Overview

In professional sports, athletes have to know where they stand. For example, where players shoot from on a basketball court determines if they score two points or three points. In a close game, that's the difference between winning and losing.

But what if basketball courts didn't have markings to enable players to distinguish between the two- or three-point range? Players would continue to maintain the goal of winning, but they would lose the ability to judge how they should move around the court. And no one would know how to keep score.

Now imagine that professional basketball teams never had to play against each other. Instead, teams could have as many players as they could fit on their courts and within their budgets. Teams would provide players with their own basketballs to shoot for the duration of each game. The players would earn rewards for scoring the most baskets in the least amount of time.

Unfortunately for would-be fans, the games would not lead to a championship, as these teams, citing competitive reasons, would decline to reveal the number of baskets they scored.

Sounds similar to how support centers sometimes measure themselves, doesn't it? Granted, customer service is not a spectator sport, but support centers benefit when they share information with one another, or at least adhere to a common set of standards. Hence the value of benchmarking and certification.

Organizations that offer benchmarking and certification comprise outside experts who take an objective look at your support operation and...