the well equipped support center: on- demand remote support

8/9/2019 The Well Equipped Support Center: On- Demand Remote Support

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By Mikael BlaisdellPresident, Mikael Blaisdell & Associates

The Well-Equipped Support Center:

On-Demand Remote SupportTechnologySoftware-as-a-Service Powers a Vital ResourceFor Any Support Center



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Executive Summary

One of the greatest barriers to success in customer/technical support hasalways been the difficulty in talking users through the diagnostic andresolution phases of a case. The key aspect was the necessarydependence on language; the requirement for accurate communicationand understanding at both ends of the conversation despite the distances.Given the extreme differences in technological training and experiencelevels that can exist among reps and users, and the resulting need for translations between technical jargon and every day speech, it is nowonder that such calls often last a very long time and cause high levels of frustration for all involved. What’s worse, time is money for the applicationvendor’s support center or a company’s internal IT help desk. Theequation is simple: longer conversations mean more staff is required tohandle the load.

The effects of this problem on the people involved are typically bothpowerful and long-lasting at both ends of the conversation. The customer experience is unsatisfactory; not only is there a loss of confidence in thecapabilities of the support rep and team, but also a reduced level of trustin the reliability of the application itself. Tales of poor support and of inability to communicate with the support center or help desk arecommonly heard throughout the user communities, and do damage to thebrands they mention. For the company, the frustration levels of the

support team members inevitably lead to costly turnover. The constantneed to recruit and train new reps further lowers the overall effectivenessof the department.

The development of the Software-as-a-Service technology has enabledcompanies such as NTRglobal to develop powerful On-Demand supporttechnologies to quickly bypass the barriers to communication betweencustomer and support rep. From a different floor of the same building,across the street – even from a different city, state or country, thecustomer can give permission for a support rep to reach out over thedistance and safely through the firewalls to see and work directly with theuser’s computer as if they were standing beside the desk. What oncetook many frustrating minutes to describe is now crystal clear to both user and rep, enabling much faster diagnosis and resolution of difficulties.The result is sharply increased customer satisfaction and significantlylower costs for support, quickly recouping the initial investment andgenerating a significant ongoing return.

The Well-EquippedSupport Center Series

The Well-Equipped SupportCenter series is publishedby The HotLine Magazinefor the customer supportand IT help deskcommunities to assistsupport professionals andsenior management teamsto keep current on the rangeof available resources andbest practices for optimizingtheir customer supportcontact center and IT helpdesk resources.

This paper, first in theseries, is sponsored byNTRglobal, manufacturer of NTRsupport ™ and

NTRadmin ™ technologiesfor support professionalsworldwide.



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A Common Scenario

Every customer support or IT help desk team faces the same challenge.Some types of support calls inherently involve the necessity for checkingseveral different aspects of the user’s software suite of applications andoperating system files. For example, when there is a problem in printing afile – is the difficulty in the printer configuration at the operating systemlevel, or is the miscommunication to be found in the word processing or other application program? The user typically will not know, and so thesupport rep, like an air traffic controller guiding a pilot flying oninstruments through thick fog, must talk them through the various checksand changes that will be required.

Rep: Open up your System Preferences, and click on Print & Fax.Caller: Where do I find the System Preferences?Rep: Look in the upper left corner of your screen; click on it – do you seeit now?

Step by step, “Now do this, and tell me what the screen says,” the repinstructs the user as to what commands to execute, and then must rely onthe user to describe what appears on the screen. Any misunderstandingsrequire more back-and-forth conversation, and more frustration at bothends of the phone line. (If the communication is being done over aninternet chat session, the delays and frustrations can be significantlyhigher.)

For many years, throughout the industry, this scenario has been all toocommon to virtually all support centers, both internal help desks andexternal customer support contact centers alike. When both caller andsupport rep were evenly matched in technical knowledge and spoke thesame language with the same accents, there were still significant delays

just from the necessity to talk through all of the steps and results of thediagnostic and resolution phases of the call. Add in accents andsubstantial differences in technical knowledge between the parties, andthe time factor goes way up while the chances for successful resolution godown. The clock is ticking, and the costs keep growing.

For more and more support reps, however, the addition of an on-demandremote support technology to the rep’s toolkit is making a dramaticdifference. Now the rep can take direct control over the user’s computer over the Internet while the user watches. Instead of asking the user toopen windows and click on options, the reps can do it themselves whileexplaining both what they are doing and why. The result is increasedcustomer satisfaction, faster and more reliable resolutions, and significantreduction in support center operating costs.



