5 Ways Cloud Has Revolutionized Customer Support Delivery | Innovation Insights | Wired.com

5 Ways Cloud Has Revolutionized Customer Support Delivery | Innovation Insights | Wired.com:

Unless you’ve just awakened from a coma, you’re well aware that the nature of software delivery has changed radically in the last few years. Almost every type of software imaginable is available in the “cloud” as subscription-based software, as opposed to the installed software that was the only option just a few years ago.

There’s no need to rehash the benefits (and, to be honest, down sides) of cloud-based software yet again, but it is interesting to look at how this seismic shift has changed the landscape of customer support. To put it bluntly, customer support has changed radically over the last several years primarily due to both the shift in the delivery of software and the rise of the ability for customers to be heard.

Let’s take a look at some of reasons the cloud has changed customer support:

1. Customer Portability

One of the most important shifts that running cloud-based applications has brought is the re-introduction of subscription-based billing. Software used to be a capital purchase; once the money was spent, it was rare that a company shifted off the purchased software until the bean counters were satisfied that it was depreciated.

The shift to the cloud has given rise to the shift to subscription billing. Where business customers once paid lots of money upfront to purchase a piece of software, they now effectively “rent it” month to month.

This has two interesting consequences:
1. Customers can do extended trials for little money, and
2. They are also free to stop using the product (and stop paying the subscription) at any point.

The result of this is that keeping customers happy has become absolutely crucial, and customer support has turned into a critical tool in a company’s arsenal of sales tools. In the old world, there was little incentive to provide excellent customer support since the majority of the revenue from a customer had already been recognized. In today’s subscription model, however, the equation is almost exactly reversed. When a customer is sold, a tiny fraction of the lifetime revenue is received in the first month—and then there is great pressure on the support team to keep the customer happy and the monthly checks flowing.

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