“Creating Better Relationships with our Clients”

01/08/2011

Luisa Villa

Closer to our community, better services. This is the premise based on which LACNIC has promoted changes in its management structure in order to orient its efforts aimed at satisfying the needs of its members.

Thus the Customer Service Department was born. This department is headed by Luisa Villa y Battenberg, who has already defined the main lines of work and the priorities for the department. With extensive experience in the Internet domain industry and in network creation, Luisa knows that LACNIC must promote closer relationships with the members of its community by providing more and better services.

Why did LACNIC decide to create a Customer Service Department?

The creation of the Customer Service Department came about as the result of LACNIC’s latest strategic planning efforts, during which this department was defined as one of the main lines of work aimed at strengthening customer orientation. The idea is to focus on how we can better satisfy the needs of our members in order to comply with their expectations regarding the services provided by LACNIC, as our customers are the organization’s members and therefore we report to them.

Does the creation of this department aim at a greater focus on the needs of LACNIC member organizations?

Yes, it does. The creation of this department aims at satisfying the needs of our members relating, on the one hand, to the services we provide − such as the assignment of IPv4, IPv6 and ASN resources, reverse DNS, RPKI resource certification, the Whois directory, and the SARA application − and, on the other hand, the activities that we organize − such as the IPv6 and AMPARO workshops, cooperation projects such as +RAICES and FRIDA, and organizing the public policy forum and the annual member assembly.

What changes will LACNIC members notice with the creation of this new department? Will there be a change in the way relationships are handled?

The improvements planned by the department include multiple aspects ranging from having a more user-friendly, customer-oriented website that allows users not only to readily obtain the information they need but also simplifies the processes for requesting resources, to the creation of new services in response to any new needs detected through this closer relationship with our customers. We also aim at providing more personalized customer service and improving our response times. Customers will be able to communicate with us via email or telephone; therefore we are working intensely to increase the efficiency of these means of communication. In addition, in so far as possible, we will try to visit our customers whenever LACNIC holds seminars in their respective countries.

How will LACNIC customers benefit from this new way of relating to the organization?

As I mentioned earlier, information will be presented to our customers in a more user-friendly format, they will benefit from a simplified process for requesting resources and shorter response times, the Customer Service Department will also allow them to have a closer relationship with LACNIC, as the centralization of all points of contact will allow better tracking of requests regardless of their status.

What are the department’s priorities?

Our main priority is the satisfaction of our customers in relation to the services they receive from LACNIC. For this reason we must focus on service quality and functionality.

To understand our customers’ level of satisfaction we will need their cooperation in letting us know their opinion through the satisfaction surveys we will conduct to measure our work. These surveys will also allow us to receive customer suggestions and implement any improvements required to satisfy their needs. In addition, we will promote greater participation on the part of our members both at the public policy forum as well as at the annual member assembly.

On which areas will the department’s initial actions focus?

Our first actions will focus on the registry system, which is the system through which IPv4, IPv6 and ASN resources are requested and therefore the place where the first contact with a customer occurs. Because it is the first point of contact, it is important to provide a good customer experience at that level. This area was also chosen because it involves the core of our services, which is resource allocation.

In parallel, we will also be working on strengthening relationships with our customers to promote their participation in the discussion lists, in the upcoming Board of Directors elections that will take place in November, as well as in the members assembly that will be held in the framework of LACNIC XVI – LACNOG 2011 meeting on 3-7 October in Buenos Aires, Argentina.