The current bleak economic landscape offers proof of what has long been suggested here: there is no future in tech support. There is, however, a very bright potential for the profession of managing customer relationships. It's time to acknowledge the difference between layoffs and leadership, to explore the architecture of what comes before management: the design and development of what might be called "product as a relationship."

A new name, a new look, and a new focus has come to The HotLine. Re-launched as The HotLine Magazine, the new layout and graphics have strongly increased the accessibility of the articles and content. But the crucial difference is more fundamental. The focus has changed from optimizing center operations over to producing strategically significant, and sustainable, levels of contributions to overall corporate profitability. And the same needs to happen to the old role of Support / Service and the customer contact center. It's indeed time for something new.
It is often said that Support & Service must necessarily be better in the OnDemand / Software as a Service ecosystem because "the customer could leave at any time. Therefore, we have to continuously earn our customers' loyalty every month." In reality, however, how many SaaS companies truly operate as if they were concerned about customer retention? What percentage of your customer base is at-risk? If you offered your customers an easy off-ramp, a way to painlessly migrate to another vendor, how many would take advantage of it? Or if a competitor suddenly offered to buy your customers, would they be for sale?