Learn How Quark Doubled its Net Promoter Score with Customer Care, Customer Service & Knowledge Management

Quark: Revolutionizing Publishing, And Now Customer Service…

Many software companies come and go, but Quark is an example of a brand that has stood the test of time via continuous reinvention and innovation based upon its customers’ evolving needs.

In the 1980s, Quark revolutionized publishing with QuarkExpress, making any individual or business a publisher via their desktop computer. In the 1990s, the brand solidified its hold in the software industry as the world’s most widely-used professional page layout solution.

With the meteoric rise of digital media in the 2000s and 2010s, Quark has once again risen to the challenge of revolutionizing its software and its brand to serve a continuously changing global medium and an ever-expanding set of connected customers.

For Quark, development and growth are part of its name. The brand takes its appellation from the subatomic particle that is the building block for all matter. And now for customer support, Quark has utilized this building block structure to arrive at a cohesive multichannel service strategy that, now in place, has helped double the brand’s Net Promoter Score in under two years.

Building on the Brand with Customer Care

“You cannot underestimate the importance of support, especially for a software company,” says Quark VP of IT and Customer Support, Mark Lawler. “The customers we serve are very tech-savvy. They want to be able to access knowledgebases, and to submit a ticket. Some still prefer the phone. In addition, we have a lot of customers who want to use chat.

“With our enterprise customers, the standards for care are even higher,” says Lawler, “and that means providing support around the clock, around the globe, 24/7.”

Quark started with a homegrown support ticketing system with no formal tracking or reporting. They also offered chat, but it was through a third-party that did not integrate with other support systems. The knowledgebase was also siloed, leaving many customers to complain about the lack of integration.”

“We had a ticketing system. We had chat. We had our phone system. We had a knowledgebase,” notes Lawler. “But none of them were connected with one another.”

Realizing Results and ROI

Using Parature, Quark’s technical support portal is now a one-stop, yet incredibly convenient multichannel extension of the brand’s website and overall service offering. It features support ticketing, live chat, product documentation, feedback capabilities, and a highly-effective self-service anchor in the well-maintained, well-organized knowledgebase which provides 24/7 answers to customers’ frequently-asked questions.

“A lot of people don’t want to go to assisted channels for support,” notes Lawler. “They want to be able to look up answers themselves, and solve their problem themselves.”

With Parature providing the solution allowing Quark support representatives to easily add, update and organize content (as well as turn support ticket responses into knowledgebase articles), Quark turned one of its least used customer resources into one of its most successful. The improved availability of 24/7 answers and information online has actually changed customer behavior over the past few years, with more customers effectively using Quark’s online support portal, along with search, to find the right answers, at their convenience, without having to engage a support representative.

Knowledgebase article views are now up more than ten times over what they were with Quark’s previous solution which was replaced in 2012, and the quantity, quality and availability of answers has reduced support ticket submission by approximately 80% and resulted in a 60% decrease in call volume, with a related 50% cost savings for this high-touch channel.

The additional benefit is that via the deflection of repetitive, easy-answer questions via self-service, Quark’s Customer Service Representatives (CSRs) are now able to spend more time on the assisted experiences of customers with unique, difficult or urgent requests. This, and Quark’s ability to manage, track, respond to and report on multiple customer service channels through a single service deck have added to Quark’s customer success, customer satisfaction, and the impressive increase in Quark’s Net Promoter Score (NPS).

Best Practices Continue to Propel Quark’s Success

Beyond developing a better and more integrated multichannel service offering for customers, as well as the same for CSRs with a unified, cloud-based service desk, Quark has also integrated Parature with Microsoft Dynamics CRM, its JIRA bug tracking software, Quark’s e-store and other key solutions to deliver an increasing seamless customer experience. In addition, Quark has created tailored experiences for both its enterprise and desktop customers, and has made use of service desk features such as such as SLAs (Service Level Agreements) and reporting to increase efficiency and effectiveness.

“Parature’s customizable customer service platform allows us to scale our customer-facing portal as necessary, and gives our employees the chance to provide the best service to every customer, from small businesses to large enterprises,” says Lawler.

“Quark has taken what used to be a brand challenge in multichannel customer care and has turned it into a positive brand differentiator that we continue to develop and improve all the time. At Quark, we continue to put the customer first in everything we do.”

Hear More about Quark’s Commitment to Customer Care

In a recent recorded webinar now available for viewing at your convenience, Quark VP of Customer Support Mark Lawler joined analyst Michael Krigsman and Parature’s Bill Patterson to discuss why companies need to become more customer-focused, showing the weighting of promise, product, purchase and post-sales service when it comes to customer engagement, satisfaction and long-term brand loyalty. 

Hear more about brands that are doing it right, along with more of Quark’s customer service success story, in this webinar.