Comparison of technical support of the largest software vendors in the field of network security
Hi, Habr! Putting aside to the side - the code will not run away. Today we will talk about the most terrible prospect of a programmer’s career, which can make even experienced IT shirkers start and hurry up to finish the unresolved code. No, you did not guess, this is not a McDonald's box office, this is technical support. About her, beloved, and will be discussed today.
So this is a review. More precisely, an overview of the availability of technical support, more precisely, technical support of key players in the market of IT products in the field of network security and control of unwanted access.
And we will begin with our field experiments. We evaluated the technical support of companies by such parameters as:
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We encourage colleagues to give feedback and are ready to provide this blog for an answer.
According to the results of our subjective tests, the best technical support is established by Kaspersky.
It is their customers more convenient to find the necessary information or get feedback.
In our opinion, the key components of a friendly and good service are:
And now, separately, out of competition, but for a pure comparison, we will describe how technical support works on our own website.
Adhering to tradition, for the beginning we summarize the information:
We are glad to announce that in a month we will present the updated design of our site, the support section in it will appear in this form:
Contact section:
FAQ section:
Technical support is divided into two lines: the first line accepts and fixes applications, answers typical questions, the second line deals with more complex tasks and extended technical support. The most popular user questions are related to activating the program, setting up Windows and using Traffic Inspector.
Technical support is divided into basic and extended. Basic means simple help: give a link to reference material, help with questions of program activation, etc. Expanded is provided if the user has valid expired technical support and access to updates, as well as for users of the latest trial version of the program. Expanded support includes comprehensive assistance in solving user problems, advising on all problems and issues, solving user problems, including remote connection and attracting developers.
Now 10 people work in the technical support service, all consultations are held from the office. Previously, we tried to use remote work, but later, to improve efficiency, we invited people to work from the office. The volume of work per employee is relatively small: on average, 25 requests per person per day. This allows us to quickly respond to requests: the response time for calls does not exceed two minutes. Our company has rather high requirements for applicants for the position of operator, which allows us to keep a high level of quality.
Mandatory Requirements:
Additional requirements for applicants:
In our company, proven employees have good career prospects. A typical example: an employee came to us in 2010 as a technical support trainee with a starting salary of 10,000 rubles. For 5 years of work in the company, he has gone the way of success from an intern through a technical support engineer, a testing engineer to the head of service.
The company also has bonuses and a salary increase in case an employee achieves high performance, partial payment of any sports subscriptions.
In their work, the support system uses the OTRS ticket system. We have open contacts with the head of the technical support department, and each user can write a complaint or ask a question personally to him. Every quarter we conduct a customer survey on the quality of our work. In the near future - the introduction of an evaluation system for each application.
The majority of user calls to our technical support come via email (50% of calls), skype and IP telephony calls (40%), the rest comes through online chat, social networks and a forum on our website. The technical support service works on weekdays from 8:00 to 18:00 Moscow time.
And, finally, the time of entrancing stories about the everyday work of the nameless heroes of the technical support Traffic Inspector:
Today we compared the technical support service of various major software vendors for network security and Internet access control on one of the most important indicators - accessibility. After all, how fast the client finds the necessary information on the site and receives answers from support for the missing, and his loyalty to the IT-producer depends.
Thanks for attention. Join the discussion, we will welcome your comments and additions. Tell us about the organization of technical support in your company and remember: the operator is also a person.
Previous posts:
So this is a review. More precisely, an overview of the availability of technical support, more precisely, technical support of key players in the market of IT products in the field of network security and control of unwanted access.
And we will begin with our field experiments. We evaluated the technical support of companies by such parameters as:
')
- usability of contacts;
- educational texts and video tutorials;
- range of means of communication with technical support;
- operator response time;
- trial version support;
- forum support;
- presence in social networks.
We encourage colleagues to give feedback and are ready to provide this blog for an answer.
A brief overview of technical support in various IT-companies
UserGate
- convenient contact search: direct link to the section from the main menu;
- text instructions, FAQ (on the FSTEC version) are provided;
- communication with technical support: e-mail / ticket system;
- operator response time by e-mail: 6–14 hours;
- remote support, trial version user support - available;
- There are groups in social networks: Facebook and Twitter, updated up to three times a month.
Ideco
- convenient search of contacts, direct link to the section from each page of the site;
- text instructions in open access, webinar recordings - after registration;
- interaction types: feedback form, e-mail, forum, webinars, online consultant, ICQ, Skype, call order, toll-free hotline;
- in terms of the operator’s response via e-mail, they were faster than the previous manufacturer: 2 hours;
- Remote support: the service is built into the program;
- support for trial version users and forum support is available;
- present on social networks: VKontakte, Facebook, Twitter and Google+, updated every 3 to 15 days.
X
- convenient search for contacts, there is a direct link to the technical support section;
- There are text instructions, incl. FAQ, and video tutorials;
- communication with technical support: feedback form, personal account, e-mail, forum, online consultant, ICQ, Skype, telephone;
- operator response time by e-mail: 2 hours;
- remote support is paid;
- Answers to sent requests for a trial version for technical support were not received;
- present in social networks: VKontakte, Facebook, Twitter (posts every 1 - 5 days).
Kerio
- Links to technical support contacts are easy to find;
- There are English text instructions and FAQs;
- after registration, you can get records of webinars;
- communication with technical support: feedback form with obligatory registration on the site and telephone;
- product support is free for owners of current Software Maintenance and registered users of trial versions;
- there is an English-language forum;
- in social media are in English (on Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter), regular posts on weekdays.
