For every successful company, there is an excellent Tech Support team behind-the-scenes. Tech Support is not a privilege for a software company customers but rather an integral part of any organization that is crucial to its healthy functioning. It directly affects performance and sales, needless to mention an employee satisfaction index.
1. What Difference Does It Make?
Imagine you want to get an “A” for an outstanding paper but don’t understand the subject at all. There are two things you can do: start from scratch with all the necessary research and writing or get a paper from Edusson, but before doing so, check edusson.com reviews on the web. In the first case, you’ll spend a lot of time and will be proud if you succeed in creating a good write-up. In the second case, you delegate a task you can’t do well to professionals and keep working on other essential things.
A situation with Tech Support is pretty similar. When employees from marketing, sales, finance, or other departments try to figure out how to solve an issue with the software or their computers, they need to spend much time on research. In case they don’t find the right solution, they risk making things worse. It means that inefficient Tech Support causes more problems for the Support Team itself. If there is no in-house Tech Support, a company risks leaking some confidential files and data while trying to solve minor issues.
2. When Is Tech Support Especially Important?
Arranging several channels for tech assistance (tickets and emails, non-functional chats, knowledge bases, etc.) allows building a top-class support system that ensures smooth functioning of all business processes and reaching the company’s business goals. Still, 75% of users prefer reporting a problem in person or via phone. In big corporations, Help Desk is available 24/7. And even if there are no official night shifts, you never know who has decided to work extra hours.
We’ve already mentioned that covering a particular area of responsibility and delegating tasks to qualified people is significant for proper time management and efficiency. The other aspects that make Tech Support crucial to overall user experience may include the following.
Educating new employees. Even if newbies haven’t changed the sphere of occupation, they may have used different software before. Guidance is always relevant.
Diversity of internal tools. The bigger the company and the more internal systems it features. Some of these software solutions rare, specific, or unique.
Not everyone is good with technology. Yes, just as simple as this. Some are using hotkeys, and the others are afraid to click on anything. The latter need the explanation covering all does and don’ts.
It helps to avoid a mess. Imagine that someone doesn’t know how to use this another company’s internal tool, or maybe one person fails to update a report because a system doesn’t work correctly. Somebody else uses wrong information from the file, and then we can only guess where the snowball effect will lead us this time.
Some people don’t handle surprises well. A little system failure – and they are in a panic. In-house Tech Support becomes a real lifesaver here.
Keeping employees motivated. If everything functions correctly, white collars are in a good mood. If not, they cannot deal with ordinary tasks effectively, they get nervous, discuss the vices of management, and, eventually, start looking for new jobs.
Letting everyone contribute. Attentive co-workers help Tech Support to prevent some issues.UXDesign.cc calls it “Secret Sauce.”
3. How to Make It a Good Tech Support?
There are several things you should keep in mind when optimizing the Tech Support – from domain knowledge to communication strategies. Besides providing high-quality services, it is essential to create an atmosphere of trust so your co-workers won’t be afraid or ashamed to reach out for assistance.
Work on FAQ first. Some people can figure everything out with just a little help. They don’t want to bother you, and more importantly, usually, they just don’t what to look foolish. FAQ section prevents “fixing” something in an alternative way (read, “breaking”). If an issue gets more complicated, they’ll call you.
Keep calm and understanding. Yes, it is the 21st century. And yes, someone still needs an explanation about how to link a word in Word; why a page doesn’t look well in Internet Explorer; how using Paint is more comfortable than taking a picture of a screen, printing it, making edits, and sending another photo via mail.
Be open to communication. There are also peer employees who know everything, or at least they pretend to. These people will try to challenge their knowledge and decisions. Maintain a polite dialogue and provide relevant explanations. It is essential to be intentional and consistent in how you interact with users.
Be attentive to details if some issues are addressed more frequently, time to consider an alternative solution. If someone calls you too often, time to reconsider the workflow and maybe do some in-house training.
Specify questions. Ask, “Did you mean…?” questions. Make sure you have understood everything correctly. Think of what your granny, who has got a smartphone recently, asks you about? Someone from your office may use a beginner-tech language as well.
Share evidence. Send links and screenshots for explaining how to use a particular system or to fix a problem they currently face. It is always more effective than telling verbally only.
Inform about timing and procedures. If solving a problem takes more than a few minutes, let a user know how long they will have to wait, whether they need to file any requests, and what the alternative solutions are for now, if any.
4. Bottom Line
Sophisticated technical tools penetrate the lives of ordinary people and ordinary businesses. And still, many struggles with mastering those tools. These people might be great at optimizing finances, creating powerful brand strategies, managing internal communication, or anything else you find challenging and obscure. Tech Support is crucial to overall user experience because it allows the rest of the processes to run smoothly and without anyone noticing any severe issues.
