The Family Jewels

Your technical services group are apart of your front line staff that interact with customers. They generally tend to be viewed by the customers as the 'experts' and are trusted more than any other group within the organization. They also play a dual role; they represent the organization to the customer and they represent the customer to the organization (i.e. customer advocate).

This group tends to be under valued and under resourced (except for the most technically centric companies) even though they provide some of the most important services to your customers. It is a mis-conception that technical operations/services group is a 'cost center' of an organization. It is true that there is a cost to operating a quality services group, but it can also be a source of revenue (either directly or indirectly) if structured and managed properly.

I'm not trying to imply that services are more important than other group within an organization, but certainly they have a role in the success of a company and by leveraging them to support the efforts of Sales and Marketing, can be shown to have measurable results.

Seeing and treating your technical operations/services group as a strategic/tactical advantage can not only improve your services and customer satisfaction, but provide a competitive differentiators as well.