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A Resource Whose Time Has Come

Remote Support Technologies, RST’s, have been available in one form or another for a number of years. Before the Internet, several differentproducts allowed a rep to access a system remotely through dial-upphone lines. However, since few users or reps had multiple phone lines,the communication between the user and the rep was shut off while theoperation was underway. The requirement for both user and rep to havea full copy of the same application on both systems was another barrier toadoption. Corporate firewalls and restrictions on telephone modemstended to significantly restrict usage of the early products. Operatingsystem incompatibilities were another huge issue; it was rare to find aproduct that had versions for more than one platform, so cross-platformremote support was often not available.

The Internet, and the advent of the Software-as-a-Service model hasenabled the transformation of the RST sector. Now the necessarysoftware for a remote session can be downloaded just-in-time, ensuringthat the latest revision of the application is always being used.

With a modern SaaS-based RST, the common scenario described abovelooks very different. Gone is the need to laboriously talk the user througheach step. Now, the support rep e-mails the user a link for immediatedownloading of the session software to their local computer. The user then initiates the session, giving permission for the rep to access their computer over the Internet while the user supervises what is being donethroughout the interaction.

Once the session is open, the rep can explain what each step means as itis being done, and call the user’s attention to specific areas or results fromuse of diagnostic utilities. If additional files are needed, the rep candownload and install them directly and securely through the applicationitself. Once the problem has been resolved, the session software isautomatically removed, closing the access. What used to take manyminutes and much confusion to accomplish can now be done in far lesstime, leaving greater levels of satisfaction at both ends of the line.



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Dollars and Sense

For any support group, time is money. The longer the interactions take,the more staff is needed in order to respond. If call-backs have to bedone, not only is more time being taken but the volume of calls isnecessarily increased.

The Resource Equation applies to every support center. In order to givefaster service to the customers, there are only four significant variables towork with:

1. Service Level (speed of response),2. Volume of cases or calls

3. Average Handle Time (AHT) – how long those interactions last4. Staffing level.

As the see-saw diagram illustrates, pushing the bar down for a faster service level usually means investing in more staff members. However,the better way to increase the speed of response is to lower the volume of incoming calls/cases and/or to reduce the average handle time. For an IThelp desk, simply enabling the rep to address issues without needing totake the extra time to physically go to the user’s desk brings an enormousboost to the real staffing level.



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Here is where it can be seen how investing in an On-Demand RSTapplication can pay for itself. By reducing the average handle time,

significantly cutting down the time for interactions by removing the needfor the rep to talk the user through each step, the team frees up time inwhich to take more calls with the same number of reps. The financialcase can easily be made to justify the expenditure. However, there areadditional benefits which can improve the argument considerably.

The Quality of a Professional

Beyond the immediate financial advantages of reduced operating costs for

the support center and/or help desk, there are a number of other significant benefits to be gained.

The use of Remote Support Technologies gives support reps greater visibility into customer issues, and increases customer perceptions of the professionalism of the team and its value.

By being able to actually demonstrate concepts and points to thecustomer on their own system, “just-in-time-training” may be givenmuch more efficiently.

Beyond the standard Break/Fix interactions, RST’s also enabledelivery of a range of extended services to the customer than can be

very profitable. Coupled with a remote diagnostic capability, or evenby setting up unattended status checking from the customers ownsystems, the support center can be alerted to developing conditionsand thereby intervene before problems actually occur.

Which RST? Key Points to Consider

While the range of options for the selection of an RST resource may

appear extensive, there are some highly recommended specifics for requirements that will narrow the field considerably.

Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). The rapid expansion of the SaaS modelfor technology delivery has been fueled by the key advantages it offersover traditional on-premise perpetual licensed products. Since all users of the technology are using the same version of the software at all times,there is no need to worry about the installation of upgrades or worry aboutinconsistencies between revision levels. The SaaS model means thatthere is nothing to install on the user’s PC until the resource is needed,and nothing to be maintained afterwards.



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Security . An audit trail should be an integral part of the RST, capturingall actions taken by the rep during the course of the connection. The

system should require the owner of the PC to specifically grant accessprivileges to the support rep for every use, and the just-in-timedownloaded module must be automatically closed and removed at theend of the session. The owner of the PC must also be able to terminatethe session at any time, and to be able to see everything that the rep isdoing in real time. The security of the RST should be compatible withcorporate network firewalls.

