Many providers offer 24/7 support services to assist customers with their data concerns. However, when organisations need assistance and support, many find it frustrating.
Support is meant to make a business’s life easier. Unfortunately, many businesses find their support can result in the opposite. Here are a number of reasons why support can be ineffective:
Some providers adopt a ‘follow the sun’ approach when it comes to support in order to maintain 24/7 service, essentially handing over a call or issue from call centre location to call centre location based on daylight hours. This ensures customers receive continuous support, however, it can create additional complexity too.
Information can be lost as language barriers, miscommunications and misunderstandings can occur, between agents and customers as well as between different call centres during handover. Handovers can also create unnecessary delays, depending on the complexity of the issue.
Moreover, environments become difficult to monitor and manage remotely, and remote assistance becomes dependent on different variables such as connectivity and reception.
Different organisations have different data and support requirements, so a ‘cookie cutter’ approach is not always possible. Businesses should carefully consider their provider’s service offering, factoring in support to ensure it will suit their specific and unique needs.
The more complex the data environment, the more ‘hands-on’ support is required. Organisations should identify the type of support they need, taking into account their potential need for on-site support, as well as whether there is potential for communication barriers. South Africa has eleven official languages and most South African’s don’t use English as their first language. Where businesses practice in a language other than English, it makes sense to select a provider that can offer them support in their preferred language, wherever possible. This eliminates much confusion when an issue needs resolving.
Businesses should ideally choose a data provider that can tailor their services and support to their needs, providing trust, optimal and hands-on support, and transparency across all their services.