Goffin, K. (1998). Evaluating Customer Support During New Product Development — An Exploratory Study.Journal of Product Innovation Management, (15), 42-56.

Format: Peer-reviewed article

Type: Research — Non-experimental

Experience level of reader: Fundamental

Annotation: Article explores the extent to which Customer Support requirements are considered during the design stages of an NPD process. Just as design for manufacturability (DFM) techniques ease manufacturing processes, advanced planning should improve product support which is considered critical to hi-tech product/service success.

Setting(s) to which the reported activities/findings are relevant: Large business, Small business (less than 500 employees)

Knowledge user(s) to whom the piece of literature may be relevant: Brokers, Manufacturers

Knowledge user level addressed by the literature: Organization

This article uses the Commercial Devices and Services version of the NtK Model

• A range of measures for quantitatively measuring customer and product support could be used in combination to generate a more comprehensive evaluation of support requirements at the design stage and during pre-launch planning. These are: 1) Installation — time required; 2) User Training — time required to train to skill level; 3) Maintenance — mean time between and time per maintenance; 4) Repair — failure rate, fault diagnosis time and mean time to repair; 5) Upgrades — time, human resources and materials required.
  Survey of 66 companies plus one case study.
  Occurrence of finding within the model: Step 7.10, Step 6.3

• Only about one-half of the companies surveyed report using a formal product support plan, although most report that their product support procedures could be improved.
  Survey of 66 companies plus one case study.
  Occurrence of finding within the model: Step 6.3

• Two-thirds of companies surveyed begin planning for customer support requirements during the latter stages of product development.
  Survey of 66 companies plus one case study.
  Occurrence of finding within the model: Step 6.3

• Respondents identified eleven areas covered to some degree in product support planning activities, in descending order of companies covering each topic: 1. Installation methods; 2. User Training, 3. Documentation requirements, 4. Preventive maintenance methods, 5. Repair philosophy (e.g., modular diagnostics), 6. Spare parts requirements, 7. Field organization requirements, 8. Technical/application support required, 9. cost of ownership, 10. Service profit, 11. Upgrades.
  Survey of 66 companies plus one case study.
  Occurrence of finding within the model: Step 7.10

• Product support is essential to customer satisfaction. (Lele and Sheth [1988])
  Occurrence of finding within the model: Step 8.3

• The strategic activities which are essential to the successful marketing of complex, technology-based products include product customization, information gathering on product performance, product education and training, ongoing product support. (Athaide et al [1996])
  Occurrence of finding within the model: Step 8.2