6 tips to improve IT support

Share this article

Contents

Share this article

Contents

Computers play such an omnipresent role in our lives; it is easy to forget there is a whole profession dedicated to keeping everything running behind the scenes. Suddenly, when we have a technical issue, we remember there is someone available to help us. Great IT support can make all the difference for customers experiencing an issue with your product or service. If you take customer service seriously, you need to understand the importance of IT support in ensuring a good customer experience. This article will go over six tips to help you improve IT support and turn frustrated customers into satisfied ones. 

1. Tip 1

1.1. Train your employees for customer satisfaction

Customer satisfaction should be the number one goal of your contact center. Half of the consumers surveyed by Zendesk said that just one bad experience would drive them to a competitor, and 80% will defect after multiple bad experiences. This reality underscores the need to invest in extensive training for your employees. Your training should focus on service recovery, which is the strategy of turning a customer service failure into a successful interaction. The service recovery paradox is that customers are often more satisfied after an issue is resolved than if there had been no issue in the first place.

Teach your agents to communicate with empathy and receive customer feedback and criticism while remaining professional and detached. Update your training materials to reflect recent trends in customer service, such as finding new creative ways to increase your online sales. Make sure your agents are regularly re-trained so that they remain up-to-date on the latest procedures. 

2. Tip 2

2.1. Implement a centralized knowledge base

Technical issues can be complicated even for experts. Knowledgeable employees are a critical resource for any company, but all too often, their knowledge leaves with them. Implementing knowledge management will distribute know-how more evenly throughout your team of support agents to prevent this from happening. By organizing these resources into centralized knowledge bases, your agents can access the latest information in real time. This enables your support teams to refresh their familiarity with specific protocols and rarely-used procedures. They can also flag new issues into the database as necessary. A knowledge base saves precious time for both your employees and your customers. ViiBE’s knowledge management tool can easily find past customer interactions to use for training purposes.  

3. Tip 3

3.1. Forward feedback to the source

Every time your IT service desk encounters an issue, it is an opportunity to improve customer support. If you think of your IT service like the mechanic, the software engineers are the car factory. If there is a defect in the product that is regularly causing problems, you need to forward this information to the source to be updated. This way, you can resolve the issue once and for all, without having to encounter it over and over again! If your company makes a product instead of a service, this analogy is still relevant. You should forward feedback to the R&D department so that the factory can implement changes as soon as possible. ViiBE’s ticketing solution uses tags to organize different calls under one related issue. This will help you keep track of recurring problems in real-time. 

shutterstock 1332843935 min

4. Tip 4

4.1. Increase the lines of communication

These days, customer support has moved beyond mere call centers to omnichannel contact centers. In addition to phone lines, contact centers add options like live chat and video chat. You can vastly improve your customer experience by adding omnichannel communications to your IT support hotline. Video chat empowers your team members to better communicate with customers and better understand their emotions and needs. It puts a human face on your company and allows your agent’s empathy to shine through. There has never been a better time to implement this technology. It is becoming more accessible and effortless than ever before.

5. Tip 5

5.1. Invest in new technology

New technologies like co-browsing services and solutions like ViiBE are easy to implement and require no installation. Co-browsing allows your support agents to follow along with a customer as they browse your website. This permits your agent to give personalized advice to the customer and to understand the context of the customer’s questions or complaints.

ViiBE’s virtual call center solution can be used as a standalone or be integrated into your existing call center software, and it is adaptable to your company’s use case. For IT support, ViiBE’s video chat function allows the agent to circle important components on screen and can even integrate with RealWear’s Augmented Reality hardware. ViiBE’s expertise call routing puts customers in touch with the right expert from the start, which will speed up your resolution times across the board. ViiBE’s win-win approach saves both the customer and your company time and money from day one.  

6. Tip 6

6.1. Follow-up on customer satisfaction

Identify customers who have contacted your IT support after experiencing an issue with your service or product. Consider using a ticketing solution that organizes customer interactions under one ticket per customer. This makes it easier for you to identify the customers whose problems were unresolved after the first call. Follow up with customers who experienced issues to gauge their long-term satisfaction. If they agree to receive a survey, send them questions geared to give you a detailed look at their satisfaction. Allow the customers to write their thoughts and store this information in a knowledge base for future reference. Examine this data and determine if the customer continued to do business with your company. Interview the support agent who spoke on the phone with the customer. Draw lessons from this analysis and integrate them into your processes and training. 

7. Now you’re ready to improve IT support

Many products and services today require IT support to resolve customer issues. By skillfully developing a customer-focused IT support service based on these tips, you can be ready for the customer’s needs ahead of time. Proper customer service management requires flagging issues to prevent them from occurring in the future. While it may seem like a complex task, new tools like ViiBE make it easier than ever to provide excellent customer service. Now that you understand the importance of good customer service, it is time to implement these tips to create a fantastic IT support service!

Subscribe to our newsletter

Get updates and learn from industry experts

illustration viibe cursors1

Subscribe to our newsletter

Subscribe

Join our newsletter to keep up to date with the latest news in the visual support industry.