Scheme of the organization of the provider's technical support. Provider technical support
We often hear that they do not see the point in organizing a dedicated first line of support, which will receive money for receiving and distributing client requests among performers. They say that this problem can be solved automatically. Today we will talk about how this position is justified.
First line of support. How does it work without it?
Many service companies really work without the first line, replacing it with “handy tools”. At best, some kind of automation tools are used that allow for a basic classification or auto-assignment of requests for performers using ATS algorithms. But such companies are few. At worst, customers directly call those with whom they previously communicated when concluding a support contract or in the course of resolving the last incident, without understanding whether a new problem is within their competence.
This approach leads to serious negative consequences.
Firstly, it is quite easy to lose applications or details on them. Applications will enter the company through several different channels, through different employees who at the time of the request may be on sick leave, on a business trip or on vacation (clients do not worry about the schedule of their “contact”). There is no guarantee that an employee outside the office will not forget about the call, write everything down correctly and make sure that the problem is taken into work. What to do if you need to apply for a job Additional Information from a client? Where to keep all the details? Who should fix the application and how to transfer it if colleagues are involved in the decision?
Secondly, it is practically impossible to control the timing of responses to appeals and the resolution of applications. It is not clear who should be held responsible.
Thirdly, an uncontrolled flow of calls leads to an overload of key employees. Not only profile tasks fall on them in huge numbers, but also problems solved by a banal reboot (as an example of typical questions), and simply calls to the wrong address. As a result, an expensive employee most he spends his working time on tasks that an ordinary dispatcher can handle.
The allocation of the first line of support helps to take the situation under control.
First line of support. Functions and responsibilities
The main task of the first line is maintaining contact with the client. Those. first of all, it is a tool for implementing a more customer-oriented support strategy, which is especially important in a highly competitive market (customer service and its quality is a topic for a separate discussion).
The first line serves as a “single entry point” for client questions and requests. Without it, clients have to deal with “narrow” specialists on any issue. And, most likely, all participants are dissatisfied with this interaction. On the one hand, key employees are constantly busy. On the other hand, in a state of overload with simple tasks, they are unlikely to correctly respond to requests, which does not have the best effect on the client's perception of the level of service. In other words, a lot of time and money was spent on salaries of employees, but the result is so-so.
First line takes over the lion's share the burden associated with simple communication, optimizing costs.
First line accepts the client's application and classifies it.
The correctness of the classification of the appeal depends on the information provided by the client. But he himself does not know what is important and what is not. The task of the first line is to extract the necessary data, ask additional questions to clarify the classification. This reduces the likelihood of choosing the wrong performer.
First line specialists establish quality characteristics appeals: for example, they set priorities - this task is quite difficult to solve automatically, taking into account all incoming data.
Most simple problems first line can solve. Depending on the specifics of the industry and methods of dividing support into lines, the proportion of calls closed on the first line can reach 80%. And in the absence of the first line, not only the simplest problems, but also non-targeted appeals (from the category of “got in the wrong place”) are forced to solve qualified employees - the cost of solving such problems turns out to be quite high.
One of the most important tasks of the first line, - distribution of applications between performers. As noted above, the distribution can be automated, for example, to transfer the application to a specific group or region in accordance with the classification. But in this case, you also cannot do without the first line, because the correctness of the distribution depends entirely on the correct classification.
By the way, automation at this level does not always work. In small service companies, where everyone is responsible for everything, it is often more efficient to distribute tasks manually, taking into account the situation. Here the first line also plays key role, because it is she who, understanding the competencies of colleagues and their current workload (the number of tasks in the queue, location at the exit, etc.), can correctly distribute requests based on the idea of their speedy execution.
In large service companies, the distribution of applications runs into a different problem. If the support service is large and there is a division of performers according to functional characteristics or competencies (especially if interactions with a vendor or contractor are involved), performers often begin to forward tasks to each other marked “not mine”. In this context, the first line helps to stop the so-called “football” of applications, since only it understands to whom and where it can be escalated further.
