| The End of Tech Support? I Don’t Think So!
by Bill Rose, SSPA Founder and Executive Director
On my way through the airport on my latest trip, I went to the newsstand to select a couple of magazines to read on the flight. I saw a magazine with the cover headline: “The Death of Tech Support.” As you might imagine, I was shocked because tech support is what we do and though tech support is definitely changing, it’s far from dying. (See my June 8, 2004 and July 20, 2004 Perspective articles in particular.) As a matter of fact, in most industries, the need is increasing.
The magazine is titled, “Smart Computing.” I bought the magazine, the August 2004 issue, and read it on my flight. After reading the six articles in the section, what bothered me most is that I didn’t find any real evidence to justify the headline. What I did see was a superficial look at the tech support industry.
In the “Support Showdown” article, to grade the tech support of various companies, the author says “Both of our test calls to…” Is making just two calls a fair evaluation of a company that may take thousands or millions of calls each month? I don’t think so. I’m not a statistician but I’d bet that a couple of calls isn’t a representative or significant sample – certainly not enough to fairly grade the companies evaluated including HP, Dell, Gateway, and others.
It seemed to me that it was the same tired approach: “bad tech support makes good copy.” No one seems to want to write articles about those companies, like our STAR Award winners, that consistently provide 97% customer satisfaction, or a company that’s invested thousands or millions in a CRM or KM system and has successfully delivered self-service to customers, or any number of other innovative and successful initiatives. They don’t write about the positive changes in the way tech support is delivered today. Maybe the positive stories aren’t good copy but it’s real-world information – and in a lot of cases, it’s been validated by third-party performance benchmarks. |
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The companies that provide excellent support should be highlighted because excellent support has become a market differentiator and those companies are more likely to continue to be successful and in business to support customers in the future.
To be fair to Smart Computing, the author of the cover story, “Tech Support, Going, Going, Gone?” did try to “Put It In Perspective” with the article section beginning with, “It's not clear to me that tech support is declining," says Dr. Richard Feinberg, director of the Center for Customer Driven Quality at Purdue University. "If you take the dissatisfaction experience as a percentage of all contact an individual has with a company, I believe the level of dissatisfaction is going down." The author of another story also said that in the tech support world, “we found that a company’s poor support one day could morph into exceptional support the next.” Do those statements support the Death of Tech Support? I don’t think so.
As an advocate of the tech support profession and industry, I’ll be the first to say that not every company delivers great support. I’ll also be the first to say that most companies are trying very hard, and spending a lot of money, to deliver better support than they ever have.
You can read parts of the articles on the Smart Computing web site. The six articles in the series are: Tech Suport: Going, Going, Gone?, Down & Out & Offshore, Support Showdown, Get Better Support, Your Best Bet, and Help Yourself.
It bothers me, and I hope it bothers you, to see headlines and articles like this. If it does bother you, I encourage you to email Ron Kobler, the Editor-in-Chief of Smart Computing, ron-kobler@smartcomputing.com. Please cc: me, bill.rose@thesspa.com, because together I think we can make a difference and change the way tech support is portrayed. We have the entire SSPA membership that is doing everything it can to improve its level of service and making phenomenal strides. Should we let the media get away with writing articles like this? I don’t think so!
Sincerely,
Bill Rose
SSPA Founder/Executive Director
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San
Diego, CA 92127
Tel: 858-674-5491
Fax: 858-674-6794
