Question

service marketing The Accellion Service Guarantee

Accellion was a young high-tech firm with leading-edge technology in the distributed file storage, management and delivery market space. Still new to the industry, the firm aimed to become the global backbone for the next generation of Internet-based applications. Its main value proposition to the world’s largest enterprises, as well as to Internet-based providers of premium content, was to allow them to serve their users faster, increase operational efficiencies and lower total costs. Specifically, Accellion customers could improve the access time for downloading and uploading files by more than 200%. This performance improvement was achieved by locating an intelligent storage and file management system at the “edges of the Internet” and thereby delivering content from regions located closer to the end user. The typical time-consuming routing through many servers and hubs could be avoided using Accellion’s infrastructure. The need for an Internet infrastructure to deliver high bandwidth content to end-users had never been greater. There was a trend towards multimedia and personalized Web content, all of which could not be delivered efficiently by existing infrastructure, which routed data through the congested network of servers that form the backbone of the Internet. This prompted Accellion to develop and launch a new service: distributed file storage, management and delivery. Accellion provided an applications platform that resided on independent servers, which were directly connected to the users’ Internet Service Providers (ISPs), thereby avoided the congested “centres” of the Internet. This decreased access time and allowed Accellion to distribute specialized content and applications more efficiently. To market Accellion’s value proposition, the CEO, Warren J. Kaplan and the firm’s chief strategist, S. Mohan, felt that key success factors for Accellion’s aggressive growth strategy were its leading-edge technology, excellence in service delivery and high customer satisfaction. They envisioned that customers would prefer to leverage Accellion’s technology and partnerships instead of managing the details of deploying, maintaining and upgrading their own storage infrastructure for distributed Internet applications. To build a customer-driven culture and credibly communicate service excellence to the market, Accellion aimed to harness the power of service guarantees. Cost effective services for improving performance and reliability were becoming critical, as the widespread use of multimedia and other large files increased exponentially. The value proposition was clearly attractive, but how could Accellion convince prospective clients that its technology and service actually could deliver what they promised? Mohan felt that Quality of Service (QoS) Guarantee would be a powerful tool to make its promises credible and at the same time push his team to deliver what had been promised. Mark Ranford, Accellion’s Director for Product Management and Mohan spearheaded the development of the QoS Guarantee. They finally launched the QoS Guarantee stating that “it is a revolutionary statement of our commitment to the customer to do whatever it takes to ensure satisfaction.” Accellion’s Quality of Service Guarantee The Accellion Quality of Service Guarantee defines Accellion’s assurance and commitment to providing the Customer with value-added Service and is incorporated into Accellion’s Customer Contact. The definition of terms used herein is the same as those found in the Customer Contact.

1. Performance Guarantee Accellion guarantees that the performance of the Network in uploading and downloading content, as a result of using the Acellion Service, will be no less than 200% of that which is achieved by a benchmark origin site being accessed from the edges of the Internet. For all purposes herein, performance measurement tests will be conducted by Accellion.

2. Availability Guarantee Accellion guarantees 100% Service Availability, excluding Force Majuere and Scheduled Maintenance for Customers who have opted for our replication services.

3. Customer Service Guarantee Should Accellion fail to meet the service levels set out in Section 1 and 2 above, Accellion will credit the Customer’s account with one (1) month’s service fee for month affected when the failure(s) occurred, provided the Customer gives written notice to Accellion of such failure within five (5) days from the date such failure occurred. Accellion maintains a 24-hour support center and will provide the Customer with a response to any inquiry in relation to the Service no more than 2 hours from the time of receipt of such query by customer service

Evaluate the Accellion’s guarantee. How effective will it be in communicating service excellence to potential and current customers?

Will the guarantee be successful in creating a culture for service excellence within Accellion?

Do you think customers might take advantage of this guarantee? Why?

Answer 1

Evaluate the Accellion’s guarantee. How effective will it be in communicating service excellence to potential and current customers?

Quality of Service (QoS) Guarantee is a powerful tool to make company's promises credible, helps to built & retain loyal customers. Quality of Service (QoS) is evaluated on the basis of its simplicity, design, unique, credibility, etc.

Let's Evaluate the Accellion’s guarantee:

Simplicity: Accellion’s guarantee is simple & clear, without chaos. The Accellion Quality of Service Guarantee defines Accellion’s assurance & commitment to providing the customer with value-added service & is incorporated into Accellion’s Customer Contact. It's contract states Performance, Availability, and Customer Service Guarantee to customer in simple & understandable terms/language.

Design: Design of Quality of Service is without vague. It is neither too lengthy nor too short, and customer can easily understand by reading the terms of the contract & get idea about what Accellion want to deliver, such as Accellion guarantees the performance of the Network in uploading and downloading content, performance measurement tests will be conducted by Accellion for ensuring the quality of their service, etc.

Credibility: Accellion Quality of Service statement consists of credibility statements which encourage customer to try the service. It guarantees Performance, Availability, and Customer Service using terms such as Accellion guarantees 100% Service Availability, Accellion 200% guarantees the performance of the Network in uploading and downloading content, or if Accellion failed to meet its service than they will credit the service fees, Accellion 24-hour customer service support, quick response to customer query within no more than 2 hours from the time of receipt.

Accellion’s guarantee effectively communicate service excellence to potential and current customers. The company's confidence over its service encourages customers to try the service. The potential customer get attracted towards Accellion because of the risk-free offered service. Accellion's guarantee to credit the service fee, if it fails to meet the expectation, makes the potential customer to try the service. Also, its promise for quick query resolving helps to gain trust of both existing & potential customer. Current customer's satisfaction level will increase over the Accellion Service after getting commitment from Quality of Service statement.

Will the guarantee be successful in creating a culture for service excellence within Accellion?

Yes, the guarantee be successful in creating a culture for service excellence within Accellion as the firm’s chief strategist, S. Mohan push his team to deliver what had been promised. He encourages his team to deliver the same what they said to customers. Accellion success is proof to this. This is because of its quality service delivery & aggressive growth strategy consisting leading-edge technology, excellence in service delivery & high customer satisfaction.

Do you think customers might take advantage of this guarantee? Why?

Yes, customers take advantage of this guarantee, as everyone is looking for faster & hassle free network service & Accellion guarantees 100% Service Availability & 200% the performance of the Network in uploading & downloading content. Also, Accellion's guarantee offers the credit of service fee, if it fails to meet the expectation, making the customer to use its service. Another factor which encourage customers is the promise of solving query within time limit & availability of 24-hours customer support.

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