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Continued...
CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE
Best for service
Eight out of 10 consumers are willing
to pay more for a better customer
experience (see overleaf), but with
everyone claiming to be the best for
customer service, how are end users
meant to find suppliers that pay it
more than just lip service, and how
can providers who really do go the
extra mile prove it?
Could techtick be the answer? Like a
Checkatrade for the IT industry, the new
supplier finder and certification scheme
provides independent validation of a
reseller’s capabilities and the quality of the
customer experience, giving print buyers
an easy way to find a supplier in their area
with relevant expertise and a history of
customer satisfaction.
Techtick co-founder Mark Ogden
says that there is a clear need for such a
scheme, particularly amongst SMEs and in
vertical markets, such as schools and legal
firms.
“These organisations don’t have
professional buyers and they don’t employ
large IT departments that have that skill
set. Yet there is relatively little independent,
credible resource to help them locate
the best providers of certain technology
specialisms with experience in relevant
market sectors. If you are a lawyer – a High
Street or a regional firm with 20 or 30
lawyers – you are going to be much more
comfortable buying from someone who is
supplying into the legal market already and
has successful relationships with law firms
like you.
“In the consumer market, there are
lots of review and information sites like
Trustpilot, Feefo, TripAdvisor and Reevoo
that allow people to make more informed
choices. But on the B2B side, in print, IT,
telecommunications, services and support,
there isn’t really that independent advice
and filter, that ability to find reputable,
credible providers in your sector who have
the experience that you require,” he said.
Ogden claims that unlike previous B2B
certification schemes or live review sites,
which can be open to bogus reviews,
techtick is based on detailed market
research into ‘outcomes and results’ –
Ogden himself is Market Research Society-
qualified.
As part of the supplier approval
process, techtick will survey customers to
assess the quality of the client experience
across pre-sales, project implementation
and post-sales support. For certification
in one vertical (e.g. education) and one
specialism (e.g. managed print services),
a supplier must have a minimum of five
satisfied customers in that sector. For each
additional sector (e.g. legal) or specialism
(e.g. telecommunications), the supplier
must have three clients able to provide
techtick with positive feedback.
Other requirements
In addition to customer audits, techtick has
various other requirements.
“We have a code of ethics that
suppliers have to sign up to; they must
have a defined complaints procedure, with
a nominated person; they need to have
traded for more than a year; we will do a
director and company check; we will make
sure they have business insurance; and
they must have a data protection policy
and a privacy policy. That’s the minimum
requirement. We will also take into account
external qualifications that they may hold,
such as manufacturer accreditations, ISO
9001 and the like,” explained Ogden.
Each certified supplier will have its
own profile page on the techtick website,
showing what sectors/technologies they
have been approved for, along with
feedback from satisfied customers.
New supplier finder and certification scheme rewards MPS providers that
really do put their customers first
Certification lasts for a year and
is renewable without further audits.
To maintain members’ high standards,
the techtick website enables end
users to submit feedback on their
performance. Should a pattern of customer
dissatisfaction emerge, a supplier’s
certification will be reviewed.
Clear benefits
Techtick is clearly very useful for end users
as a means of finding customer-centric
suppliers in their area. There are also big
benefits for MPS providers and printer
resellers, including:
1
Lead generation
– techtick can be
used to make a request for information or
quote though the system;
2
Differentiation through customer
satisfaction
– techtick gives suppliers
a way of demonstrating their technical
expertise, their industry/sector experience
and their commitment to customer service;
3
Third party, audited research
– independent techtick client survey
feedback conducted as part of the approval
process can be used by suppliers for
marketing purposes;
4
Recognition as a reputable
supplier
– certified suppliers can use
the techtick logo on marketing material,
websites, vehicles etc..
Open to all
Ogden says that techtick pricing has been
set at a level to attract suppliers of all sizes.
“It is a relatively affordable process,
because there are a lot of smaller
organisations doing really good things,
good relationship-based local support for
their clients, and we want them to be able
to get involved as much as anyone else,”
he said.
The annual fee, which includes
membership approval for one market
sector and one technology area (e.g.
SMEs for MPS) and end user referrals
and sales leads, costs £650 (or £65 per
month) for organisations with 10 or fewer
employees, and £995 (or £95 per month)
Mark Ogden
says that
there is a
clear need
for such
a scheme,
particularly
amongst SMEs
and in vertical
markets
Mark Ogden
