In times of quarantine due to the Coronavirus, many companies are feeling the need to bet on technologies to support the home office. In this sense, it is the duty of MSPs to offer adequate customer support.
As many organizations were not prepared for demand as great as the one we are facing right now, it is normal that everyone is still a little lost on the attitudes to be taken and how an MSP should support its customers.
Throughout this post, we want to show you the responsibility of the MSP during this time of crisis. In addition, the steps to ensure adequate support to all your customers. Stay with us and happy reading!
Support for home office
We are facing a pandemic that has led many workers to have to carry out their activities at the home office. A scenario that most people were not used to until now, which brings, in addition to the common difficulties, a greater sensitivity.
Within this context, it is the role of the MSP to provide all the support necessary for its customers. In this way, they can perform their tasks at the home office. In this way, reduce as much as possible their loss of productivity by operating in a new work model.
From the moment your company provides the best possible support to your customers in the face of these difficulties, the confidence they generate in your competence will increase. Likewise, the value they place on their services.
We can say that for an MSP, this is an opportunity to create value while supporting all clients to get the most out of working from home.
The step by step to support home office customers
We have separated a step-by-step guide to help you structure your support process for home office customers and be able to assist all users in the best possible way. Let’s go to them!
Structure the team according to the demand
The first point, even before we talk about the support service, is the composition of the team that will carry out this activity. If your intention is to provide service during business hours, you will need a certain number of technicians. If this time is longer, the demand for labor will increase.
In addition, some demands may be more complex, which will require more experienced support technicians. In this way, they can find the solution for certain special situations that the common team cannot deal with.
As the user who is being served is in a home office, the service can be carried out online, or remotely. That way, your team of technicians can also do their homework, reducing travel costs and also the demand for space.
Invest in customer service software
When dealing with the provision of managed services and user support, it is essential to invest in customer service software, which allows for managing all open calls, in addition to monitoring their progress.
A system like this can also be useful to share the existing demand among the support team members. Thus, forwarding calls to each of them and monitoring the work performed, meeting deadlines, and customer satisfaction, among other points.
Through a system like this, you will be able to open, control, close, and store all tickets. With this, creating a history that can be very useful in the future, in solving problems that have already been faced.
Likewise, it facilitates customer service as the technician can check a lot of information directly in the system. Thus, avoiding asking the user the same questions again could generate a bad experience.
Have support materials
For the vast majority of people, this is the first time they are working from a home office model. And that means they will have to carry out a series of configurations by themselves or ask for help from support.
That is, we can have an overload of technicians, who must perform several configurations for several clients at the same time. Therefore, this increases the possibility of errors while harming the human resource that should be applied in prevention and updates.
Because of this, developing support materials that can be consulted in case of any doubt becomes essential to reduce this demand. Thus, generating a knowledge base that can be accessed by customers before making contact with technicians.
Among these materials, we can mention:
- Videos;
- Webinars;
- eBooks;
- online training;
- FAQs.
This type of material can also be developed for new technicians, who will be admitted to your company. Thus, they can already have their doubts resolved about what are the standards used in the company and how to act in each case that they may come across.
Determine service time
As this is a new experience for most customers, working from home can generate a lot of anxiety. Mainly, when you need support to perform some activity.
Because of this, it is very important to set a deadline for the delivery of the solution required by the customer. Seeking in every way to comply with this deadline to avoid any discomfort.
That way, you and your team guarantee a good experience for your customers. In addition, they prevent them from feeling forgotten while there is no response to their request.
Of course, if there is any delay, in which it will not be possible to deliver a response, it is necessary to provide some kind of support to the customer.
Focus on the solution in a first contact
Finally, one last tip to help your MSP provide adequate support to your home office customers is to focus on finding the solution at first contact. Thus, generating greater credibility with the user.
This is entirely possible, as most of the issues you face are linked to connections, VPN settings, or access credentials.
The challenges involved
As we said at the beginning of this post, the current situation can be an opportunity to prove the value of good support to your customers. But there are also a number of challenges.
One is the use of multiple devices outside of a controlled environment. Which gives greater visibility within companies. This generates more risks, with greater circulation of sensitive data.
The use of proprietary devices on public networks raises an additional concern. However, we must also reaffirm the importance of technology tools, such as an RMM or ticket control systems, to facilitate the support process for customers from home.