The work of the first line does not end with the transfer of the application to other levels of support. It is she clarifies the information on the application, if such a need arose, and teases the client when he does not answer for a long time, dragging out the process with his own hands.
After closing the application to assess the quality of the support service, many service companies collect feedback from customers. Focusing on long-term relationships, they try to selectively call customers some time after the issue is closed to collect more detailed feedback. This task also falls on the first line employees.
In general, the first line covers a fairly wide range of tasks. Only some of them can be automated, while others, if you try to eliminate the first line, will fall on the shoulders of other support staff. In each individual case, of course, individual factors must be taken into account when assessing the appropriateness of such a reassignment of duties. However, in the general case, the use of more “narrow” specialists for solving “general” tasks is not financially profitable.
Okdesk is a convenient system for automating the solution of client requests. Multi-channel call registration
- advice and assistance to customers on technical issues around the clock
- processing of technical requests from e-mail
- registration of applications for specialists of technical departments
- quality control of work performance (for example, installers) - calling customers
- call transfer to your specialist (if necessary)
- processing requests on relevant topics on the company's forum in social networks
The organization of technical support services is our “horse”, as the specialists “ open line» have relevant specialized education and extensive experience in organizing such services.
The service is a service of incoming calls from subscribers with technical issues.
For your project, we will select operators with the necessary qualifications and with the appropriate education. They will greet subscribers on behalf of your company and will do everything to resolve the issue.
The company's specialists are trained and tested their knowledge and skills in the field of communications with different types subscribers, resolution technologies conflict situations, stress tolerance skills. From time to time, call center trainers together with the Quality Service will conduct attestation of project employees and qualifying exams.
In the case of "particularly difficult" subscribers, it is possible to transfer the call to the senior shift or supervisor, who will work out the appeal efficiently and professionally.
Our contact center will provide you with a personal project manager who will monitor the appropriate quality of call processing from clients and generate monthly reports on the activities of agents.
Our equipment allows you to measure the peaks and drops in loads - thanks to this data, the project manager will select the optimal schedule and the amount of work of operators on your project. This will increase the availability of dialing, reduce the waiting time on the line, increase the loyalty of your subscribers.
After analyzing your business processes, the project manager will offer you the optimal call distribution scheme. In some cases, it is effective to divide calls into 2 types: general questions, which will be worked out by cheaper specialists (first line), and narrow-profile technical questions, which will be the responsibility of Technical Support engineers. This leads to optimization of costs for processing subscribers' calls and improves the situation with dialing, as it unloads the line of highly qualified specialists from calls with simple questions (for example, “where is your office located”, “its working hours”, etc.).
The high qualification of our specialists will help reduce the number of applications for your service engineers, as we will be able to resolve the issue of the subscriber remotely, without calling a specialist to your home. Thus, you will not need to keep an additional number of engineers on staff, they will work with fewer applications and process them faster. Such a scheme of work will reduce your costs, increase subscribers' loyalty to you, keeping customers from the temptation to switch to competitors with the quality of the service provided, even during the period of launching special offers and promotions.
During periods of a significant increase in the flow of calls, we are ready to expand the number of operators on the line to increase the comfort of subscribers when dialing into the company.
The detailed reports generated by us on the activities of the Technical Support Service allow the Customer to increase the transparency of this process and own up-to-date data on the project.
All dialogues are recorded and archived, and in the event of a disputable situation, you will always have the opportunity to listen to the recording of the conversation to form your own objective assessment.
The advantages of using our resources compared to your specialists:
- optimization of costs for the customer service process while improving the quality of service (employee salaries, office space rental, maintenance of professional equipment)
- the possibility of withdrawing additional specialists in the event of an increase in subscriber requests
- Possibility to provide 24/7 service
- training, certification, going on vacation or illness of a specialist - the solution of all these issues lies in our area of responsibility
- Your specialists will be unloaded to solve specific profile issues
By using the service, you will receive
- reduce churn and increase customer loyalty
- statistics on incoming and received calls
- rhythms of customer requests by months, days, hours
- other types of reports upon your request
Based on the experience of dozens of Internet providers in Russia and the CIS, who were able to create effective customer support on their websites, we decided to analyze the tools that providers in Moscow and the Moscow Region use to service subscribers online.
