People exchange sharp words
- said Loki, - but these words weigh nothing.
A person has a lot of them in his mouth.
"Empire V", V. Pelevin.
The first line of defense on the business battlefield is technical support service. The support is the first to meet adverts, the first to absorb the flow of indignation when failures occur, weeds out people who are not good for the business and, solving 90% of the problems of partners and clients, brings to management only a concentrate of the most important things that require their direct participation.
Who works in support services? What should support be like? How to be a good “supporter”? You will learn about this in this article.
The first half of the article is intended for those who want to organize a support service for their Internet business. The second is for those who want to find a job in support.
This article will not create your service for you. technical support. And it won’t provide you with work in support. But there is more than enough food for thought in it.
So make yourself comfortable and let’s get started.
It doesn’t matter what kind of project you are managing, be it a design studio or - your users (advertisers, clients) will most often communicate with the support service and, most likely, only with it. It is the support that determines what first impression your project will make and how it will be treated in the future. Therefore, this part of your business should be no weaker than all the others.
Many project managers don't bother creating a help desk and don't want to hire a dedicated person to do the job. Perhaps they are right. If the project does not involve large quantity participants and is well automated, then it probably doesn’t need a separate support service.
But this happens extremely rarely and, more often than not, the owner himself has to perform the functions of support. Do you have enough time and patience to do this job? Will this approach pay off in the future?
Most likely, attentive attitude towards partners, prompt resolution of their problems, competent communication with experienced advertisers, advice to beginners and time savings for the project manager will more than pay for the supporter’s modest rate. Do not underestimate the face of your project, even if these are just words in the ICQ client window.
Now let's talk about what qualities are needed in order to get a job as a user technical support employee.
With a stable salary, work in a strong team with famous people- these are the bonuses of working in the support service. True, a lot will also be required from you: attentiveness, pedantry, good knowledge of the professional field, patience and much more. I present the main points below:
Contrary to what many people think, working in a support service is not empty chatter on ICQ for those who don’t know anything else. The community’s opinion of the project depends on the quality of the work of this service, which ultimately affects whether advertisers will remain and continue to work with it. The number of clients and much more also greatly depends on technical support. Good customer support will not solve all the problems that arise along the thorny path of business. But it can reduce their number many times!
A high-quality technical support service consists of high-class specialists who are subject to serious demands. Their work is responsible and not at all easy. The demand for this specialty is not falling, and salaries are only growing. Become good professionals in your field, and many well-known teams will be glad to see you among their ranks.
What does it take to be an effective technical support specialist, make a career and still get satisfaction from your work? To a certain extent, it depends on your character, professional skills and attitude towards work. But how do you know if it's right for you? Here are some signs that you're not ready to work in tech support.
1. You don't respect technical support. Start with your attitude towards technical support specialists. When you call the customer service center or your Internet provider, do you respect the specialists or do you think that they are idiots who read the ready-made text? If you don't respect tech support, no matter how well they do their job, you shouldn't do it.
2. You view technical support work as temporary. Is working in technical support what you aspired to or just a step towards something better? Unfortunately, in many companies, technical support is seen as the bottom rung of the IT ladder, occupied by people with little experience who will move on at the first opportunity. Often, tech support candidates want to become a network or database administrator. And very few people strive to be technical support specialists. If tech support isn't an end in itself for you, but just a means to advance your career, you probably shouldn't join tech support.
3. You care about technology, not people. Ask yourself why you want to work in tech support. If only because you like to tinker with computers, technical support is not the best choice. In many companies, technicians spend most of their time dealing with users, who are the main problem. If you like helping people, looking for solutions to problems, have endless patience and certain technical skills, working in technical support will make you a happy person.
4. You are falling behind latest trends in the IT field. A technical support specialist must have an interest and aptitude for technology. If this is not the case, working in technical support is unlikely to be a good choice. A good specialist must keep up with modern technologies, but, unfortunately, not every company can provide the necessary time and funds for this work time. In order to remain competitive, you will have to spend part of your free time improving your knowledge and skills.
5. You don't care about the business you support. Technical support is needed in all areas of business - from hospitals to chemical plants. And while the core roles of technical specialists in different areas of business are not much different, truly good technicians understand the industry they support. You don't need to pass a law exam to provide tech support to a law firm, but a little effort and trying to understand the business will give you the information you need to prioritize tasks and provide proactive support. A specialist who knows the functionality of the users he supports is of great value to the business, since he can tell them how to more effectively use available technologies in their work.
6. You are not resistant to stress. Another important factor is your response to stress in the form of irritated employees, angry bosses or tight deadlines. If you are unable to remain calm and think clearly and logically, to find out why the presentation is not printing or how to restore it accidentally deleted file, which your boss needs, a career as a technical support specialist will cost you a lot of nerves. In such circumstances, you must show the user that you understand the need to resolve their problem as quickly as possible, show your respect and professionalism, and not panic.
7. You expect recognition and gratitude. Technical support specialists often go unnoticed until something happens. Ironically, if you constantly care about users, you are less likely to be noticed than if you only show up in emergency situations to save the world. If you're lucky, you may encounter users who appreciate that they've never had to call you, or even a boss or colleague who thanks you for doing a great job, but these are the exceptions to the rule. If you need the approval and gratitude of others to be satisfied with your job, tech support is not for you.
8. You lack self-control. Working with users requires a lot of patience and self-control. Some users make the same mistakes over and over again and expect you to fix them. Others require long hours individual training so that they can perform at least basic tasks on the computer. Meeting the needs of these users requires patience, self-control, and empathy. One tech support guy had an excellent reputation among users because he was willing to give up his lunch break to teach or help solve any problem. After work, he would go to the gym, take a racket and hit tennis balls against the wall. Each ball had a user's face and name on it. Not being a very patient person by nature, he took out his anger on tennis balls rather than on the users.
