Investment in your technical support staff is the one thing that most manufacturers not only overlook, but skimp on when it comes time to hire. You can’t. The quality of your staff—and their attitude—is the single most important thing that you have in your arsenal. If you have 2 or 20 on staff, it doesn’t matter—how they interact with the customer is what counts.
A word of advice for manufacturers.
I don’t care who you have running your company, you’ve got to be VERY careful in your choice of technical support manager. Computer manufacturer support is vastly different from any other kind of technical support group because of the sheer technicality of the product and the knowledge level of your customer.
* You have to have someone in the position that truly understands the product—which means you should have someone who has done technical support in the field in addition to management experience.
* Hiring a person with no technical experience produces a department with no brakes—the manager won’t know what to approve and what to shoot down, and won’t be able to pacify the difficult customers because he/she won’t be able to make a convincing argument about why a tech did something.
*Customers can smell incompetence and horses**t from miles away, and the last thing you need is a reputation for either.
Being a good manager means being a good tech, a teacher, a psychiatrist, and a sociologist all rolled into one. You’ve got to know your business, but also be able to accurately identify the strengths and weaknesses of your team and figure out how to capitalize on them. Before you can win the trust of your customers, you have to win the trust of your employees.
Avoid firing people as a first solution.
If you have huge turnover, your level of technical support will suffer and will never be on par—you’ll be constantly training replacements, and your phone support and quality of hardware repair will show it. Test potential employees, not just on phone manner, but on technical knowledge and methodology. There are fundamental skills a technician should have for the industry, and in this particular segment of the field, they must not only be able to troubleshoot and solve issues, but be able to convey instructions to customers of any skill level in a manner the customer can understand. If the tech comes off as condecending, or lacks the ability to drop instructions down to the customer's level, you'll have a real problem.
The easiest way to ensure that you retain employees is to invest in them.
I’m not just talking about money, though that’s part of it. I’m talking about knowing your people and what makes them happiest. You should know the names of their spouses and children, know what concerns them, celebrate their birthdays yearly, and reward great performance by hosting events and giving bonuses.
Why, you ask, would I care about John’s kids or Mary’s root canal? Simple answer. Morale.
If there’s one thing that you, as a manager, have absolute control over, it’s your technical support team’s morale. As someone who supervises people, you’ll need to understand this one pivotal truth that exists in every field that deals directly with the public: If your employees hate where they work and hate who they work for, that will carry straight over to the customer experience. The second part of that truth is that dealing with angry people sucks, and you’ll need heavy artillery to counter the strain of dealing with unhappy customers’ problems day in and day out.
You should never be their best friend, but you should definitely be in the role as mentor. Make an effort to know your staff and what concerns them. Have an open door policy and never be too busy to discuss departmental concerns. Listen to your team’s ideas and not only implement the good ones, but let them have ownership when it comes time to put the idea into effect. If you have someone who shows leadership repeatedly, promote them. Most of all, give them something, as team, that will help them blow off steam—whether it’s free pizza at lunch, a Friday night out on the department’s dime, or a cookout. One of the best ideas to improve support I ever received from an employee was revealed over sushi and beer.
Remember, you and your employees are on the same side, and there may be times that you'll have to advocate within the company for them. Having a boss who cares for them—even if the rest of the company doesn’t—will make your technical support team fiercely loyal and dedicated to making the department succeed. In turn, your customers will have the sense that the person on the other end of the line loves the company and is happy with their job—and they’ll be right!
Monday, October 8, 2007
Introduction.
Technical support, and why it works for some and not for others.
Consider this scenario: Company A and Company B are offering the exact same computer. Company A’s system is $50 less, but the customer knows their reputation for support is just awful. Company B costs $50 more, and the customer’s brother just bought one and says the support is amazing—the best he’s had with any company. Which system would YOU buy?
Let's be honest. The technical support department for any computer manufacturer bleeds money from the company, is a source of a great deal of negative press, and can literally destroy the reputation of any company if it's not handled very well. Think of any of the huge manufacturers and what's the first positive thing that comes to mind? I bet it's not their customer service or their support. Why do these companies fail when others do very well?
