Friday, March 18, 2005

J.D. Power Starts IT Services Survey

Westlake Village-based consumer survey leader J.D. Power and Associates and the San Diego-based Service & Support Professionals Association (SSPA) said this week that J.D. Power is launching a program which will recognize excellence in Tech Support. J.D. Power, well known for its survey of automotive satisfaction, will identify top performing technology companies through process audits and customer satisfaction surveys. J.D. Power and the SSPA said that they will begin issuing reports by Q3 of this year, and cover leading IT hardware, software, and network products companies. The survey will cover customer support, tech support, and field services. A standards body including representatives from IBM, Oracle, EMC, Cisco Systems, and other companies will help to develop the audit criteria. The program comes none too soon, as technology companies are notorious for their poorly trained customer support personnel, long phone queues, and outsourcing of technical support to the lowest offshore bidder.

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