A certain tech company that I rely on for my phone lines was recently in the area where my business is located updating their fiber lines. In the process, they happened to cut the lines that provide my office with our phone system and backup Internet.
Three days later, it happened again.
Both times when I called into support, I got a lesson in frustration showing how tech support never gets any better. (It’s like the old skit comedian Lily Tomlin did where she portrayed “Ernestine the Operator” for a large phone company She would often say in a nasally voice, “We’re the phone company, we don’t have to care.” That’s what this felt like.)
Over the course of several hours, I dialed several toll-free numbers in search of the department I needed. I dialed, explained the issue, was told the number I called wasn’t the right one, and had to start all over. I finally got the right department, and I could see the company had tried several fixes (such as attempting to reboot the router) without success. They then sent out a technician who discovered one of their own service teams had damaged the cable.
Telemetry that tells a company there is a problem is clearly a good thing. But too often, it also leaves the customer in the dark. Until I finally got to the right person, I had no idea the vendor already knew something was wrong with my phone system.
Let’s face it: many of us would like to have an extremely knowledgeable person come to our businesses with every tool available, the ability to diagnose any tech issue, and knowledge about what to do. The reality is that it takes time, experience, and communication skills even the best tech support personnel don’t always have. (Even tech manuals can’t keep up with changes; too often, they now offer a QR code or a link to an online manual for updated information.)
A lot of vendors now seem to think chatbots are the answer. While they might work for generic questions, they’re rarely detailed enough to handle issues correctly. And the growing use of artificial intelligence means even more vendors are likely to increase their use of chatbots for the basics of tech support.
But tech support can often be used as a feedback channel where a vendor can find out about (and fix) bugs or even make enhancements to a product — assuming they can cull through the often useless remarks they get. A good feedback item will detail the problem, highlight the customer impact and ideally include a screen shot or recording of the bug so the person handling the report can quickly understand the issue and find the right person or process to get things working again.
Many times, I’ve lamented that I’m unsure who or what feedback is being gathered and from whom. Software vendors will often announce upcoming changes and say they used a certain venue to gather the data underlying their decision — only to backtrack once they get pushback online from social media. Case in…
2023-07-08 01:48:04
Original from www.computerworld.com rnrn