Conference 7.286::digital

    CSC, I presume, is part of a Business Unit.
    
    Anyway, whatever the CSC is part of will have a senior management team
    at its head.  One of the SMT will be responsible for Operations - (s)he
    is the person to report the difficulties of working your escalation
    procedure to, with a reasoned request that the timeliness problem be
    fixed.
    
    If you cannot find the Ops Manager, or they're not interested in fixing
    the problem, then IMHO you _must_ inform the Federal Agency Account
    Manager of your inability to support his customer in a timely manner. 
    Tell him what you've already tried and of any road-blocks you perceive
    in the process, and ask him to escalate.  With the recent mail from Ed
    Lucente restating the importance of Account Managers I would imagine
    things will start moving, quickly.

    The answer to the question of "is the escalation process working" is
    "no" (IMHO). I have tried to utilize the process as written several times
    to no avail. I have found that if I contact the Solutions Desk management
    I get answers, but I understand your frustration. 
    
    I ask the same questions several weeks ago. I was told that the policy
    had not been formally adopted/accepted/blessed/etc/etc/ by the
    "business partners". Again, US Logistics has tried to put a formal
    process in place to manage an out of control situation and it looks
    like we are fighting internal battles of power.
    
    Might I suggest you contact the individual who introduced the "policy"
    to us in October and ask for a status report?
     
    

    
    Eliminate Local Office Referrals (LORs) when the problem is clearly
    beyond the local folks ability to fix.  All it does is frustrate the
    customer and the poor slob in the field who is left holding the bag.
    
    JMHO.
    
    -Ed
    
    
    
    
                                                           

Re: .4

For sure!

A customer was having problems with an OSI file transfer product called
FTAM. Customer detailed how the product deviated from the FTAM-xyz
standard and suggested how the product should act. Customer pretty much
told DEC how to fix the problem; they just needed us to do it.

Customer logged call through the CSC providing all of the above info.

CSC did an 'LOR' on the problem.

Customer went ballistic when finding out problem had been refered to the
'local office' instead of product engineering. The customer knows darn
well that the 'local office' is going to be NO HELP in this situation.

Why do we do these kinds of things? 

Lee

    
    
    
    RE: -1 
    
>CSC did an 'LOR' on the problem.

    Unfortunately, due to the old days of us being a purely hardware
    company, the only means we currently have at the CSC to FORMALLY 
    escalate the issue is to issue a LOR or a Center recommended USCLD. 
    
    However, according to the MAP process which should go into effect
    in such cases, the LO does not have to try to deal with it.  The
    problem manager has the ability to pull in whatever resources are 
    needed through a CLD.  Also, the CSC can be used as one of those
    resources.  
    
    If product management needs to be involved, the problem manager has 
    the means to escalate immediately to the region and on to engineering. 
    
    Unfortunately, AT THE CURRENT TIME, the CSC does not have a FORMAL 
    means to directly involve product management or engineering. 
    
    We do on many occasions, IF we have the private contacts, call
    engineering and get them involved informally until the paper work 
    is in order.
    
    I am not defending the process.  I am just outlining it.  And
    unfortunately, many UM's left at the LO level are not aware of their
    ability to escalate their technical issues. 
    
    Mary Jo
    

    
    This is such a simple thing to fix.  I'm sure the folks in the CSC and
    the local sales support and CS people can determine if an LOR is a good
    idea.  
    
    I first kvetched about the LOR process to my boss who got all defensive
    and explained how he had helped define the process years ago.  I
    suspect that the person whose brainchild this was is still at digital
    and will not endure the political embarrassment of seeing it changed.
    
    I've come close to sending BP a memo on this a number of times.
    
    -Ed
    

    Unfortunately, I believe the basenoters job title (CSC=Customer Support
    Consultant/US Logistics) has been mis-aligned to the CSC (Customer
    Support Center) and the MVS organization. 
    
    The escalation process that the basenoter intended to discuss is entitled
    "Customer Satisfaction Order Escalation (Traditional Products)". It has
    nothing to do with LOR's.
    
    

    I'm not sure if the CLD process is part of the CSC escallation process
    - I imagine it is.  Both of the CLDs we've had took ridiculous amounts 
    of time to get to us (I'm in engineering).
     
    In one case I'd been working on the problem for over a week by the time
    I got the CLD on it (I knew it was coming).  In the other case the
    customer was quite upset with our response time as it had taken over a
    week to get to us - we called the customer within 30 minutes of finding
    out about it.

.5>I am not defending the process.  I am just outlining it.  And
.5>unfortunately, many UM's left at the LO level are not aware of their
.5>ability to escalate their technical issues. 

If I understand correctly, the scenario I outlined in .4 is a 'local
office' issue in the eyes of the CSC?

Customers and some DECies have the (appearantly misguided) perception
that the CSC can talk to product engineering on the customer's behalf.
And we talk about wanting meeting customer needs... let's fix the broken
wheels before we invent/dream about new ones.

No wonder our customers shake their head in amazement.

Lee

Why can't the CSC folk talk to Engineering?
The people I deal with, in the CSC, seem to have no problem!
Mark

    As the basenoter, I need to clarify a misconception.  The CSC I refer
    to is a person in the Logistics Services Center, in which in the US are
    7.  This CSC is not connected at all to the CSC's in Colorado Springs
    or Atlanta.
    
    Once again, Digital gave two separate entities the same initals,
    therefore forever confusing the issue for those who fail to read the
    basenote.

    CUSTOMER SUPPORT CONSULTANTS to those of you that care, are "old" OMS
    people that now handle the customer to customer supply chain.  I'm not
    surprised that most people out there don't know who we are.
    
    The escalation process refers to "getting an order shipped" A) when
    manufacturing says they'll ship it (should be too hard should
    it...guess again) or B) when the customer needs it.  You're right, the
    escalation process isn't working.  My CSC Manager along with my LSM
    (Logistics Services Manager) have escalated it back to the initiators
    of the new P&P and their response is, "we know it's broke, we're
    working on fixing it, but remember, just cozz you escalate doesn't mean
    they can pull in an order.  The purpose of the process is to insure
    that every avenue has been pursued and that they (whoever they are) are
    doing ALL THEY CAN to insure correct information is systemically
    generated."
    
    Personally, there is a definite credability gap between what I hear is
    going to happen and what really happens.  I believe about 25% of what
    I'm told and 50 % of what is systemically generated.  I've seen FEDX
    weighbill #'s on shipments that "really didn't ship".  Figure that one
    out.
    
    My $.02 worth 
    
    JP (another FRUSTRATED CSC)
    

    See topic #2824 to talk about the Customer Support Center escalation
    process (the "other" CSC).
    
    - Greg Scott

    re .11
    
    to add to the confusion, there is a third "CSC" in Valbonne, France:
    
    The Client Server Consulting Group. It's a European organization. But
    it has nothing to do with delivering customer support.
    
    JFS/Valbonner