Hewlett-Packard Boosts Customer Support

PALO ALTO, CALIF. — Hewlett-Packard announced a major push toward improving customer service, including expanding the company's remote-access repair capability.

The company is adding eight new call centers worldwide, with three in the United States in Alabama, Oregon and Missouri. While HP would not disclose how many additional people were hired to staff these new facilities, a company spokeswoman said the Beaverton, Ore., service center will house about 500 people.

HP's other major financial outlay focused on totally replacing and upgrading its worldwide customer service technology infrastructure. This evolution was completed with the U.S. facilities being the final components to receive the upgrade. The company said the new systems will give customer service agents an interactive troubleshooting guide and the ability to email customers detailed courses of action so they can follow along as their problem is fixed and for later reference.

In addition, it will be faster, cutting back on downtime during a service call.

The third improvement centers on the company Instant Care remote-access system. By the end of March all the company's experienced customer service agents will have the ability to directly access and fix an end user's PC, an ability that increases customer satisfaction by about 20 percent, HP said.

Previously, this access was much more limited.

Finally, about 1,000 HP representatives are being given additional training on how to configure wireless networks and improving PC performance. The new training requires the representatives to partake in simulations and e-learning.