I want to take a moment to explain the terminology difference between Customer Support and Technical Support. Customer Support or Customer Service as a function is a first level communication between customers and a business. In most cases this connection is via the telephone. A consumer calls customer support to check account balances, add/delete services, or report an issue. In the last twenty years, we have seen many customer support functions replaced by computers. An excellent example is when you call your local pharmacy for a prescription refill. A computer answers the phone, asks what you want, when you want it, and creates the work order for the pharmacy staff. Banks use computer driven automated attendants to provide balances and even let you pay bills. Customer Support has been commoditized so that costs per call can be driven down. Call Centers have been outsourced to companies that have hundreds of agents available to handle consumer calls, volume optimization. Cost reductions can be realized when these Call Centers are setup in low wage countries like India. When a consumer is contacting support because of an issue or problem, Customer Support will attempt to resolve the issue. If the problem cannot be solved at this first level, the issue must be escalated.
The second level is considered to be the transition from Customer Support and Technical Support. A considerable amount of product specific knowledge exists at this level. The educational requirements of the agents is higher starting at this level. The reasons why are quite simple. Customer issues reaching this level must be solved quickly. Customer satisfaction and future customer purchases are at risk. In this blog, I will be describing the roles and functions that Technical Support performs in an organization. Some of the functions are absolutely critical to the success of the business and are not immediately obvious. I will discuss how to leverage Technical Support abilities to increase service revenue. I will discuss how to leverage Technical Support to help manage customer relationships and increase sales revenue.
