UBM TechWeb's HDI Announces 2010 Customer Satisfaction Benchmarking Study, Measuring Technical Service and Support Industry's Performance in the Eyes of Its Customers

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo., Aug. 26 /PRNewswire/ -- HDI (http://www.thinkhdi.com), a global association for IT service and technical support professionals and the premier certification body for the industry, today announced the release of its second Customer Satisfaction Benchmarking Study. The purpose of this study was to measure the level of customer satisfaction across a diverse group of support centers in the technical service and support industry.

Utilizing its proprietary Customer Satisfaction Index service, HDI contacted customers directly upon the closure of an incident to assess the customer's perception of the frontline technical support analyst's performance in the following areas:

• Courtesy of the analyst
• Technical skills/knowledge of the analyst
• Timeliness of the service provided
• Quality of the service provided
• Overall service experience

The results of the study are based on 208,334 customer satisfaction surveys completed by the customers of 348 support centers, representing 158 companies, from April 15 through July 15, 2010. Surveys were collected from support centers located in eleven countries, including the United States (91%), Canada (5%), Sweden (2%), and Barbados, England, India, Ireland, Malaysia, the Netherlands, China, and Switzerland (less than 1% each). Of those in the United States, 45% of the surveys collected were from support centers in the Eastern region, 46% were from support centers in the Central region, and 9% were from support centers in the Western region.

Study Highlights

• 82% of all support center customers were "very satisfied" with the overall service experience, compared to 78% in 2007.
• Overall, customer satisfaction with courtesy of the analyst rates 4.8 on a 5.0 scale.
• Customers are most satisfied with the courtesy of the analyst and least satisfied with timeliness of the service provided.
• Support centers with less than 200 customers and those with more than 30,000 customers rate lowest in all categories of service.

About HDI

HDI is a global IT service and technical support membership association and the industry's premier certification and training body. Guided by an international panel of industry experts and practitioners, HDI is the leading resource for IT service and technical support emerging trends and best practices. HDI provides members with a vast repository of resources, networking opportunities, and the largest industry event, the HDI Annual Conference & Expo. Headquartered in Colorado Springs, CO, HDI offers training in multiple languages and countries. For more information, visit www.ThinkHDI.com or call +1 719.268.0174. HDI is part of UBM TechWeb.

About HDI Customer Satisfaction Index

Developed by 47 industry practitioners and customer satisfaction experts, the HDI Customer Satisfaction Index Service is a standardized, incident-based evaluation service, providing an efficient way for support center professionals to assess the performance of frontline technical support analysts from the customer's perspective. For more information about this service, visit www.ThinkHDI.com/csi .

About UBM TechWeb (http://www.ubmtechweb.com)

UBM TechWeb, the global leader in technology media and professional information, enables people and organizations to harness the transformative power of technology. Through its core businesses – media solutions, marketing services, and professional information – UBM TechWeb produces the most respected and consumed brands, applications, and services in the technology market. More than 14.5 million business and technology professionals (CIOs, IT and IT Support managers, Web and digital professionals, software and game developers, government decision makers, telecom providers and business executives) actively participate in UBM TechWeb's communities. UBM TechWeb brands include: global face-to-face events such as Interop, Game Developers Conference (GDC), Web 2.0, Black Hat, and VoiceCon; large-scale online networks such as InformationWeek, Light Reading, and Gamasutra; research, training, and certification services, including HDI, Pyramid Research, and InformationWeek Analytics; and market-leading magazines such as InformationWeek and Wall Street & Technology. UBM TechWeb is part of UBM, a global provider of media and information services for professional B2B communities and markets.

SOURCE HDI