9. You feel insecure when faced with a problem. Solving computer problems requires a systematic, logical technique, and when logic fails, sudden insights. While there is no one “correct” technique for determining the cause of problems, the ability to think clearly and reason logically are necessary qualities for a technical support specialist. If you don't have a natural inclination for methodical problem solving, to become good specialist it will take you a lot of time to develop complex methods solutions to problems that can be adapted to any situation.
10. You are shy or unsociable. If you are not a social person or have good communication skills but prefer to hide behind a keyboard all day, being a tech support specialist will not bring happiness to you or your users. In most companies, the helpdesk is the face of the IT department. Sometimes technical support specialists are the only IT department employees with whom users interact. This means that the ability to communicate effectively with all types of users, regardless of their technical abilities or job titles, is of utmost importance.
Almost all network users have at least once encountered problems that arise when working with a website, service, program, or anything else that can be interacted with on the Internet. The support service is always there to help. The main task of workers in this area is to help resolve certain issues that arise for users.
The Internet profession of a support agent is very popular today and usually does not require special knowledge, as in working as a video editor. Web project administrators and managers spend good money supporting their clients, which creates job vacancies. Such activities can be performed in different ways depending on the functionality and requirements. You can work in online and offline modes. It roughly looks like this: you sit on VKontakte and wait for someone to write to you. And clients who want to clarify some point in the work or ask a certain question will write. You may also have to answer questions using a special Web interface or by e-mail, maybe in skype/whatsapp/telegram. It is highly likely that there will be multiple tools to perform support functions. Many employers give Additional tasks, like administering groups in in social networks and filling the site with content, and may receive calls and applications. This happens if there are few calls to the support service or in order to avoid hiring additional staff. All this is discussed in advance, and you will obviously not be left “in the air” from the additional work.
The only downside I see is a sedentary lifestyle, but, again, it all depends on you. You can even answer the questions asked on a treadmill.
First of all, I recommend that you write a correct resume and determine the direction of your activity. What basic knowledge do you have? This could be car business, photography, fashion, technology, work with programs and code, cooking, construction, law, medicine and much more. When your resume is detailed for each area in which you want to prove yourself, then feel free to submit advertisements to notice boards and business forums, also go through the sections “Required” And “Vacancies”, maybe someone is already looking for you! If there is no response in the next week, then we begin to monitor various proposals. Go to the websites of large companies where you want to work. Go down to the footer of the site and see the links “Work with us”, “Vacancies”, “We are required”. Go to these sections and get information about the work. Usually there is a special contact form or contact information. Feel free to write to the administration, tell everything about yourself as it is, agree on wages and start earning money.
Any technical support service is created in order to provide its customers with assistance in servicing and solving any technical problems problems arising from a client of an Internet resource.
The technical support specialist must provide competent, understandable to the user consultation. And not only. He must also provide the client with information: where and how to find this or that link or document.
To provide such quality assistance, a technical support specialist must thoroughly know this Internet resource and the subject on which he is providing advice. This is the only way to gain trust.
The requirements are quite serious, so these are always highly qualified specialists. Client trust, especially in conditions of fierce competition, is very important.
For example, technical support for the site. Or technical customer support . Their importance also cannot be underestimated. Any website is a business card of the company as a whole, its face on the Internet. And clients need to be retained. They must be confident that they will receive an intelligent answer to any question they have.
And that is not all. Sometimes the responsibilities of a technical support employee include adding news, graphic images, articles and other content.
Everything is more complicated here. You also need to be a good negotiator.
Any client who contacts technical support calls in order to solve their problem, but people are different: some are openly “nasty”, some are clearly “stupid”, some speak quickly, so much so that nothing can be understood it is forbidden.
In these conditions, the task of a technical support specialist is not just to solve the client’s problem, but to explain to the person so that he can cope with his situation and be satisfied with how well he was talked to.
This is no longer just a technical support technician who is well versed in the issue. This is also a psychologist (to some extent) and a negotiator who absolutely needs to adapt to the client’s temperament and mood, and this is difficult.
In any case, you need to “join” the client, understand his problem, listen, and have a sincere desire to help him. And without knowledge of the product that the company sells, knowledge of its features and subtleties, it is impossible to perform such work with clients.
Whatever the client's problem - big or small, the technical support specialist must recognize its importance and concentrate on the solution.
First, he must follow the five commandments:
Secondly, a technical support specialist must have certain personal qualities.
Supporting its customers is an important process for a company, which greatly influences the attitude of customers and their number.
The client can contact a technical support specialist for help by email, or by calling, or through the website. This is the first contact with the client’s problem, and therefore the company’s. As a rule, the first contact is very emotional, not always positive. And the entire stream of indignation and misunderstanding goes to the support staff.
That's why With In addition to pedantry and knowledge of the professional field, a technical support specialist must have patience and emotional stability.
And in order for the work to be relatively calm and effective, you must adhere to certain rules:
By the way, in Western countries customer support (Customer Success) has become almost a cult. In Russia, the situation is also rapidly improving, because businesses have recognized the importance of the customer support process.
The salary of young technical support specialists with at least 1 year of experience varies depending on the location of the employer. In Moscow, a technical support employee earns from 25 to 35 thousand rubles a month, in St. Petersburg it is 5 thousand less, in the regions the average salary is 18 thousand rubles.
If you are a remote technical support employee, then your salary will be from 18 to 25 thousand rubles per month.