New transparency measures means IT business has nowhere to hide

An Exeter-based IT company has launched an innovative online platform that will allow its customers to see how well it is performing in customer service.

Hosted Desktop UK, an award-winning IT company with offices in Marsh Barton, Exeter and Lancashire, is thought to be one of the first businesses in the UK to introduce real time transparency.

Adam Chetnik, founder and director of the company which offers cloud and hosted desktop services to more than 4,000 users across the UK, is the brainchild behind the bespoke software and he believes more businesses should be encouraged to be transparent about the level of service they are offering their customers.

“Most businesses offer up figures relating to their customer service levels on their website and in marketing literature but no one ever really knows whether these figures are genuine. We thought it would be a good idea to take the idea of supplying customer service ratings one stage further by creating an online viewing platform where customers can literally see how we are performing in real time.

This means we will have nowhere to hide, we are so confident in our customer service that we are prepared to put our service – warts and all – out there for everyone to see. Since our inception three years ago we have been dedicated to giving the best customer service possible. We are only human, so there can of course be the odd mistake from time to time, but what we think makes excellent customer service is having the desire and the ability to rectify any problems speedily with minimal disruption to service – something our customers will be able to see as each ‘case’ is logged with the outcome and comments from the customer,” said Adam Chetnik, Hosted Desktop UK’s director.

Internally, Hosted Desktop UK also states that the platform has the additional benefit of being useful in identifying any training requirements.

“I have worked for the past six months developing the software and one of the biggest benefits is that it will automatically flag-up any staff training issues. This is a great management tool – by quickly identifying any shortcomings or recurrent problems, we are able to put training methods in place promptly, which in turn should mean we can carry on delivering a first-class service,” adds Adam.

The talk at Hosted Desktop UK is that this might also spur on an additional competitive spirit as staff members will get a daily report on how they have performed.

“People are inherently competitive and there has already been lots of friendly banter around as our staff members strive to obtain the top ratings and this can only be good for business and we look forward to seeing it improve our already strong customer satisfaction ratings.”

Rather than viewing this as a risky strategy Adam concludes that more businesses should consider investing in transparency measures.

“Customer service can be the major differentiator for a lot of people when making a purchasing decision, so if you are confident your business is offering a first-class service then don’t hide it, put it out there for all to see, it might just help win more business.”