What makes a good support service?

No product or its user is perfect. This is why it is especially important with technical services that companies offer help when uncertainties or problems arise: support services that provide help when you need it.

What is it that makes support services good? In this article, we provide an opportunity for our support team leader Teemu, as well as Eero and Aleksis who work in the frontline of our support, to share their views on how we handle our support services.

Fast assistance, good solutions and friendly service

When a problem has already occurred, no one likes to wait. A fast response when help is needed is an essential element of support services, but the ability to solve problems is just as important.

A combination of speed and expertise is what makes good support services stand out. A quick, but incorrect answer will not help the customer in resolving the issue. A correct, but delayed answer will also not build more confidence in the company’s services. This means that the key to a successful support service is to provide the right answer quickly. – Teemu

When we review our statistics from the past year, we can see that customers contacting us via email have received an initial response within 25 minutes (median/2021). And these are not automatic responses generated by the system, but a real person initiating a personal contact.

Our response time when providing support via email: 25 minutes
Time until problem has been resolved: 3 hours

Problems are typically resolved in three messages, including the initial contact, our response and the customer’s acknowledgement. This takes approximately three hours (median/2021). Contacts via telephone are typically answered within a few seconds. These numbers are top notch compared to the sector’s average. In addition to telephone and email support, we provide face-to-face support at a low threshold by visiting our customers on site whenever needed.

Support is just a form of customer service, and a friendly approach is appreciated by the customers almost as much as speed. A smile and a positive attitude as well as a true interest in resolving the customer’s problem should be conveyed both when meeting a customer in person as well as when communicating through electronic channels.

Hallmarks of a good service include a customer immediately feeling like they are receiving a no-nonsense and friendly service. A feeling that the other person is really listening to you. – Aleksis

Every case does not need to be processed ‘like a robot’, so it is best to be yourself; even share a few jokes with the customer to brighten their day, depending on what the situation is. – Eero

Knowing your audience is also an important element of customer service. Technical support does tend to revolve around technical issues, but the response to the customer needs to be provided in an easily understandable format, because the customer is not necessarily an IT professional.

It is important to be aware of the customer’s level of technical know-how, in other words, how things should be discussed and at what level. – Eero

It does make a difference who responds to the support requests

The essential thing about excellent support services is to have just the right people at the other end of the line responding to requests.

When the support team is really at the top of its game, they will have no problem finding answers to customers’ questions quickly. We place a lot of emphasis on ensuring that we know our services inside out, because building on top of this expertise will result in excellent customer experience. – Teemu

We also feel that it is vital to know your customers. This is why we phone our customers from time to time. So we do not just wait for customers to contact us, but we take an active role in reaching out to them to map any potential problems they may be experiencing or needs that they may have identified. Personal relationships tend to be formed between the support team members and customers, which is natural when dealing with people you already know and trust.

Comprehensive guidance and diverse support

Today’s customers want support services to be available via a variety of channels, and near them. We are constantly looking for better ways of serving our customers; and the increasing amount of feedback we are gathering and the measurement data on customer experience will be crucial factors in this process.

We strive to bring information available even easier than before, in the form or tips and instructions integrated in our services. It is important to provide customers with the tools for finding self-help, but our priority is still to ensure accessibility. We want our customers to know that they can contact us anytime, knowing that they will receive expert and personal assistance when they want it.

Good support service is about team work

At the beginning of this article, we asked what makes a good support service? Our speed, expertise, accessibility and friendliness are created as a result of a well-built and functional team.

In order to be able to provide good technical support, you need well-oiled support forces at the background and a good atmosphere of getting things done together.When resolving the toughest of situations, you really need your own staff to stand behind you.– Aleksis

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If you value great support services, read more about our visitor management and induction services and contact us at sales@systam.fi or +358 10 470 3600.

You can reach Eero, Aleksis or Teemu in our support at service@systam.fi or +358 10 470 3603.