Introduction
It refers to the services an organisation, an individual or a company offers to users of technology products or services. It doesn’t deal with provision of services like training neither the customization of products nor the other IT support services. These services are however not free but are subjected to additional cost on the products or a fee is charged. Technical support can be done through various platforms like e-mail, live support software on a website and on phone.
Different technologies are used to convey technical support depending on the situation at hand. Direct questions can be conveyed by phone, e-mails online chat and fax whereas more complicated hardware problems would require to be dealt with in person.
Categories of technical support
- Call in
It is common in the service industries. It is also known as time and materials technical support. The customer normally pays for the material provided and also pays the technician at the pre-negotiated rates.
- Block hours
Block hours usually offer a client to purchase a number of hours in advance. While is normally used to offer a reduced hourly rate, it can also be a standard non-reduced rate, or represent a minimum fee charged to a client before providing the service.
- Managed services.
In this kind of support, a company receives a list of well-defined services on with well-defined responses for a fixed rate or a flat rate. It involves something like 24/7 monitoring of the computer servers and 24/7 help desk and support services.
- Crowd sourced technical support.
Companies create a platform where users of the products are brought together onto a single platform to interact and helping each other pertaining to certain issues and problems. This helps a company to cut costs at the same time ensuring that customers are attended to.
- Self-help
This kind of self-help include demonstration provided by companies and organisation in the form of videos prompting the user to follow certain procedures to solve their issue.
- Outsourcing technical support
In this kind of support, companies offer other organisations or individuals the task of technical support. A company can locate their support team in different countries with lower costs.
- Multi-tiered technical support
Technical support is often sub-divided into layers or tiers in order for an organisation to offer the best services. This ensures that the organisation provides the best services to their customers in regard to their issue at hand. Below are details of the tiers;
- Tier 0
Customers resolve information on their own as opposed to contacting the service desk. It’s in the form of wikis and frequently asked questions.
- Tier 1
It’s the initial support level dealing with basic customer issues. A tier 1 specialist gathers information from a client in order to figure out the underlying problem. Normally this layer deals with basic technical issues.
- Tier 2
Technicians are more experienced and knowledgeable than those in tier 1 with specialization in a particular product or service hence higher costs. This layer takes issues from tier 1 which have proved beyond their ability to trouble shoot.
- Tier 3
They are the highest level of support in a three-tiered technical support model dealing with advanced problems. It involves research and development of solutions to new problems.
Remote computer repair
This is a method to trouble shoot software related problems through remote desktop connections. The technician’s access user’s desktop via the internet. They can perform various diagnostics tasks with the user’s permission.
Conclusion
IT support is necessary for everyone who utilizes IT services. This is because everyone encounters a difficulty when working with technology. Finding the right personnel to channel your issues and problems is of much importance to ensure that you get instant assistance.
