Technical Support (Tech Support)

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What is Technical Support?

Technical support (tech support) is a service that helps end-users resolve issues that are interfering with their ability to use a mechanical or electronic device, software application, or cloud service, like website hosting. The goal of technical support is to guide the user through the steps required to fix a specific issue.

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Technical support can be provided through a variety of communication channels including website FAQs, community forums, video conferencing apps, chatbots, phone calls, text messages, email messages, and in-person visits.

Techopedia Explains the Technical Support Meaning

Image explaining the meaning of Technical Support

Tech support services can range from basic help with setup to resolving more complex issues related to operations. The choice of service delivery model may depend on the type of product or service that is causing an issue, the end user’s comfort level, and the anticipated volume of support requests.

Tech Support vs. Customer Service Roles

Technical support is a subset of customer service. While both technical support and customer support services are concerned with helping end users, they each have different objectives.

The objective of customer service is to provide customers with a positive customer experience (CX). Daily tasks may involve answering questions, addressing complaints, processing orders, and providing product or service information. Customer service success can be measured with customer service retention rates, repeat purchase rates, customer lifetime value (CLV) metrics, or net promoter scores.

In contrast, the objective of tech support is to get a product, app, or cloud service functioning correctly. Daily tasks typically include troubleshooting issues, identifying root causes and functional dependencies, and guiding users through step-by-step fixes.

Success can be measured by issue resolution rates and quality assurance (QA) scores that assess an agent’s ability to determine the root cause of a technical issue and help the user resolve it quickly.

Technical SupportCustomer Service
  • Focus: Diagnose and resolve specific technical problems
  • Scope: Technical issues
  • Skills Required: Technical knowledge; troubleshooting skills
  • Primary Success Metric: Successful problem resolution
  • Focus: Enhance overall customer experience
  • Scope: General assistance
  • Skills Required: Broad product/service knowledge; conflict resolution
  • Primary Success Metric: Positive customer experience

Key Skills for Technical Support Roles

Technical support specialists who deal directly with end users need to have both soft skills and technical knowledge (hard skills).

Tech support specialists need to be able to actively listen to users as they explain what they perceive to be the issue. They also need to be able to analyze error messages and system logs to determine potential causes.

Written and verbal communication skills are almost as important as technical skills. Tech support specialists need to be able to converse with users who have varying degrees of technical expertise. They also need to be able to document their interactions with the user so that information can be used later on.

Other important skills for this job role include:

  • Attention to detail.
  • Proficiency in relevant software applications, including cyber defense
  • Ability to work within a team as well as independently.
  • Working knowledge of networking technologies.
  • Experience with help desk ticketing systems.
  • Ability to stay calm while guiding users through step-by-step procedures.

Purposes of Technical Support

The main purpose of technical support is to help users resolve problems that are preventing them from using a technology product or service.

During this process, technical support staff will need to gather information, ask follow-up questions, match the user’s issue with known issues in a knowledge base, and guide the user through potential solutions.

The process is likely to have several secondary purposes. They include:

  • Helping end users understand how a technology works.
  • Sharing tips and recommendations to improve the user’s experience and prevent future issues.
  • Documenting new successful issue resolutions for future use.
  • Helping product teams and software developers prioritize fixes for recurring issues.
  • Providing a positive experience that encourages brand advocacy.

Types of Technical Support

Technical support can be categorized by how the support is delivered. Common types of tech support delivery methods include:

Web Self-Service

This delivery model provides FAQs, online resources, and community forums that help users to diagnose and resolve issues themselves.

Chatbot Support

This delivery model includes traditional chatbots that provide scripted responses to FAQs. An increasing number of tech support chatbots are being integrated with large language models (LLMs) that can ask the end user questions and provide more personalized solutions.

Time-Based Support

This delivery model may include 24/7 support for critical services and products and/or business hours support for non-critical services and products.

On-Site Support

This delivery model involves sending technicians or support personnel to the customer’s location to resolve issues. On-site IT support is particularly useful for hardware-related problems.

Remote Support

This delivery model provides remote users with support through one or more communication channels. If necessary, tech support specialists can use remote desktop tools to take over the user’s computer and try out different ways to fix the user’s problem.

Managed Services

In this delivery model, a third-party managed service provider (MSP) is responsible for resolving technical issues. Support services may be acquired on a pay-per-use or subscription basis. Fees are typically charged monthly or annually.

What Is L1, L2 & L3 Support?

L1, L2, and L3 are tiered levels of technical support. Managed service providers and large enterprises often use a tiered structure to align technical issues with the appropriate level of expertise required to fix them.

L1 support typically deals with straightforward problems that can be solved by anyone who can follow a script and feels comfortable using a troubleshooting guide.

L2 support deals with more complex issues that L1 support is unable to resolve. Technicians at this level need to have basic technical skills and some experience with the specific product or cloud service in question.

L3 support deals with issues that L2 support is unable to resolve. L3 personnel are often senior technicians or engineers who have deep knowledge about the product or services in question. Their interactions with the user may be shared with product owners and product development teams to improve future iterations.

A chart showing the different Technical Support tiers

In-House vs. Outsourced Technical Support

There are several reasons why a company might choose to outsource technical support rather than manage it internally.

One key benefit is cost-effectiveness. Outsourcing tech support eliminates the need to hire, train, and manage a dedicated support team in-house.

Companies that provide technical support services typically have the staffing resources to handle a wide range of technical issues and can provide support in multiple languages.

In-House Technical SupportOutsourced Technical Support
  • Control: Direct control
  • Cost: High overhead
  • Support Coverage: Typically limited to business hours
  • Control: Managed through service level agreements (SLAs)
  • Cost: Can be more cost-effective
  • Support Coverage: 24/7 support across multiple time zones

It’s important to note that many companies use a hybrid approach that includes both in-house and outsourced tech support. In this scenario, Level 1 tech support is provided in-house, while Level 2 and Level 3 support is outsourced to a third-party service provider.

Future of Technical Support

As more devices become interconnected through the Internet of Things (IoT), the scope of technical support is expected to expand, necessitating new strategies and tools.

As people become more comfortable with using artificial intelligence (AI), there are likely to be significant improvements to self-service tech support platforms. Multimodal AI chatbots that can generate step-by-step directions illustrated by diagrams will allow more users to resolve issues independently.

In the future, it’s highly plausible that integrated tech support powered by machine learning (ML) will be able to proactively identify and resolve issues before they impact the user. This concept, which may be referred to as autonomic computing, involves predictive maintenance (PdM), automated diagnostics, and the creation of service networks that allow IoT devices to manage and resolve their own technical issues.

The Bottom Line

Technical support helps ensure end-user satisfaction by resolving technical issues in a timely manner. Effective tech support also contributes to product improvement and the overall value proposition of acquiring and using hardware, software, and cloud services.

FAQs

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Margaret Rouse
Technology expert
Margaret Rouse
Technology expert

Margaret is an award-winning writer and educator known for her ability to explain complex technical topics to a non-technical business audience. Over the past twenty years, her IT definitions have been published by Que in an encyclopedia of technology terms and cited in articles in the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine, and Discovery Magazine. She joined Techopedia in 2011. Margaret’s idea of ​​a fun day is to help IT and business professionals to learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages.