SB

The problem I see with phone support ( at least where I work ), is that people use it as a crutch when they don’t know what they’re doing. Just recieved their radio, and don’t know how to set it up? Call tech support. Something went wrong, and you haven’t done any basic troubleshooting? Call tech support.

I can understand the new guy in a company getting confused every now and then and needing pointers. But often the calls are coming from the head network techs, or whoever is in charge of the entire WISP network, which is just plain scary.

Okay, rant time over. I’m just glad I’m leaving phone support behind. The email stuff wasn’t too bad, at least people mostly listened to your suggestions when it’s spelled out plainly.

FAQ
E-mail
Phone (maybe)

There are troubles with all of these. (There are a lot of bored and disinterested folk who land up running this stuff.) FAQ’s are often given no serious thought…

I personally really object when a company I deal with encourages and even forces phone support. This can cost all customers a big pot of money. Servicing people who don’t do their homework and don’t even try. A company that forces at least “e-mail first” tends to get a thumbs up. They are saving me money.

We have a support ticket system that does three things : allows the issue to be clearly presented, allows the issue to be answered in priority, and most importantly allows tracking of time spent and resolution for accountability.

The general level of customer service / support quality in the US and Australia has dropped significantly in the last 10 years and it is starting to get to a lot of consumers.

Now when a support person responds the response is posted to that support portal that the user can see (user is also sent email).

This provides nice auditable conversations that are easily transferred to another employee. This specific case is where web-based support shines. Whether it’s the user who needs to delegate to one of his underlyings part way through resolution, or whether it’s the vendor who is escalating the case. Being able to pick up a case part way through and read the entire history is critical. NO! The support person’s hand-typed notes do NOT provide the same value… first, they are never detailed enough and second, they don’t include what the client actually said (just an approximation).

Obviously, this is primarily appropriate for techies who hate sitting on hold, hate voicemail even more, and are very comfortable working asynchronously. I’m not suggesting that AOL try this ;)