Cross-Platform and Multi-Language Functionality . The need for asupport center or IT help desk to work with all of the various PC platforms(Windows, Mac OS, Linux) and around the world in many languages israpidly increasing. Chat functionality is another key element, for not allsupport interactions may involve telephone interactions.

Extended Access . An effective RST must be able to be used to run thefull range of local diagnostics on the target computer, and to interact withsupport links and functionalities embedded within an application itself.Secure file transfer capabilities must be present so that the support repcan download drivers or other files at need, with all such transfers beingrecorded in the audit trail.

RST’s – A Vital Componentfor Every Support TeamIt is no secret that customer support is a challenging profession, or thatthe value that a well-equipped and trained customer contact center or ITsupport help desk can provide is substantial. But in order to deliver on thepromised value proposition, the team needs to have the latest inenterprise-grade technologies and resources at their fingertips. Time ismoney at both ends of a support conversation, and when the timerequired can be reduced, the payback is immediately appreciated.

By removing the need for extensive give and take of instructions anddescriptions of results between the support rep and the caller, use of anRST means that diagnosis and resolution of problems is significantlyimproved. The reduction in the time required directly translates intolowered staffing levels and greater efficiency in the support team. For thecustomer, the result is greater satisfaction with the support experience,increased brand loyalty and beneficial word-of-mouth advertising.



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Mikael BlaisdellFor over 25 years, Mikael Blaisdell has been closely involved with thestrategy, process, people and technology of customer relationshipretention and profitability management. His career began as a tech-writer,support rep and trainer, and continued into contact center managementroles. As a consultant, he has advised organizations across a wide rangeof types, locations and sizes on designing, building, re-engineering andoptimizing their customer contact centers and programs to align withstrategic goals. Working with support technology manufacturers, he hascontributed to the design of products and implementation procedures. Hehas served on the boards of professional associations, donepresentations on all aspects of CRM at industry gatherings, and written

extensively for various print and online media. His online publication, TheHotLine Magazine, is available in more than a dozen different languagesand read in over 100 countries worldwide. [ www.thehotlinemagazine.com ]

NTRglobalNTRglobal’s portfolio of secure, scalable, cost-effective and enterprise-grade SaaS solutions includes NTRsupport Ultimate, NTRsupport Pro andNTRadmin.

NTRsupport Ultimate enables customer support teams of any size todeliver fast, effective remote technical support across Windows, Mac,Linux and Pocket PC. With remote diagnostic tools and Web-basedcommunication options including chat, remote control, VOIP and video,NTRsupport Ultimate gives teams the tools they need to provide fast, highquality support – anywhere and at any time, reducing travel needs,increasing productivity among IT staff and employees and enhancingcustomer service. Help desk representatives can virtually “see, reach into”and repair devices via the Internet, so companies maximize efficiency andproductivity IT workers and employees.

NTRsupport Pro is a personalized and portable remote technical supportsolution designed for the independent IT professional. With multi-platformcapabilities, remote diagnostics, and a full remote support toolkit for fast,easy problem resolution, it enables mobile integrated session schedulingand multiple access options including transport via USB-device so ITprofessionals benefit from maximum flexibility and efficiency.



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NTRadmin is an IT service support and desktop management solutionthat enables organizations to remotely support attended or unattended

PCs and servers, automate WANs and control desktops regardless of geographical location. Dynamic computer grouping and easyadministrator rights management save time and allow for management of extended networks. NTRadmin features customizable Bots that automatecritical IT functions such as change management and searching for, andeliminating, malware and other potentially dangerous software.

NTRglobal: More than 17,000 companies in 60 countries rely onNTRglobal’s enterprise-grade software-as-a-service (SaaS) and self-hosted solutions to make IT simple and more cost-effective to manage themobile workforce and extended enterprise. SaaS from NTRglobal

combines award winning functionality, proven integration withSalesforce.com and other major CRM systems, point-and-clickadministration and scalability, global capabilities, customization androbust reporting for 360-degree visibility and compliance management.Offering a superior customer experience with dedicated regional andglobal support, NTRglobal applications are offered in 15 languages,including those with double-byte characters. All NTRglobal applicationsare hosted from 11 secure data centers around the world which operatewith fail-over capabilities to ensure speed of service and reliability. Moreinformation can be found on the NTRglobal website: www.ntrglobal.com

NTR Head Office Barcelona

Diagonal Litoral. Josep Pla, 2 - Edificio B3, 1ª Planta08019 BarcelonaSpain

Tel.: +34 93 445 0700

Fax: +34 93 445 0701www.ntrglobal.com [email protected]

the well equipped support center: on- demand remote support

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