Technical support via an internal service desk or outsource provider ensures that if your users experience a hitch; their IT issues are resolved in a timely manner.
But one factor that’s often overlooked is how technical support is important for user adoption as well. When new technology solutions are deployed – such as moving workloads to the cloud – most organisations initiate a user adoption programme which typically focuses on training. While this is invaluable for users when they’re first introduced to new ways of working, on-going technical support will help maximise your investment in technology and boost user adoption long term.
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Tech support is more than resolving IT problems
Usually we think of IT support as where you go when you’re locked out of your account, need to reset a password or can’t get connected to your cloud apps. Problems.
However, it also covers desktop support such as helping users get more from their apps and tools. This year we’ve seen an increase in tickets for this kind of support request, for example “how do I show my screen during a Teams meeting” or “how can I share a file in SharePoint with someone outside my organisation?”
These types of questions and support tickets are not really ‘IT issues’ but more about getting answers that help users be more productive. With many people working from home their normal channels for getting support are not always available – such as asking the tech-savvy colleague that sits opposite them in the office. Which is why we’re now seeing more of these queries being raised as a support ticket.
It’s important that you do provide users with support for queries of this nature – even if they could find the answers on Google – as the time they spend trying to find an answer for themselves impacts on their productivity and user experience. They may also end up finding a work-around that could potentially breach your security policies. For example, downloading data onto their home computer, rather than accessing it securely in your organisation’s IT environment.
Technical support tickets are getting more technical
‘How to’ type questions are normally resolved by 1st line service desk analysts (and many can also be answered through self-service options like knowledge banks.) However, as users have become increasingly more technologically sophisticated, support calls are also becoming more complex.
With users able to resolve simple issues for themselves – thank you Google – many more complex tech support queries can’t be handled by 1st line analysts so need to be escalated to 2nd.
This requires staff with in-depth knowledge of the technology your users have access to, or technical knowledge of your products for customer-facing technical support, and the ability to communicate instructions clearly to users working remotely.
For this reason it’s important to implement all levels of support 1st, 2nd and 3rd, as well as offering 0 line support in the form of self-service solutions. It will keep your users happy, increase user adoption of modern workplace technology or technology products, and have a positive impact on profitability. With the right technical support your employees will be able to get back to work more quickly, they’ll get the benefits of your workplace technology and you’ll get a better return on investment from your IT estate. And with support tickets handled by service desk analysts instead of IT Managers and CTOs, you’ll also save money and free up their time to focus on their core competencies.
As well as different support levels, there are different options to deliver technical support. You don’t have to outsource everything or keep it all in-house. We have customers who outsource 1st line to us, and we escalate 2nd line tickets back to their IT team. We also have customers who outsource all their technical support, customers who outsource 2nd and 3rd to us and handle 1st internally, and customers who also take advantage of out-of-hours support services while handling business hours themselves. This flexibility means you can get the right coverage at the right times.
Make sure your users know how to contact technical support!
A final piece of advice. To successfully align technical support with user adoption you need to make it easy for users to contact your service desk team. If they don’t know how to raise a ticket because you’ve not publicised your support channels effectively, they’ll waste time trying to work things out for themselves or find unwelcome work-arounds.
If you would like to discuss technical support with one of our Operational Leads, please get in touch. Or for a high level quote, use our cost calculator below.
