Anyone work for a company in Tech/ customer support?

[alainbt]

Just curious on what ur wish list would be to improve on cust. support issues.

I like the idea of customers going to an online support site first to address (or at least try to) their problems and support issues first prior to an email dialogue or an actual live person.

Anyone in this field can attest to the fact that tech support folks get a good beating from the irrate customers and the volume of customers calling in for routing issues that could have easily been resolved by their company's respective support portal.

What do u guys think?

Any feedback and insight would be appreciated.

[CoreValues]

alainbt,

What are you looking to improve? Do you want superior customer satisfaction? Having web support (esupport) can definitly help customers. The site needs to be constantly updated with new scenarios and fixes. Is the team big enough to take on this task?

Sometimes people do not want to search on their own for their issues. They want to have someone walk them though. This is common in tech support. They want to trust another person and their guidance in case they "miss" something along the way"

Of course you want to implement a self-service environment. It helps subdue costs in the call center and agents can use their time for other tasks.

As far as good beatings? Yes, I hear you! I handle escalations on a daily basis. These folks are usually mad because there are not aware of the normal processes of engaging support (phone, email, knowledgebases, and FAQ's). Sometimes they are irate with the techs located in foreign countries because of a communication barrier. I make sure that these clients understand that they are getting a great level of support and make sure I can find a tech that can address their technical concerns. I always leave my contact information with the clients in the event they need to escalate from the normal process of engaging support. Let me know if this helps and if you have any other questions

Thanks!

CV

[alainbt]

CV,

Do u have an example of ur company's tech support site that I can look at?

A

[CoreValues]

Try these:

esupport.ca.com

www.supportconnect.ca.com

CV

[Michcall]

It also depends on the customers your group supports----are they basic users or more advanced techies? If it's a mix, you need to make sure that web-self service supports both groups--from a basic FAQ page to more advanced fixes requiring individual troubleshooting. Your basic users are usually not comfortable digging into their system, but they will follow step by step advice, "If your PC does this,....then do this." Also, we've found that some people who are not comfortable calling because they feel their level of knowledge is not sufficient to speak with someone, will search a website as long as the information is clear and easy to find.

I've found that my agents don't really get beat up by the basic users as long as they tailor their conversation to the level of user. It's when they start "technospeaking" that they get into trouble by making the caller feel stupid. Conversely the techies get irritated when talking to people who aren't as technically advanced as they are. It's a hard line to walk.

[CoreValues]

I call that a "hard case for soft skills" jargon kills the relationship on the non technial caller. Keeping it simple and down to earth. I see that here all the time.