For many businesses, the IT department is their life and blood, processing the data smoothly throughout the system. The IT department holds an important place in any company. And timely and efficient tech support becomes more important than ever whenever your staff deal with any tech problem.
To provide good IT support to your in-house team, here are some tips to keep in mind.
Introduce a Ticket System:
Many large companies that deliver tech support to their clients use a ticket system to track their tasks and the progress on those tasks. Even it if is used for in-house employees, a simple ticket system can be a great help so that tech doesn’t lose track of the important tasks. A ticket system should have the ability to auto-respond with a ticket number, and a “notes” field, s that can let technician’s record important information about the progress of the job.
However, not all companies afford to have a full-blown ticket system. In this scenario, you can set up a dedicated email address for support issues and questions which can be equipped with an auto-responder for new emails.
Spend Less Time on Emails:
Focus on the right queries in one email or message. But many technicians are likely to lose hour’s just creating emails or sending messages back and forth.
For instance, if they get an email saying “I am not able to open a certain program,” they may send a quick reply with “What device you have?” On knowing that the user has a laptop, the IT guy asks about the OS in the next email. This way, it goes on all day long.
Instead, a technician should take the time to make sure that they cover all the required information in one email, the provide one reply. It will eliminate the need of sending endless back-and-forth conversations.
Provide FAQs or Troubleshooting Tips:
There should be a common page or FAQs dedicated to troubleshooting the common problems. Most people face the same problems as other users. By providing an FAQ page for everyone, or a solution page, the IT department can reduce the repetitive emails or messages they have to address.
Create a Forum:
For larger organizations with a huge user base, it might make sense to create a forum where people can report their problems or issues. This lets employees respond to each other by offering solutions.
Respond In-Person:
While this seems a no-brainer, many IT departments have a team to deal with the queries. This not only leads to irritation, but it can also make the users feel that the department is not interested in resolving their issues.
If the IT support team address each request personally and include their names, this will sound like the request is handled with accountability and responsibility.
Ensure a Time Frame:
Provide a time frame so that people know when an issue will be resolved. This might sound like common sense, but few people actually have the time to send a message to the person looking for support once the problem is resolved.
Ask for Feedback:
Any organization or company wants to know how they are performing and what kind of improvement needs to be done. After resolving issues, make sure to ask for feedback from the employee.
Avoid Using Technical Language:
Try to use layman’s terms as much as possible. Sure, it might not feasible all the time, but it is far better than confusing your customer with technical language. A confused customer can easily turn into an irritated customer which turns lead to a poor customer experience. Even customers with sound tech knowledge can get lost if you use many jargons. Just keep the things simple. Using jargon might seem impressive, but doesn’t necessarily show a genuine understanding of the situation.