For the week of September 15

For the week of September 15, 2006 | Vol. 1, Issue 2

IN THIS ISSUE * Service Level Agreements – What they are, what they aren’t * Game Center Group Announces ServiceTRAKK
* Austin Game Developers Conference * CRM – What is it?
* Game Center Group adds industry vet

CONTACT INFORMATION

Game Center Group
Office: 760-445-2764
Fax: 760-440-9342
info@gamecentergroup.com
www.gamecentergroup.com

SERVICE LEVEL AGREEMENTS

Want to manage your customers' expectations better? A service level agreement (SLA) may be worth considering. An SLA is a negotiated contract that is designed to create a common understanding about services, priorities and responsibilities. Although an SLA is an excellent expectations-managing mechanism, it's important to manage your own expectations of what it can realistically accomplish. Unfortunately, some people view an SLA as a rigid, complaint-stifling mechanism or a quick fix to a troubled relationship; however, using it for such purposes can often create more problems than it solves. Instead, think of an SLA as a communications tool. The value of an agreement is not just in the final product; the very process of establishing an SLA helps to open up communications. In addition, an SLA can act as a conflict-prevention tool. An agreement helps to avoid or alleviate disputes by providing a shared understanding of needs and priorities. Indeed if there is conflict this is often resolved quicker as the parties have already arrived at a good methodology for agreeing on issues. One of the most important aspects often disregarded by most is that the SLA is a dynamic document. It is not a fire and forget event. In fact, a part of the agreement should stipulate regular updates and modifications. Creating an SLA in the MMO live environment, whether it’s internal or external, is a complicated process and involves both Service Components and Management Components.

Service Components:

· Documentation and escalation procedures including tier breakdowns, outages, etc.

· Service standards and key performance indicators (KPI’s), including timeframes within which services will be provided

· Detailed list of services provided and those not provided, and the uptime of each

· Return On Investment (ROI) or cost vs. service tradeoffs

· Detailed responsibilities of each group

Management Components:

· Reporting, variance requirements and variance remedies

· Service related disagreements resolution

· Schedule of SLA revision and review; including appointed SLA Officers or committee members

Clearly Service Level Agreements are an important part of any professional contact center and we have really just touched the tip of the iceberg here on how to properly plan and execute. The Game Center Group has years of experience implementing SLA’s both internally and externally for global organizations. Contact us today and let us take your contact center to the next level.

GAME CENTER GROUP ANNOUCES ServiceTRAKK CSAT RATING ENGINE

Customer satisfaction in the MMO space is often very difficult to measure. ServiceTRAKK, located at www.servicetrakk.com offers users the ability to rate their customer service sessions as they occur for free. By downloading the rating application users can evaluate customer service interactions for the MMO game of their choice. Five critical areas of the customer support session are rated and text snippets from e-mail, chat or in-game tickets can be cut-n-pasted along with user comments. These rating sessions are then combined with thousands of other service evaluations, averaged and displayed in the ServiceTRAKK matrix. “We have taken CSAT to a whole new level” said D. Scott Mattson. “By getting the player’s perspective, companies and potential customers, can get an unbiased view of what players are experiencing in terms of CS”.

AUSTIN GAME DEVELOPERS CONFERENCE

The Game Center Group’s Scott Mattson is set to host an interactive panel titled “Live Support Challenges in the Asian Market”. Click here to see the conference details.

CRM – WHAT IS IT?

The term CRM, arguably, was first put into the public domain around 1993, when Tom Siebel came up with it. So it is closely connected to Siebel Systems - an IT company. Hence the problem. Many executives are under the misconception that CRM is principally an IT implementation. Customer Relationship Management is much more than just integrating the latest bells and whistles. It’s really a holistic approach to handling what we all strive so hard to get in our industry….subscribers. Subscribers expect and deserve our best foot forward when it comes to service. Service in the MMO world is far too often an after thought or not planned for in anyway. Developers design awesome game engines that can WOW you in many ways. Artists create masterpieces in the digital realm that take our breath away but when was the last time you heard a player say “ they have the best support in the whole world”. Of course it’s important to put things into perspective. We don’t play games for the service but as indicated below customers leave because of bad service a whopping 68% of the time…

So what is CRM? Simply put, CRM is putting your customer, the player, at the heart of your business. With the support of technology, the goal is to have a 360-degree view of the customer which will enable you to improve the quality and satisfaction of each customer interaction and maximize the profitability of your customer relationships. CRM is similar to customer loyalty and relationship marketing in that the goal is to move your customer from a transactional interaction to an emotional relationship. The two components most often missing from loyalty and relationship marketing being: a) technology and b) the management of relationships with other members of the company: dev, executive, QA, NetOps, Marketing, CS, etc. - recognizing your customer as a customer through any channel. With the high number of MMO’s in development or already on the shelf it’s becoming even more important to invest in a world class CRM organization as a means to retain the subscriber base and maintain the bottom line.

Ask yourself the following questions as you prepare your CRM implementation

How does our business define customer loyalty?
Are we consistently using this definition across all our offerings?
Are our customers loyal? To what extent or intensity?
How do we create, build or earn customer loyalty and improve community relations?
How can we use customer loyalty strategically and tactically for positioning?

Finally, if you are not getting the most out of your CRM strategy remember the following:

Technology alone is not CRM, its only a piece to the puzzle
CRM should directly affect the bottom line and should be tracked as such
CRM should be approached as a holistic, company wide strategy; buy-in must happen at every level
The customer has the final word on whether your CRM strategy is working or not

Want to learn more? We are experts at creating a CRM eStrategy’s for your organization that not only improves the relationship with your external customers but with your internal customers as well. Contact the Game Center Group today and see how we can enhance or improve your CRM strategy.

GAME CENTER GROUP ADDS INDUSTRY VET

Ted Avery joins the management team at the Game Center Group bringing years of MMO experience. “Ted’s experience and level of professionalism brings exceptional depth to the management team at GCG”, said D. Scott Mattson. “Ted has worked on some of the biggest and latest successes at Electronic Arts and most recently NCSoft. That kind of real world experience is invaluable to clients who are looking to get the most out of their live support team”. See Ted’s full bio here.

The material provided is for informational and educational purposes only. Although the material is deemed to be accurate and reliable, there is no guarantee it is not without errors.

As your trusted advisor, we are sending you the MMO Today because we are committed to keeping you updated on the events that impact the MMO world and the latest in CRM best practice.

In the unlikely event that you no longer wish to receive these valuable updates, please use the following link to unsubscribe.