Customer support
Encyclopedia
Customer support is a range of customer service
s to assist customers in making cost effective and correct use of a product. It includes assistance in planning, installation, training, trouble shooting, maintenance, upgrading, and disposal of a product.
Regarding technology products such as mobile phones, televisions, computers, software products or other electronic or mechanical goods, it is termed technical support
.
of service organizations aim to achieve, for example, lower mean time to repair
(MTTR).
Customer support automation involves the building of a knowledge base
of known issues and their resolutions to support incident
s with delivery mechanisms, often by expert system
s. A service automation platform includes a suite of support solutions including proactive support, assisted support and self support.
With automated support, service organizations can make their services available to their customers 24 hours a day and 7 days a week
, by monitoring alarm
s, identifying problems at an early stage and resolving issues before they become problems. Automated assisted support enables remote access to sites that need instant problem solving. By automating the collection of information of devices and applications coexisting with the supported application, problems can be quickly detected and fixed.
Automated self support, automates the self support process, freeing users from self-help diagnostics and troubleshooting from on-line libraries
or knowledge bases.
Support automation solutions can be integrated with customer relationship management
(CRM) systems and network management system
s (NMS), and provide full customer reports to management tallying problems and incidents that were solved mechanically ensuring compliance to industry regulations like Sarbanes Oxley, 21 CFR part 11
, and HIPAA.
Customer service
Customer service is the provision of service to customers before, during and after a purchase.According to Turban et al. , “Customer service is a series of activities designed to enhance the level of customer satisfaction – that is, the feeling that a product or service has met the customer...
s to assist customers in making cost effective and correct use of a product. It includes assistance in planning, installation, training, trouble shooting, maintenance, upgrading, and disposal of a product.
Regarding technology products such as mobile phones, televisions, computers, software products or other electronic or mechanical goods, it is termed technical support
Technical support
Technical support or tech support refers to a range of services by which enterprises provide assistance to users of technology products such as mobile phones, televisions, computers, software products or other electronic or mechanical goods...
.
Automation
AutomationAutomation
Automation is the use of control systems and information technologies to reduce the need for human work in the production of goods and services. In the scope of industrialization, automation is a step beyond mechanization...
of service organizations aim to achieve, for example, lower mean time to repair
Mean time to repair
Mean time to repair is a basic measure of the maintainability of repairable items. It represents the average time required to repair a failed component or device. Expressed mathematically, it is the total corrective maintenance time divided by the total number of corrective maintenance actions...
(MTTR).
Customer support automation involves the building of a knowledge base
Knowledge base
A knowledge base is a special kind of database for knowledge management. A Knowledge Base provides a means for information to be collected, organised, shared, searched and utilised.-Types:...
of known issues and their resolutions to support incident
Incident management
Incident Management refers to the activities of an organization to identify, analyze and correct hazards. For instance, a fire in a factory would be a risk that realized, or an incident that happened...
s with delivery mechanisms, often by expert system
Expert system
In artificial intelligence, an expert system is a computer system that emulates the decision-making ability of a human expert. Expert systems are designed to solve complex problems by reasoning about knowledge, like an expert, and not by following the procedure of a developer as is the case in...
s. A service automation platform includes a suite of support solutions including proactive support, assisted support and self support.
With automated support, service organizations can make their services available to their customers 24 hours a day and 7 days a week
24/7
24/7 is an abbreviation which stands for "24 hours a day, 7 days a week", usually referring to a business or service available at all times without interruption...
, by monitoring alarm
Alarm
An alarm device or system of alarm devices gives an audible or visual alarm signal about a problem or condition.Alarm devices include:* burglar alarms, designed to warn of burglaries; this is often a silent alarm: the police or guards are warned without indication to the burglar, which increases...
s, identifying problems at an early stage and resolving issues before they become problems. Automated assisted support enables remote access to sites that need instant problem solving. By automating the collection of information of devices and applications coexisting with the supported application, problems can be quickly detected and fixed.
Automated self support, automates the self support process, freeing users from self-help diagnostics and troubleshooting from on-line libraries
Digital library
A digital library is a library in which collections are stored in digital formats and accessible by computers. The digital content may be stored locally, or accessed remotely via computer networks...
or knowledge bases.
Support automation solutions can be integrated with customer relationship management
Customer relationship management
Customer relationship management is a widely implemented strategy for managing a company’s interactions with customers, clients and sales prospects. It involves using technology to organize, automate, and synchronize business processes—principally sales activities, but also those for marketing,...
(CRM) systems and network management system
Network management system
A network management system is a combination of hardware and software used to monitor and administer a computer network.Individual network elements in a network are managed by an element management system.-Tasks and operational details:...
s (NMS), and provide full customer reports to management tallying problems and incidents that were solved mechanically ensuring compliance to industry regulations like Sarbanes Oxley, 21 CFR part 11
Title 21 CFR Part 11
Title 21 CFR Part 11 of the Code of Federal Regulations deals with the Food and Drug Administration guidelines on electronic records and electronic signatures in the United States...
, and HIPAA.
Types
- Proactive Support Automation refers to support automation solutions that minimize downtime and enable 24x7 availabilityAvailabilityIn telecommunications and reliability theory, the term availability has the following meanings:* The degree to which a system, subsystem, or equipment is in a specified operable and committable state at the start of a mission, when the mission is called for at an unknown, i.e., a random, time...
. This is achieved by constant health check tracking with diagnostic procedures to enable issue monitoring and problem solving.
- Preemptive Support Automation refers to a support solution that utilizes information that is either generated or culled from an application or service, e.g. log files, database queries, configuration changes, etc. This information can then be exploited to predict service degradations or interruptions. The upshot of this is a higher level of service/application availability for the underlying application
- Self support automation is the term organizations give to their support structures that provide on-line libraries and tools for self-help and easy troubleshooting solutions to automatically and precisely diagnose and resolve problems and incidents.
- Assisted support automation is the software that enables support personnel to remotely access their customers desktop or server for diagnostics and trouble ticket resolution.
See also
- AutomationAutomationAutomation is the use of control systems and information technologies to reduce the need for human work in the production of goods and services. In the scope of industrialization, automation is a step beyond mechanization...
- Call center
- Customer serviceCustomer serviceCustomer service is the provision of service to customers before, during and after a purchase.According to Turban et al. , “Customer service is a series of activities designed to enhance the level of customer satisfaction – that is, the feeling that a product or service has met the customer...
- Customer relationship managementCustomer relationship managementCustomer relationship management is a widely implemented strategy for managing a company’s interactions with customers, clients and sales prospects. It involves using technology to organize, automate, and synchronize business processes—principally sales activities, but also those for marketing,...
(CRM) - Customer Service SystemCustomer Service SystemBT's Customer Service System is the core operational support system for BT, bringing in 70% of income for the company...
- Help deskHelp deskA help desk is an information and assistance resource that troubleshoots problems with computers or similar products. Corporations often provide help desk support to their customers via a toll-free number, website and e-mail. There are also in-house help desks geared toward providing the same kind...
- Run Book Automation (RBA)
- Technical supportTechnical supportTechnical support or tech support refers to a range of services by which enterprises provide assistance to users of technology products such as mobile phones, televisions, computers, software products or other electronic or mechanical goods...