The Future of Tech Support

snydeq writes "InfoWorld's Christina Tynan-Wood reports on 7 emerging technologies and strategies that could make tech support less of a living hell for those in need of a fix. Augmented reality, self-healing systems, robot surrogates, avatar support — most seem the stuff of science fiction, but many are much closer than we might expect. 'As products become more and more interconnected, support itself will break off from the current model and become a product of its own,' Tynan-Wood writes. 'The same model has already happened in corporate IT, where technicians must orchestrate knowledge and skills across a variety of technology products. Even as the techniques and technologies used by corporate IT will change in the coming years, the shift in consumer tech support to an integrated approach will pose new opportunities for today's techs.'"

Re:Synopsis

[Anonymous Coward]

(Posting anon since I'm not sure if my NDA expired yet.)

I did desktop tech support for HP for two years (admittedly a while ago), and you know the number of times I used any "self-healing" software? Zero. I'm pretty sure most of them had it installed, but they never actually trained us on it.

Besides, the only thing I've actually seen it do in the real world is cause error messages and suck resources.

Also, they started pushing us to sell things during support calls a few months before I moved on. I think I chose just about the right time.

Here are the real reasons that tech support systems fail:

1. Outsourcing. Now, right now I do web development as a freelancer, and it makes me (and my clients) a fair bit of money. But when you outsource such a huge function of a company (effectively, their entire customer face), the system needs to be so big that it can't possibly be effective. It was next to impossible for us to ever actually contact HP, beyond ordering parts. Case managers probably had more contact, but it's hard to say.
2. AHT. Most tech support outsourcers get paid by the call, so there's always a profit-driven motive to make calls as quick as possible. AHT (average handle time, or average call length) is the single most important metric in 99% of all call center outsourcers. If you don't make that metric, you get fired (unless you're really, really good at solving issues and have supervisors who don't necessarily support the whole AHT scheme, like mine). This inevitably leads to agents developing tricks to get you off the phone as quickly as possible if things aren't being fixed soon enough (at our HP outsourcer, there were a few things we could do: System Restore, QuickRestore, checkdisk... if it took more than three minutes, they could call back.)
3. Skill level. First level support techs are hired off the street. Call centers have such incredibly high turnover that they can't afford to only hire skilled workers, so they throw everyone who can save a file into a two week training class, and then let them loose on the floor with a script. The client companies would love to believe that 95% of issues are the same, but it's just not the case, especially for desktop support. To be effective, you need to know what you're doing, and 9/10 agents don't. Hell, 5/10 of those agents couldn't go beyond the script given to the by the company.

If you fixed those three issues, you'd probably see a marked increase in customer satisfaction. Unfortunately, few companies are actually interested, since there's no immediate profit to be made.

(As I mentioned before, this was a while ago; HP may be different now. I have no idea.)

Easier way to replace parts - is it that hard now?

[Issity]

"In the future, machines will be made up of four -- or five or six -- modules. So if something breaks, you will get a CRU [customer-replaceable unit] sent to you," predicts Brendan Keegan, president of Worldwide TechServices, a provider of outsourced service technicians to major high-tech companies. Replacing a CRU will be about as hard as playing with Legos, he says: "If your RAM goes bad, the company might send you Module No. 6 to replace the RAM and a couple of other things. You pop the old one out and pop the new one in. And you are done."

MB, CPU, RAM, PSU, Hard Drive(s) and Graphic card - six modules, user replaceable. You've got broken RAM - we can send you a new one, which you can replace yourself without any soldering.

For less advanced - bigger units - Central Unit, Display Unit, Alphanumeric Input Unit, Pointing Device Unit. Sometimes Printing & Scanning Unit. Just connect/disconnect cables.

We already have it for years.

Re:Synopsis

[Anonymous Coward]

I can also confirm about PC makers and AHT. At one call center, if you had a call that lasted more than 10 minutes, the display with your name on it went red and the MOD came over and stood over your shoulder demanding you end the call or else you will never get moved to be a true employee, get a raise, or be first when the firings happen. In this business, the *second* you thought it was an issue with something else, you said, "sorry, can't help you, connecting [1] you to someone who can", and dumped the person off. If you didn't do this.

The people who got promoted were not the tech savvy people. They were the ones who were able to hang up on the caller and grab the next guy on the ACD the fastest.

These days, the call centers are now in India where you don't just deal with clueless people, but people who hate you and don't speak your language.

With the craptastic service from PC makers, is it a wonder why people are paying the "Apple Tax" more and more? Geniuses may be snobbish, but at least they speak the native language and are able to do more than just say "put the stuff in a package, ship it to this address, and wait 6 to 8 weeks for it to be fixed."

[1]: You couldn't say "transfer" (had to say "connect") or "problem" (had to say "issue"), or even "appear on the screen" because some people were superstitious.