The success of a business relies on its customers and their level of satisfaction with the products and services they receive. If you want to forge a long relationship with your customers, you need to have strong tech support that will accommodate their concerns efficiently.
Building a tech support team is more than simply having someone answer customer issues. In tech support, each of their concern should fit into a suitable support level.
With this, companies like you should learn the different tech support levels and how you can handle customer concerns through them.
What is tech support?
Technical support or tech support refers to services provided by a company in handling technical concerns. It is usually provided for hardware and software products such as smartphones, laptops, and online tools.
Tech support can be given to either customers or internal teams that need them. Instead of providing training, it seeks to give basic and complex troubleshooting on any issue a customer encounters.
3 levels of handling tech support concerns
Your customers cannot always find answers through self-help or instructional materials. Depending on their complexity, you would need an additional layer of response for their issues to maintain their satisfaction.
At the same time, having tiered tech support helps you organize your issues accordingly. A single employee cannot just answer all concerns at all times.
You can place young employees to answer the lightest concerns, while the experts and tenured ones will handle the most complicated questions.
You can handle your tech support on three levels.
Level 1
The first level of tech support deals more with basic customers’ concerns and questions. Mostly handled by new teams, the first tier comprises individuals with the least amount of expertise in service.
They are the ones handling basic troubleshooting such as usage assistance and device or account reset.
Level 2
The second level of tech support, meanwhile, deals with more complex issues that cannot be handled by level-one teams. Level-two teams must have an extensive history with the company and in-depth training on the products and troubleshooting.
Once the issue is escalated to level two, technicians will review the ticket from level-one support and see what steps the customers have taken. They will then ask for an elaborate detail on the concerns and suggest a new set of solutions to try.
Level 3
If the concern is not resolved in level two, it will then be escalated to level-three support.
Concerns that are not solved with basic and in-depth troubleshooting usually have problems in manufacturing or programming. With this, experts such as engineers and programmers would work to fix the main problem in a device or software.
Some of the most common solutions in level three include bug fixing and parts replacement.
What about issues handled beyond level 3?
In some cases, two additional levels apply in the tech support services of a company. These are:
- Level 0. This deals more with self-help in operating and troubleshooting. Level zero includes consulting a manual of instructions in the packaging or the web.
- Level 4. Level-four concerns are external support for problems not covered by the business. This is most common with vendors that handle products and software provided by another vendor.
Challenges in handling tech support
Especially for tech companies, the demand for tech support usually spikes depending on the product you have. Once you realize it, your team and resources won’t be able to keep up easily.
Poor handling of tech support could cost you your customers. They are more likely to leave if you don’t make your support services quick and efficient. This is why you should immediately fix the following tech support challenges once they come your way.
A rapid change in technology
Rapid changes are not just applied to your products. Tech support services also undergo changes in the tools used for their customers. Your staff should continuously upskill and learn the latest trends in support services to keep up.
Multiple requests to handle
Tech support is costly, especially when handling large volumes of calls and tickets. Without proper processes, your team would find it difficult to answer all concerns ahead. This could result in quickly flooded queues and longer resolve times, which could affect your performance.
Recurring issues
Instances could occur when your customers would encounter recurring issues left unresolved. Without proper recordkeeping and data analysis, your team would miss out on repeating issues easily until more customers experience them.
Repetitive work
Lastly, repetitive work could wear out your employees easily without proper task organization and tools. Take password reset, which takes up 20% to 50% of tech support calls. This is why you should automate some of your workloads.
How outsourcing makes handling customer concerns better
Outsourcing tech support is still the best way to handle your support services today. With the right manpower, resources, tools, and expertise to build a support team, you are likely see a growth in your revenue and customer experience. What more if you expand them?
At least when you delegate your services to a team offshore, you can guarantee a better experience for your buyers as well as the following benefits.
- Best set of experts. One of the costliest aspects of tech support is hiring experts such as engineers and technicians. Through outsourcing, you can hire the best set of experts in a cost-efficient way.
- Access to the latest tools. Outsourcing partners provide all-in-one solutions that include the tools and devices your team will use. This gives you access to the latest technology in tech support possible.
- Flexibility and scalability. Not only that, outsourcing helps you become more flexible in managing your team. You can scale up or down depending on the volume of calls you need to attend to in a certain period.
