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Boise HP Web Site Wins First Place for Service: Company Takes Two Top Spots in New Contest

Posted on: Friday, 24 February 2006, 12:00 CST

By Joe Estrella, The Idaho Statesman, Boise

Feb. 24--Hewlett-Packard Co. dominated a recent international competition to determine the world's best customer support Web sites.

HP won two spots in the first annual Ten Best International Web Support Sites awards.

The company's Customer Care site operated out of Boise won top honors for its service to consumers, while its Mountain View, Calif.-based IT Resource Center site was the best at providing technical assistance to commercial customers.

The awards were presented by the Localization Industry Standards Association (LISA) and the Association of Support Professionals (ASP).

In addition to HP, the winners included ATI Technologies, Dell Inc., Intel Corp., McAfee Inc., Microsoft Corp., Sony Corp., ViaTraining LLC and Xilinx Inc.

In announcing the winners, LISA executive director Michael Anobile said the growth of the Internet is encouraging consumers worldwide to use the Web -- rather than the telephone -- when they need customer support services.

"As companies do more business outside of their home market, they have to satisfy the needs of customers in global markets. HP understands this, and its work is raising Web support standards worldwide," Anobile said, in a statement.

The Customer Care Center Web site -- managed by a staff of about 50 people located at HP's Boise campus -- is devoted to helping the average consumer with questions about hundreds of HP products, including personal computers, printers and digital cameras, said Brent Potts, HP's Director of Service and Support Infrastructure.

"A few years ago, a consumer with a question would simply pick up the phone and call the company," Potts said. "But as the public becomes more comfortable with the Web, the need has increased to make this support more accessible."

Today, the site is available in 16 languages in 70 different countries. It receives up to 30 million visits a month, compared with less than 10 million monthly hits when launched in 1997, Potts added.

It provides down-loadable diagnostic tools, patches, software, drivers, answers to frequently asked questions, user guides, troubleshooting information and more. If customers require additional help, they can contact an HP support agent through an online chat, or by e-mail or phone, depending on their location.

Rather than complaints about a defective product, Potts said most calls are from consumers who need instructions on how to get their HP device to perform a certain task.

"It's not necessarily an issue of the product being broken," he said. "It can be something as simple as 'how do I print a picture from my digital camera.'"

At the other end of the spectrum is the IT Resource Center, a Web site designed for Internet technology professionals who work with networks of HP computer or printer products in a business environment, said Jason Crawford, Global Content Technologies Manager.

"As you and I might start at a lower level, the IT professional is at a higher level. So we don't have to start off by asking 'Is you power cord plugged in?'" Crawford said.

The site offers the commercial customer access to online tools, expert assistance from HP response center engineers, online training, community forums of IT experts and a broad, fully searchable multi-vendor database.

It's available in nine different languages in 150 countries.

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Idaho Statesman, Boise

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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Source: The Idaho Statesman, Boise

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