It's very simple. You can draw parallels between the size of the company and the quality of the support, if you like, but it’s truly incidental. The companies that have the worst support tend to be the ones most geared towards selling large quantities of retail systems to the largest possible market, and that’s where most of the money goes. You want someone to buy the product, so you dump your money into marketing, placement, presentation, and advertising. New sales are the fastest way to build your business, after all.
Computer manufacturers often fail to recognize the importance of what happens after the initial sale. They don't care so much what happens after you purchase the system because, after all, support ALWAYS loses money for the company no matter how much you charge for an extended warranty. Those companies don’t think outside the box.
That's stupid, guys. If you have to spend money on support costs, why not take full advantage of the opportunities presented by the interaction? Customer service should always extend past the purchase and into the after-sales experience. Technical support is the most "technical" side of customer service, but it's actually more important than even the "sales" side. It's easy enough to make a sale, but a hell of a lot harder to keep that customer coming back for your product year after year.
Instead of looking at the after-sales experience as a chance to garner word-of-mouth or to build a tradition of reliability, large manufacturers dismiss it as a necessary evil to the industry. They outsource it to reduce the impact on the profit and loss statement. Small manufacturers recognize the fact that they need that word of mouth, but aren’t sure where to draw the line between doing too much for the customer and doing too little.
When your company’s product breaks, it creates an opportunity instead of an obstacle. It’s an opportunity to open a dialogue, create a relationship, and prove that your customer can trust you. The customer is angry, rightfully so, and it's your job to make him love you enough to come back next time and buy again.
Turning a bad situation around is hard, but it is possible to do it and not only conserve money for the department, but make money. You’ve got to start with the fundamentals and work your way up, and that’s what this series of articles will address.
Keep in mind that the series is geared towards small to mid-sized companies that will probably not have a tiered support frame or multiple locations, but do everything in-house. Tiered support falls into an entire different set of rules, and is more on the level of corporate level support.
Consider this scenario: Company A and Company B are offering the exact same computer. Company A’s system is $50 less, but the customer knows their reputation for support is just awful. Company B costs $50 more, and the customer’s brother just bought one and says the support is amazing—the best he’s had with any company. Which system would YOU buy?
Let's be honest. The technical support department for any computer manufacturer bleeds money from the company, is a source of a great deal of negative press, and can literally destroy the reputation of any company if it's not handled very well. Think of any of the huge manufacturers and what's the first positive thing that comes to mind? I bet it's not their customer service or their support. Why do these companies fail when others do very well?
It's very simple. You can draw parallels between the size of the company and the quality of the support, if you like, but it’s truly incidental. The companies that have the worst support tend to be the ones most geared towards selling large quantities of retail systems to the largest possible market, and that’s where most of the money goes. You want someone to buy the product, so you dump your money into marketing, placement, presentation, and advertising. New sales are the fastest way to build your business, after all.
Computer manufacturers often fail to recognize the importance of what happens after the initial sale. They don't care so much what happens after you purchase the system because, after all, support ALWAYS loses money for the company no matter how much you charge for an extended warranty. Those companies don’t think outside the box.
That's stupid, guys. If you have to spend money on support costs, why not take full advantage of the opportunities presented by the interaction? Customer service should always extend past the purchase and into the after-sales experience. Technical support is the most "technical" side of customer service, but it's actually more important than even the "sales" side. It's easy enough to make a sale, but a hell of a lot harder to keep that customer coming back for your product year after year.
Instead of looking at the after-sales experience as a chance to garner word-of-mouth or to build a tradition of reliability, large manufacturers dismiss it as a necessary evil to the industry. They outsource it to reduce the impact on the profit and loss statement. Small manufacturers recognize the fact that they need that word of mouth, but aren’t sure where to draw the line between doing too much for the customer and doing too little.
When your company’s product breaks, it creates an opportunity instead of an obstacle. It’s an opportunity to open a dialogue, create a relationship, and prove that your customer can trust you. The customer is angry, rightfully so, and it's your job to make him love you enough to come back next time and buy again.
Turning a bad situation around is hard, but it is possible to do it and not only conserve money for the department, but make money. You’ve got to start with the fundamentals and work your way up, and that’s what this series of articles will address.
Keep in mind that the series is geared towards small to mid-sized companies that will probably not have a tiered support frame or multiple locations, but do everything in-house. Tiered support falls into an entire different set of rules, and is more on the level of corporate level support.
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