3Com’s new UK network of spare parts depots guarantee fast service for enterprise networking customers

In-housing 3Com EMEA services and support leads to best-ever customer satisfaction levels

Hemel Hempstead, 5th November, 2008 – 3Com today announced new spare parts depots in Newcastle, Birmingham and Southampton to support enterprise networking customers with fast, local response for solving technical issues.  3Com Corporation, a leading provider of secure, converged voice and data networking solutions for enterprises of all sizes, now has 52 logistics centres across EMEA, including 10 in the UK/Ireland – Newcastle, Birmingham, Southampton, Bristol, Northampton, Plymouth, Warrington, Slough, Dublin and Glasgow.

Imran Khan, 3Com’s Global VP for Services and Support says, “3Com’s new logistics centres in Newcastle, Birmingham and Southampton make it even easier to get replacements to customers anywhere in the UK.  We have also extended the network to Bologna and Venice (Italy), Cordoba (Spain), Dusseldorf and Erfurt (Germany) and Riyadh (Saudi Arabia).  These new depots complement 3Com’s extensive network of spares stocking centres across EMEA.”

3Com has also integrated support for enterprise-class H3C-branded product into 3Com Global Services, so more of 3Com’s customers now have access to top-level expert help and advice on more products, and in more languages.

3Com also continues to strengthen its professional services consultancy teams with more field-based service engineers to assist implementation partners in larger, more complex deployments that involve 3Com’s latest technologies.

3Com’s new localised services and support model has already achieved great improvement in service levels in the EMEA region. Customer calls are answered within seconds, and solutions are provided rapidly either over the telephone or through shipping replacement hardware.   Calls from customers with warranty support issues go direct to a dedicated call centre in Amsterdam focussed on the needs of SMB customers, whilst service contract calls – 33 percent of which are technical in nature – go direct to 3Com engineers in the UK-based EMEA call centre.

By using dedicated in-house 3Com engineers for contract customers, 3Com is able to cut resolution times because a majority of the technical questions can be answered immediately. According to Khan, 3Com’s contract support customers are delighted to hear a 3Com person on the line who is quick to understand the issue and offer a solution. 

This customer responsiveness is part of 3Com’s drive to provide enterprise customers with an ever higher level of service.  Since moving the bulk of its EMEA service and support operations in-house in October 2007, 3Com has achieved significantly higher customer satisfaction ratings. In fact, 98% of customers expressed satisfaction with the service provided by 3Com. *

Background
In October 2007, 3Com announced the move in-house of a major part of its worldwide services and support organisation to improve service delivery and give more personal attention to its customers. The restructuring was part of a $12m global service improvement effort that included new multi-lingual support centre functions in the UK, the Netherlands, Australia, the Philippines, Costa Rica and the USA.

* Independent survey by Service 800 Inc, May 2008.