Of course, the telephone remains the main channel for supporting subscribers of any provider - this is the only remote method of communication in the absence of the Internet. However, the popularity of online support and self-service channels is growing every year.
We have selected the 40 most popular (according to moskvaonline.ru ratings) Moscow providers providing home Internet services. Analysis and experiments were carried out from October to December 2014.
Overview of the use of tools on provider sites
More than 60% of consumers start looking for solutions to their problems on company websites and social media.
TNS study 2012
Traditional Email and Forms feedback are present in most operators, however, according to the statistics of our customers, their popularity is decreasing every year. They are giving way to self-service channels (FAQ and Knowledge Base) and social media support. In addition, providers have begun to introduce new, more effective ways communication with users - specialized support communities, robot consultants, etc.
The leaders in the number of channels for customer service were companies 2KOM, Beeline, GorKom and NETVBYNET, whose customers can use 9 different support tools.
We conducted experiments and tested the operation of the main online channels, identified typical mistakes services in them.
33 providers indicated on their websites Email for requests. We decided to conduct an experiment and evaluate the speed of the company's response to a potential subscriber's question asked by e-mail.
50% of consumers when contacting by email, they are not ready to wait for an answer for more than a day
Lightspeed Research
Experiment
Each provider was asked the following question:- Choosing a provider home internet. Tell me, how quickly will the connection happen if I leave a request today?
Reaction time
10 operators did not answer the question asked by e-mail after 24 hours! In fact, they lost a client.
Only 3 operators ( 2KOM, Beeline and GorKom) the function of automatic response to the user's message works, so that the client does not feel "abandoned".
Online chat
On the websites of 9 providers out of 40, online consultants are installed, which are designed to ensure communication between the visitor and the representative of the company. We conducted an experiment and checked how quickly and professionally operators answer user questions.
Experiment
We asked each provider via an online chat a not entirely trivial question:– I choose a provider for home Internet. For me, the issue of speed is important. What guarantees do you have that you will provide the speed declared at the rate?
Reaction time
Most operators (5 out of 9) responded to the question quickly enough, in 1-5 minutes.
Response quality
Only 1 operator gave a complete and professional response to an atypical request - Beeline.
The rest of the operators answered incorrectly or redirected to look for information on the site. Operator's response RealCom»:
– The speed will correspond to the tariffs, which you can find on the site.
Some operators turned out to be illiterate, which is unacceptable in communicating with customers. Conversation with the operator lifelink:
Conclusion
For most companies, an online consultant works as a FAQ section. Some providers should think about the advisability of using online chat on the site ( Mosnet and Global Telecom Stroy ignored the appeal, not answering the visitor for more than an hour and a half).FAQ and Knowledge Base
24 providers have a section on their website with answers to the most frequently asked questions of users, instructions for subscribers. Most telecom operators in Moscow do not have a full-fledged Knowledge Base (a structured section with search, analysis of the usefulness of articles) at all, or it is presented in the form of a small FAQ. Most often, operators do "Questions / Answers" using the standard functionality of the CMS on which the site works.
Insufficient content of the FAQ in most companies
Effective Knowledge Base found in only 4 providers
According to research by Western vendors, the effectiveness of the Knowledge Base is determined by 5 criteria:- Accessibility from any page of the site.
- Convenience of structure and information search.
- The content and clarity of the articles.
- Usefulness and its evaluation by customers.
- Relevance of articles.
Also, only 2 companies have implemented a robot consultant, which is a more effective alternative to the standard FAQ on the site. You can chat with the robot on the sites NetByNet and beeline.
Conclusion
The main reason for the low efficiency of the used customer support channels is that improving the quality of customer service for most providers is not a priority in competition. Online support tools are outdated and not optimized by companies.By properly building processes in different support channels and using specialized solutions, operators can significantly improve the quality of service, increase customer loyalty and reduce support costs.
