Why Global Technical Support is Important

We live in a globalized world even without stepping out of our homes. We search via Google, shop from Amazon, order a cab from Uber, and all of this we do on our smartphones. These global companies serve customers all over the world, and no matter where the customer is located, the same level and type of service is demanded. From how their websites and apps operate to their technical assistance, once accustomed to a certain look and feel, customers expect consistency and adherence to the best international standards of service. The internet has made information easily accessible, so customers can compare across cities, countries, and regions, the best provider of a particular service or product, with a few clicks.

Globalization has an impact on technical support as well. Superior technical support can greatly enhance customer experience, resulting in customer loyalty and retention. The global technical support strategy is what is needed to cater to the varied needs of customers all over the world. Global technical support involves providing assistance to customers with respect to technical issues they face related to organization’s product or service irrespective of their location. A key characteristic of global technical support is availability of 24/7 support, through a variety of platforms. Global technical support involves organizations employing a combination of the most skilled resources, cost-efficient processes, and effective technology from all over the world, to provide exceptional technical support to their customers. The kind that is on par with the needs of a connected and digital world.

Technology, IoT, and rapid digitization has made our world smaller, better connected, and smarter. Technical support is no longer restricted to just call centers where disgruntled customers call to get their problems fixed. The technical support organization of today is expected to focus on overall customer experience. Measuring the past is no longer of prime importance, instead organizations are looking to spot trends, predict behavior, anticipate changes in customer needs and preferences, and be pre-emptive. Customer-centered metrics are taken into account to measure success. Additionally, as mentioned in the ‘State of Support Services: 2017’ by Technology Services Industry Association (TSIA), “Some support organizations are being asked to take on lead generation activities, create new incentive plans, create and deliver profitable and differentiated service offerings, deliver effortless customer experience, and predict and personalize the support journey.” These demands on support teams further reiterate the need for a global technical support strategy, as only with a broad outlook that takes into account business at a global level where organizations can succeed.

Support organizations are undergoing transformational change, on account of changing customer behavior, and the increasing complexity of technical support interactions. Multiple devices used for home and business are connected to multiple networks that create complicated systems. For a tech support executive with a limited knowledge base, and lack of insight on what works and what doesn’t, a problem in any one device or network becomes hard to detect and resolve quickly. Embracing Automation, Artificial Intelligence, and Analytics will aid support executives in providing effective solutions swiftly.

Further, customers today, being astute, channel agnostic, demanding, and impatient prefer to be serviced over a channel that they find comfortable, ranging from phone, web, chat, social media, mobile, to self-help resources. They want consistent yet customized service. They want to be viewed as more than just transactions. There is a need to move away from silos, and embrace an engaging customer support strategy that takes into account multiple platforms, and offers proactive and personalized service. Customers want to expend less time and effort in solving their technical issues, and organizations that realize that and accordingly provide solutions will emerge successful. This includes auto-resolution of issues, self-help knowledge base for common problems, and constant monitoring and prediction to prevent incidents even before they arise.

According to a Forbes, a survey reported that “57% of consumers expect the same response time at night and on weekends as during normal business hours[RB1] .” Having a global technical support strategy would allow organizations to provide 24/7 service. To provide ‘anytime, anywhere’ support several organizations have implemented the ‘Follow-the-sun’ model with respect to global technical support, as opposed to having multiple teams on different shifts in one location. This model is characterized by teams in different time zones, wherein the technical support grievances are passed on from one team at the end of its day, to the team in another time zone that is beginning its day. Thus, ensuring responsiveness and reducing delays.

The ‘Follow-the-sun’ model is also a way to provide global technical support that maintains human interaction. Despite the benefits provided by technology, many people still prefer to speak to a real person. According to a study by Accenture, over 80% of those surveyed said that, “they would rather solve a problem with a person than interact over digital channels.”

Global technical support is now a necessity. TSIA recommends in its ‘State of Support Services: 2017’ report that “support organizations focus on support services transformation in the four distinct areas: Customer Experience Strategy, Customer Engagement Strategy, Support Modernization Strategy, and Technology Adoption Strategy.” Only by optimally harnessing methodologies, processes, human capital, and technology that are scattered all over the globe, can support organizations adequately transform themselves to be a driver of business.

CSS Corp has robust support solutions to cater to an organization’s global technical support needs. Our offerings include technical support for customers and enterprises, as well a range of Premium Technical Support services. Our global technical support solutions are designed with customer experience at the core. Take our Cognitive Customer Experience Platform for instance, our AI-based virtual assistant platform that provides personalized and context driven solutions, and integrates with multiple customer channels like voice, email, chat, and website, across multiple devices. Automation, predictive intelligence, machine and deep learning, Natural Language Processing (NLP) converge to give you a smart, humanized, and customer-centric engagement platform.

Our other flagship solutions include Contelli, which provides Automation for Network Management, Active Insights that covers Predictive Maintenance and Operations Analytics, Active Edge, which deals with Omni-channel Experience Management, and GADET, which is our Mobile Support Solution.

We’ve devised the iTack Framework to ensure success of our clients. This framework outlines the vital pillars of our global technical solutions - i.e. – Intelligent, Technology Competency, Automation and Analytics, Customer Advocacy, and Knowledge Management.

Through our global technical support solutions, we aim to help organizations enhance customer experience, build revenue-streams, improve operational efficiency, and create specialization.

References

• http://www.gartner.com/it-glossary/global-delivery-model/
• ‘State of Support Services: 2017’ by TSIA
• https://www.tsia.com/
• https://www.tsia.com/webinars/Conquering_the_Next_Frontier_for_Tech_Support_in_2015_Nov_06
• https://www.forbes.com/sites/blakemorgan/2016/04/18/the-evolution-of-customer-service/#aa5c8f224428
• https://relate.zendesk.com/education/follow-sun-provide-great-global-support/
• https://www.cio.com/article/3051031/consumer-electronics/consumers-are-fed-up-with-human-less-customer-service.html