NY as the Haloid Company and was named Xerox Corporation in 1961. Currently, the firm is headquartered in Stamford, CT and does business in 160 countries with a staff of 53,700 employees. 2006 revenues were $15.9 billion and 2006 net income was $1.2 billion.

SELF-SERVICE CUSTOMER SERVICE CAPABILITIES INVENTORY AT XEROX.COM

The first part of our test drive of Support.xerox.com is taking an inventory of the top-level customer self-service capabilities accessible there. By top-level, we mean the capabilities on or directly accessible through the site’s home page and first-level landing pages. Our test drives get into the details of a site when we perform specific customer service activities, the activities that customers have told us that they want to help themselves to perform on your Web sites.

Go to Xerox.com and you’ll see that the site’s home page, shown in Illustration 1, displays two tab bars, one over the other. The top one has Where to Buy, Contact Us, Log In/My Xerox, Account Management, and Shopping Cart tabs. The one on the bottom has Office Equipment, Production Equipment, Consulting & Outsourcing, Supplies, and Support & Drivers tabs.

Xerox.com Home Page
(Please download the PDF to see the illustration.)
Illustration 1. This illustration shows the home page of Support.xerox.com.

Click the Support & Drivers tab on the home page to display Support.xerox.com, the home page for customer support that lets you help yourself to perform a wide array of product-oriented customer service activities. It’s shown in Illustration 2 and the illustration numbers the main sections of the page. I describe the capabilities behind the numbers in the section, Product-Oriented Customer Service, below.

Account Management Landing Page
(Please download the PDF to see the illustration.)
Illustration 2. This illustration shows the Web page displayed when you click the Account Management selection on the top task bar on the Xerox.com home page.

Click the Account Management tab on the upper task bar on the Xerox.com home page or on the Support.xerox.com landing page to display an account management landing page, shown in Illustration 3, that lets you help yourself to perform a wide array of account-oriented customer service activities. I describe the capabilities behind the numbers in the section, “Account-Oriented Customer Service,” below.

Support.xerox.com Home Page
(Please download the PDF to see the illustration.)
Illustration 3. This illustration shows the Web page displayed when you click the Support & Drivers selection on the right side of the lower tab bar on the Xerox.com home page. I’ve placed numbers on the page to show all the paths that you can take to help yourself to support.

Note that the two task bars shown in both Illustrations 1 and 2 are a common navigation mechanism on most of the Web pages of Xerox.com and Support.xerox.com.

PRODUCT-ORIENTED CUSTOMER SERVICE

You can help yourself to perform product-oriented customer service activities using the links in these sections of Support.xerox.com:

• Office Equipment (1)
• Production Equipment (2)
• Consulting & Outsourcing tab (3)
• Supplies (4)
• Enter Product Name or Number or Select Product Type/Select Product Family/Select Product Model (5) and/or (6)
• Support Quick Links (7) and/or (8)

Product-oriented customer service on Support.xerox.com is very good. The content is concise, easy to understand, and, most importantly, useful for the activities that you want to perform...