The overwhelming majority of organizations have come around to the realization that customer experience is a critical component of business success. It’s what differentiates brands from each other — particularly in highly competitive or commoditized sectors — and if delivered in a consistent and consistently positive way, it’s ultimately what builds customer loyalty and advocacy.
However, what a surprising percentage of organizations fail to realize is that tech support is an element of CX, rather than a standalone, reactive service. Unfortunately, when viewed in this manner, tech support can only ever be a cost of doing business, rather than a means of driving revenues and adding value.
Time to break with tradition
The traditional approach to tech support is focused primarily on containment and cost efficiency. Customers with an issue with a product or device start with self-service and then slowly work their way through different tiers of agent support depending on the complexity or novelty of the problem. So, tier 1 agents will handle common issues with a standardized resolution process. Tier 2 agents are on hand to resolve issues that might require some form of diagnosis or access to specialist tools, and tier 3 support exists to solve novel problems or as yet unidentified issues.
Over time, this approach will start to deliver cost efficiencies. When tier 3 problems are identified and a standardized fix is developed, they can be cascaded to tier 2 or tier 1 agents to handle in the future. Feedback and lessons learned are also used to improve the quality of self-service tools and potentially to expand the remit of tier 1 agents. All of which will result in a lower overall volume of live contacts and a larger percentage of issues that can be resolved without escalating between support tiers.
But efficiency and effectiveness are not the same thing. Because if this service operates in isolation from the wider organization, which is often the case, any customer or product insights that tech support agents may gain during customer interactions will remain trapped within that silo.
Access to insights
Suppose tech support is properly integrated into the wider customer experience strategy. In that case, all data and insights collected as issues are discovered and resolved can be operationalized and shared across the organization. And, when all customer-related insights can be combined, it leads to comprehensive improvements across the overall product or device ownership experience.
The data can be applied to improve advertising and marketing campaigns, to optimize content or documentation on websites or at a physical point of sale, and to adjust agent training and even feed into current product iteration and future product or device development.
Clearly, when data relating to a product or device issue can be shared, then fixes can be developed or, if an issue is upstream, those teams can be alerted, and corrective actions can be taken. But there are other benefits that can have an even bigger positive impact on brand perception, because when all these sources of data and insights can be integrated, it will help to drive a uniformly positive emotional experience for customers, irrespective of why they need to engage with your brand.
Providing emotional support
Alongside treating it as a standalone or siloed operation, there is also a tendency to view tech support as a different type of customer interaction where the issue takes precedence over the relationship. A tech issue can bring out a very particular level of frustration in a consumer; to really deliver in those situations, there has to be an emotional as well as a technical resolution.
And that requires agents who have the right blend of hard and soft skills so that they can fix a problem and strengthen the customer relationship during an interaction. And again, this is only possible with an integrated approach to CX where all customer-facing staff have access to the same levels of training and access to insights.
A growing customer need
From smart homes and telecoms to security, connected devices, and connected cars, not to mention the pivot taking place within the tech sector as organizations look to adopt as-a-service business models, the world is quickly becoming digital by default.
However, notwithstanding the early adopters and evangelists that can provide the initial proof that a product, device, or service might indeed have a market, a huge percentage of consumers — especially those with the greatest spending power — were born into an analogue world.
And without an approach to tech support that can deliver the same technical and emotional outcomes to all consumers, across all demographics and within their channel of choice, businesses are going to struggle to build and maintain their customer bases.
Your tech support roadmap
To help organizations understand how to transform their tech support so that it can keep pace with changing customer needs while helping to drive revenues rather than operational costs, we have created an ebook that conducts a comprehensive examination of current approaches to highlight their potential weaknesses and provides a detailed implementation roadmap to help organizations optimize their tech support services.
By engaging skilled resources, establishing baselines for performance metrics, and continuously innovating to improve the customer journey, companies can successfully transition toward a scalable and insight-driven support model where tech support becomes integrated into the path to purchase and serves as a catalyst for increased sales as well as greater insights.
With the right understanding and a best practice approach, organizations of all sizes can shift their perspective and transform their tech support from a cost of doing business into a genuine strategic advantage. As technology continues to dominate most aspects of daily personal and professional life, getting tech support right is the fastest route to enhanced customer experience and future business success.
To discover more and to start transforming your approach to tech support, read the ebook “Tech support transformed: How integrating insights enhances CX and boosts business.”