With more and more connected tech entering consumers’ homes, the potential for technical issues is, unfortunately, also on the rise. And for everyone who has ever dealt with tech devices that they can’t get to work correctly, they know how frustrating that situation can be. The question often is: Who to call first? Many consumers will turn to their Managed Service Provider (MSP) to try to their technical issues. But what they often don’t know is that the real problem is probably due to software, firmware, or hardware changes—things their MSP can’t help them with.
Unfortunately, this means the MSP often gets the blame (and the angry calls) for problems that they are neither responsible for nor prepared to solve, crippling their customer satisfaction score and, ultimately, hurting sales and decreasing revenue. How can an MSP (or, more simply, technology provider) help curb these tricky customer tech support situations? Here’s what MSPs need to improve their customer tech support:
#1 Premium Technical Support Package
For an MSP to offer customer support that goes beyond the usual technical problems, it is a big financial undertaking—and, likely, over budget for most MSPs. But by offering a premium professional support package as a part of a monthly service fee, MSPs can meet customers’ diverse tech needs without stripping their budget.
For example, MSPs can offer premium technical support as an independent product that consumers can purchase on top of their new tech device, or they can provide support as a part of a home-service protection plan. Both options empower MSPs to diagnose their customers’ tech problems, all while reducing overhead, increasing revenue, and improving customer satisfaction scores.
#2 Collaboration with Tech Vendors
To make the most of your tech support plan and to understand what consumers want, MSPs need to collaborate with their tech vendor experts effectively. For example, customers may not understand the nuances of support plans, i.e., what is and isn’t included in the plan or who they should contact for different kinds of issues. Similarly, your customer support team may also be feeling overwhelmed about the right advice and options to offer to customers. To clarify for both their consumers and customer support teams, it behoves MSPs to consider a bundled offer, like that provided by Support.com.
For example, one MSP working with Support.com decided to test a solution that could handle both of these issues by bundling an inside-wiring protection plan with a technical support subscription. This bundle made it clear to consumers what kind of support was included in the offering, increasing both adoption and satisfaction for the customer and, in turn, revenue for the MSP.
#3 The Right Tech Support Vendor
Most importantly, MSPs need to be confident that they’re collaborating with the right tech support vendor for them. A vendor needs to be able to understand the MSP’s products, technology, and customers. Moreover, they must demonstrate that they are willing to be the right partner in providing high-quality technical support, i.e., they must have a proven, expert team that can deliver in technical skill and knowledge.
Support.com has been offering this kind of superior technical support for over 20 years, delivering the expertise, tools, and software solutions to support all the devices in a consumer’s connected home. Notably, Support.com’ tech support solutions cover the entire lifecycle of the connected device, from setup to troubleshooting to connectivity and interoperability to help customers learn new features—they even help customers solve pre-sale questions, such as device compatibility.
By partnering with a tech support vendor like Support.com, MSPs can be confident that they are delivering customer tech support that will meet customer’s high expectations—without compromising their budget.
About Renée Soulliard:
Renée is responsible for Support.com’s go-to-market strategy, product marketing, and communications, as well as the management of the consumer software business.
Renée brings more than two decades of experience in product marketing, omnichannel marketing, brand development, and business operations. Renée is passionate about delighting and empowering customers and believes that unwavering customer-centricity is the key to marketing success.
About Support.com:
Support.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: SPRT) is a full-spectrum leader in an outsourced call center and direct-to-consumer technical support solutions. With more than 20 years of providing high-quality professional support services to consumers and small businesses through white-labelled partnerships or direct solutions, Support.com has the expertise, tools and software solutions to troubleshoot and maintain all the devices in the connected home. The company’s skilled U.S.-based live agents and rich self-support tools troubleshoot more than 10,000 technical support issues consumers face on an ongoing basis. Support.com delivers high quality, turnkey technical support solutions for digital support experiences that drive customers to get the most of the technology. For more information, please visit www.support.com.