A recent stream of Reddit comments emerged detailing a series of poor customer service experiences with tech support. While I typically try to stay clear of Reddit and its gang of chronic whiny-pants commenters, I scrolled through a few, you know, for research purposes since I’m in the industry. A few of the complaints sounded so outlandish – like the lady who claimed the technician took a bathroom break in her attic – that it almost seemed impossible they could be true. However, other more common issues on the thread I’ve experienced myself, and to be candid with you, they sucked!
When you are experiencing a tech emergency – be it a broken printer, hardware malfunctions, Internet connectivity issues, login troubles or something similar – poor tech support only worsens the irritation. It leaves you with frustrated employees who can’t efficiently get their jobs done because they’re troubleshooting their tech and on hold with an IT company that is “looking into it” and irritated customers who just want a smooth process when dealing with your organization.
This can result in losing customers and A-player employees to your competitors that don’t have these same daily issues. At first, it might seem dramatic that a few unresolved “tech issues” could cause such a stir, but as these problems continue to repeat themselves, with no solution in sight, resentment grows and will eventually result in these people seeking organizations that don’t have to deal with such headaches.
What can you do to get ahead of the problem? Start by polling your employees. Ask them questions that will help you “grade” your current IT company to see if they’re dealing with your team as fast and efficiently as they should. Here are a few questions to ask:
- Do you experience any recurring technical problems that haven’t been fully resolved? If so, what are they?
- How would you rate the response time of the IT support team when you encounter a technical issue?
- Have you found the IT support team to be knowledgeable and helpful in resolving your issues?
- Do you feel that the IT company communicates effectively and keeps you informed about the status of your requests?
- How would you describe your overall satisfaction with the support provided by our IT company?
- Diagnose any computer network problem you are experiencing.
- Check your network’s security against hacker attacks and viruses.
- Scan and review for spyware.
- Check your network backup system to make sure it is working properly.
- Diagnose slow, unstable PCs.
- Have us conduct our proprietary 57-point IT Systems Security and Performance Assessment.
- Discuss a project or upgrade you are considering, or even get a second opinion on a quote you received.