What is customer support provision? Customer service is the provision of service to customers before, during and after the purchase of any product.
This is part of the qualification City & Guilds of London Institute Customer Support Provision 2 (Examination No. 7267-402) the requirement for City & Guilds Diploma in IT Systems Support (7267-24).
Service Levels
Types of service level agreements (SLA) and procedures for recording information
This is related to how support is provided to customers. Customers can be internal or external; what ever the case they shape their perception of the business by the support they receive. To ensure customer satisfaction any business must establish processes that reflect what their customers expect from the organization and then define and manage customer service delivery to ensure that all service level commitments, both internal and external, are met.
To ensure that customer expectations are met every time a business should offer different types of services—either based on the customer, the service plan sold, or the priority of issues. SLAs allow customers to state their service level needs. Suppliers can then focus on providing services at the required level.
Procedures for recording information
You must set procedures to record any kind of information from your customers. Whether it is verbal or written. This information should then be analysed, checked and actions taken to deal with any issues. For organisational recording information allows procedures to be followed, and that the information is available to different people working at different levels to act upon.
However this should ensure that storing of the records and reports is done to organisational standards and conform to legal requirements eg all records, including those in electronic form, must have information that is legal and is protected from unauthorized access or theft.
Advice
Customers are our asset. Most of our customers are very dependent upon IT systems in their day to day activities eg the use of Internet and e-mail, use of mobile telephony, banking, etc. Unfortunately the IT systems used develop faults. These faults can be due to use, operator error, or malicious intentions of others. Whatever the case it is important to rectify the fault in time to keep the system running.
Fault rectification of IT systems could be done by the user under supervision, or by a professional. There are many faults that can develop on an IT system. Professionals need to find appropriate ways to troubleshoot systems and test/diagnose them to rectify problems.
Why do we need to trouble-shoot an IT system?
- To provide customer support and to keep customers happy
- To identify and fix problems
- To verify the quality of the system and prove it's function
Our customers will always look towards IT professionals to get advice about common problems they are having. A technician must have is a set of diagnostics tools (hardware and software) to help to quickly trouble-shoot a system and provide solutions. A technician also needs to be aware of how to seek advice on more complex and serious technical errors. The technician can then access those sources and provide the necessary advice and guidance to common users.
Some sources of finding advice on more complex or serious technical errors
- Internet (e.g. FAQs or manufacturer's website)
- Technical manuals, journals
- Training courses, meetings
- Knowledge data bases
- Colleagues
- Looking up fault history, etc.
An IT professional needs to use appropriate questioning and research techniques to gather information from users and select valid and relevant information from reliable sources by accessing technical knowledge eg product specifications, operating procedures, or management of equipment, etc. Some questions posed may require research, or questions may be where resolutions are already known.
Professionals must provide advice and guidance to users to help trouble-shoot IT systems.
The advice provided could be to setup and manage a system, to repair/locate faults, to recommend/buy a system, etc. Whatever the case, communication must be by using a format that is understandable to the users, because of their limited technical knowledge.
Customer Requirements And Satisfaction
Any work that is done must be according to a standard working process. The working process requires working to satisfy customer requirements. This may require you to take a number of steps to satisfy your customer.
Customers include all those to whom you are supplying services or products. They may be internal, such as colleagues in other departments, or external customers.
Businesses depend upon customers, and customers like to be valued. One way that we can value our customers is to plan for customer requirements within our working process.
Planning for customer requirements can only be done if their requirements are known. Most customers are able to state their requirements correctly eg I would like to have a PC to play games.
However some customer may not be able to correctly state their basic requirements eg I would like a printer (well....what kind of a printer!!!!). It is therefore our responsibility to ask the customer questions to meet their requirements.
A good working process requires effort to work with users and customers to find out what they want. This can be done by using a basic template for specifying requirements. It is the supplier's responsibility to distinguish between good and poor specifications provided by the customer.
SATISFACTION GUARANTEED
Once requirements of a customer are recognized then work should be done to satisfy those requirements. A reasonable approach must be adopted to identify business requirements and system requirements, and satisfied accordingly.
Activities in the workplace should always be managed to meet customer requirements. This involves agreeing requirements with customers, planning work activities and monitoring these activities to ensure that customers' requirements have been met.
The working process to follow to meet customer requirements may consist of the following steps:
- Agree customer requirements, and document them
To do this you need to help them specify what they need from the equipment, and the standards they expect. You need to describe the features and benefits of different products that meet their organizational requirements. Once every thing is agreed, it must be documented to avoid any future problems.
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Plan activities to meet customer requirements
After an agreement is reached you need to consult with people/colleagues and draw up plans that conform to the requirements and the work to achieve these plans
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Maintain a safe and productive work environment
You need to make sure that every one is aware of their legal and organizational responsibilities for health and safety. You must always improve the working environment and take actions to abide by the health and safety requirements
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Ensure products and services meet customer requirements (agreed in point 1)
It is very important to ensure that the work carried out on hardware meet customers requirements. You need to check that the customer is happy with the products and services you provide, and if there is a problem, take appropriate actions to resolve it
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Talking To Customers
Communication with customers
"Communication" is the passing of information between two or more people where all that are involved get some meaning from the information that is provided.
Effective communication skills do not come easily. Everyone needs to practice them to be able to pass information to others that is understood where the meaning is not lost. The biggest problem many people face is how to overcome their fear of communication with others. We have to keep in mind that communication is a complex process, and messages can be distorted by a number of different elements. We have to try our best to overcome these issues for useful communication to take place.
Effective communication has some techniques
Attentive listening
This means that you are carefully listening to the speaker and hearing their entire sentences rather than impatiently interrupting.
It is a process that involves listening and understanding of someone's views, by showing a consideration towards the person, and focusing on what is being said. Sometimes it helps to restate what has been said so the speaker knows that you listened and that their speech makes sense to you.
Nonverbal Message
Nonverbal communication means passing a message or part of a message through physical actions, eg facial expressions, body gestures, etc.
Facial expression feelings are generally reflected in facial expressions. The eyes combined with different movements of the eyelids, eyebrows and mouth can give out an endless number of messages.
Body Gestures gestures of moving hands, arms, and legs reveal a lot about how well you are listening. Body gestures can tell if you are nervous, bored, or in a rush!
Open and Closed questions
Many times people simply do not provide information that you require. So you need to ask questions to get that information. There are two types of questions that you can ask: Open and Closed.
Open questions are the most effective way to elicit information from someone, these questions can start a conversation where many other points are brought forward eg what have you been doing for the last three days?
Closed questions are ones that require simple answers, such as "yes" or "no" eg do you have a driving licence?
In a conversation listening to the speaker may have some barriers eg disturbance from back ground noise, distraction of some kind, or even lack of concentration.
Look at the do's and don'ts of communication barriers in the following table
Communication Barrier
Don't
Do
Background noise Have an important conversation on a mobile phone while stuck in traffic Wait till you get home and call from a land line
Interference Talk to someone and eat your lunch at the same time Delay your lunch or the talk till you are free
Distraction Have a TV or radio on loud while talking on the phone Turn off the TV or radio before calling
Nonverbal Messages Sigh or yawn while talking to the person Be aware of any negative nonverbal gestures that you may be giving out
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