You might think
that “tech support” involves some lowly and dismal tasks. People in this
department have to deal with irate, screaming voices. They’re sometimes aware of how a problem can be resolved,
but cannot do so because they don’t have the required authority.
Tech support
jobs are for the poor slobs without alternative job prospects, true? If you think so, you’ve got your tech support concepts upside
down. You're overlooking
important channels for sales, marketing, and product development.
Your company’s unexpected face
Most of us have been
jarred by a person’s voice not matching his picture at some time. A similar
thing can happen when rosy things depicted on your company website do not hold
true. You keep your home page as your company’s public face. But do things stay
in tandem when you actually start speaking?
Tech support is possibly the single human
interaction most customers will have with you. Can you leave this task
to the least paid, least-qualified and worst-treated employees?
Tech support generates sales
One tends to think
the reason for having a tech support team is to answer questions and sort out
confused people. But we feel that the objective
of tech support is making customers do a fantastic job which involves
your product.
This implies that
you don't simply help them find a menu command–you try to figure out what
they’re trying to achieve and assist them with it. You don't simply apologize
for a missing feature – you suggest a workaround.
When you enable your customers, you’re not simply adding value to your
product – you’re enhancing your entire company’s image. If you help your
customer become awesome, he’ll pay you to stay awesome always. Now doesn’t that increase sales?
Good tech support - a pleasant surprise
Most people have
negative things to say about tech support. When you want to know how fonts are
changed, they ask you to restart the computer. If you want your billing address
changed, you’re presented with three products you could buy. And other things
like navigating complex menu options, waiting long periods and typing the same
serial number multiple times.
A pizza supplier
can earn bonus points if he delivers an unexpected free box of garlic bread
with your pizza. Similarly, when tech support surprises a customer pleasantly
with something additional which benefits him
(not you) he’s going to be happy. He might post great tweets about your
service, start following you on social platforms and encourage friends and followers
to do so too.
Oh gosh! It looks
like tech support has better social media outreach than your regular program of
hiring interns to post gracious comments on blogs randomly. Does this surprise
you?
It has been said
that the best way to reach a customer’s heart is to under-promise and over-deliver.
Most people don’t expect much from tech support anyway! Agreed super-fabulous
tech support is great, but even merely acting like a human being puts you
ahead. Answering an email with a support executive’s name at the end works
better than sending an automated response.
Why give up such easy opportunities to make customers happy? Pleasant surprises are quite rare in business and
if your company gets a reputation of giving them often, don’t you stand to
gain?
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