Product-based companies such as those businesses that are offering some kind of technical software should have technical support services. Why? Because there can be several technical issues that customers can face after they have purchased your product or let’s say the product stopped working? Customers reached out to you for support and what if you in return lack the technical expertise or a team who does to solve the problem? It is going to leave a very bad impression on customers and worst-case scenario – you may lose them. Therefore, to avoid such mishaps, it’s always a good idea to hire a technical support staff to deliver instant responses.

While we do have knowledge bases, FAQ sections on our websites, and even sometimes online forums but they only help figure out the issues to minor problems, and also sometimes users may have different random concerns that you may have never even imagined and therefore missed covering it in your knowledge base. At times like these, the technical support staff is the only best option. Just like the finance or the marketing team, your technical support team should be as important. Because they directly connect customers to your business.

What are technical support services?

Technical support service is crucial to your business because it helps you retain your customers all by providing much-needed technical support. In simpler words, technical support services refer to a team of technical support staff that provides customers or companies with assistance regarding specific issues with a product or service they offer – concerning their software applications or accounts. Technical support engineers are responsible for overseeing and maintaining the company’s hardware and software infrastructures – and diagnosing and troubleshooting technical problems.

Tips for providing a better technical support service

Outsource tech support for value addition

If you are offering a technical product, chances are that you have your own team of technical engineers. But if you don’t, it is always better to outsource. Outsourcing comes with its personal execs and cons. But believe me, the professionals outweigh the cons. First of all, outsourcing is a very cost-efficient solution. Why? Because they offer already trained, seasoned engineers to solve queries. Whereas on the other hand, if you want to hire a team in-house, it comes with additional costs such as dedicated office space for your technical team, stationary, systems, hiring costs, training costs, and miscellaneous expenses. Now by outsourcing, you can not only reduce your costs but also shift your focus to more important business operations that are overlooked due to budget shortage.

So, if you have finally decided to outsource, make sure to choose the right company. Make your list, shortlist companies based on experience and work portfolio. After you have shortlisted the suitable companies that align with your business goals, contact them one by one, interview them and make sure that you both are on the same page. Take the information about their team, see their individual qualifications – understand their business engagement models. Once you have decided on the company you want to outsource, sign a non-disclosure agreement to maintain the confidentiality of your data. Outsourcing is not only an efficient option, but it also helps you create a competitive edge in the market with timely responses to customer queries.

Understand that tech support is as important as any other operation

Businesses should know the importance of technical support services. The notion is super flawed. Because tech support can make or break your business. People tend to get frustrated when their queries are not properly answered or when your support staff is taking its good time with finding the right answer.

Every time your sales department secures a new customer, its responsibility is to make sure that the customers have installed the software and in order to make the entire process frictionless tech support can come in quite handy. They can seamlessly handle all the incoming customer tickets but also you can use the tech team to upsell and cross-sell features to your customers. Such as if customers are finding it hard to send their newsletter to 2k people, your tech support can always assist them by suggesting upgrading to a premium package. Cool right?

Maintain the hierarchy

Maintaining the hierarchy is important because you simply cannot take all your concerns or queries directly to the CEO or the CTO unless it’s very very important. So, as your business grows, making sure that your customer gets quick and efficient feedback and services becomes very challenging. Therefore, have a structure, have a team, define a hierarchy, and most importantly implement the 5 basic levels of tech support. Such as easy queries should be handled by junior tech support staff, medium level queries or difficult queries should be handled by senior staff and the ones that even senior staff cannot answer, then you should reach the highest possible level for some guidance. This proper structure not only keeps the workflow smooth and streamlined but also makes your customers happy with quick responses.

Make tech staff easily accessible

This is one of the most important things to do – because if your customers cannot reach your technical support services then what’s even the point of having one. Integrating chat widgets within our platform is one way to make support more accessible. Customers must also be able to contact them via website and email. Therefore, you need to place your contact details strategically on your website and within your platform. Also, it’s always a good idea to integrate a chatbot that can at least answer the most basic questions through FAQs and knowledge bases.