Desktop Support: The Hub of IT
Suuport or lack thereof
The vast amount of times I have recieved poor support has been from outsourced support services. The poor wages paid by these companies do not attract the most qualified and competent people at any level of the organisation. From the person on the phone through to the team manager and supervisors. Simply put, pay peanuts get monkeys.
Now there are some good people working for these outsource companies. I have done so myself in the past, as I'm sure have many others who read El-Reg. The problem is not the people as such as given time people can be taught to support the systems in use. The problem of course is with low pay, people do not stay long enough to learn the details of the systems in use. They leave for better pay taking their knowledge with them.
The outsource company makes money, the service provider or product manufacturer saves money for it's shareholders and often makes more money by convincing end users to upgrade to their latest toy rather than fix the issue. The people that suffer in the long run will always be the end user.
I once worked for a organisation who I will not name who had such a poor wage package that staff turnaround was measured in weeks. While working there I dealt with a case from a well known british ex-Morning TV presenter, who had been dealt with before by a number of people all of whom had left the company. The woman's case had been passed around the callcentre until it finally came to me.
By simply asking could I have her mobile number and promising not to record it on a database, I was able to go of research the case call her back while she got on with her day and provide her with a solution to the problem. Her attitude, while at first oh no here we go again changed in moments when I called her back when I said I would and told her what we could do to resolve the issue.
She did send an email to my manager praising me for what I had done, it unfortunately arrived after the bollicking I was given for spending so much time dealing with the case. Also after I told my manager where he could stick his disciplinary action and his job.
So from that you can see the problem customers be they external or internal see support as allready paid for by purchasing the product or service. To them it is their right as a customer to have any problem fixed ASAP. Business on the other hand sees support as a "value added" service and wants to make money off it.
So long as the two conflicting arguments exist the people providing the support will never satisify the people who need said support. Remember from the customer's point of view he should not need the support in the first place. Because to the customer, "this blinking thing should just work".