GFI
- convenient contact search, direct link to the technical support section;
- There are English language instructions and knowledge base;
- communication channels: feedback form for registered users, telephone;
- response time to e-mail operator: 1.5 hours;
- communication with technical support in English and Russian;
- Support, forum and groups in social networks - English-speaking, but quite lively.
Kaspersky
- in the header of the site there is a handy link to the technical support section;
- there are text instructions, video lessons in a single corporate style;
- interaction types: feedback form in personal account, e-mail, forum, groups in social. networks, telephone;
- operator response time: 24 hours;
- there is remote support and trial version support;
- live (new posts several times a day) are present on social networks: VKontakte, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, My World @ Mail, Odnoklassniki and Google+.
According to the results of our subjective tests, the best technical support is established by Kaspersky.
It is their customers more convenient to find the necessary information or get feedback.
In our opinion, the key components of a friendly and good service are:
- Availability. The client should easily find and contact you, in any way convenient to him and preferably in his native language. It should be remembered and psychology: some prefer voice communication, while others - the correspondence.
- Instructions. Many try to understand the problem themselves. More guides, gentlemen developers!
- Quick response to requests. This will help you to strengthen ties with customers and make them understand that their problem will be solved qualitatively and in the shortest possible time.
And now, separately, out of competition, but for a pure comparison, we will describe how technical support works on our own website.
Tech Support Smart Soft: internal kitchen
Adhering to tradition, for the beginning we summarize the information:
- technical support section - in the main menu of the site;
- detailed structured FAQ, 21 video lessons in Russian;
- communication channels with support: OS form on the site, e-mail, forum, JivoSite online chat, skype and telephone;
- operator response time by phone: 2 - 5 minutes, by e-mail for 1-2 hours;
- There are all kinds of support: basic and extended (but about them below);
- on social networks you can contact us via Facebook on VKontakte , Facebook page , Twitter account , Youtube channel and Google+ group - once in 3 - 5 days we will definitely publish something interesting.
We are glad to announce that in a month we will present the updated design of our site, the support section in it will appear in this form:
Contact section:
FAQ section:
Technical support is divided into two lines: the first line accepts and fixes applications, answers typical questions, the second line deals with more complex tasks and extended technical support. The most popular user questions are related to activating the program, setting up Windows and using Traffic Inspector.
Technical support is divided into basic and extended. Basic means simple help: give a link to reference material, help with questions of program activation, etc. Expanded is provided if the user has valid expired technical support and access to updates, as well as for users of the latest trial version of the program. Expanded support includes comprehensive assistance in solving user problems, advising on all problems and issues, solving user problems, including remote connection and attracting developers.
How does Smart Smart tech support work
Now 10 people work in the technical support service, all consultations are held from the office. Previously, we tried to use remote work, but later, to improve efficiency, we invited people to work from the office. The volume of work per employee is relatively small: on average, 25 requests per person per day. This allows us to quickly respond to requests: the response time for calls does not exceed two minutes. Our company has rather high requirements for applicants for the position of operator, which allows us to keep a high level of quality.
Mandatory Requirements:
- higher technical education in one of the leading state universities;
- knowledge of the basics of computer networks;
- knowledge of the entire line of the Windows operating system at the administrator level;
- technical English.
Additional requirements for applicants:
- pass an exam on the software product and the main settings of Traffic Inspector, and the Windows operating system technical experts commission;
- be able to independently answer basic technical support questions on all communication channels;
- know the main sources of information (freely navigate the company's website, know all the key professional consultants, know well the help, the content of the video lessons and knowledge base);
- be able to quickly solve common problems of users;
- confidently navigate the Traffic Inspector console, reports, client agent and portal;
- know well the functionality of the program, the peculiarities of working in various modes;
- be able to install and configure Traffic Inspector on all supported OS and for all types of network connections;
- know all the modules of Traffic Inspector and be able to work with them.
In our company, proven employees have good career prospects. A typical example: an employee came to us in 2010 as a technical support trainee with a starting salary of 10,000 rubles. For 5 years of work in the company, he has gone the way of success from an intern through a technical support engineer, a testing engineer to the head of service.
The company also has bonuses and a salary increase in case an employee achieves high performance, partial payment of any sports subscriptions.
In their work, the support system uses the OTRS ticket system. We have open contacts with the head of the technical support department, and each user can write a complaint or ask a question personally to him. Every quarter we conduct a customer survey on the quality of our work. In the near future - the introduction of an evaluation system for each application.
The majority of user calls to our technical support come via email (50% of calls), skype and IP telephony calls (40%), the rest comes through online chat, social networks and a forum on our website. The technical support service works on weekdays from 8:00 to 18:00 Moscow time.
And, finally, the time of entrancing stories about the everyday work of the nameless heroes of the technical support Traffic Inspector:
- Once a user called us on the line and immediately began to describe his problem with the help of highly suspicious terms that are clearly absent in the great and powerful Russian IT language. For a very long time we tried to find a common language with him, but the thread of conversation constantly eluded. And suddenly, the user said: "Wait, I'll eat mushrooms and call you back." It happens.
- The girl operator accepted the user's request, put the call on pause and addressed us, saying what to do - does the user have a “valve blocked”? Everyone fell into a slight bewilderment, because even the best minds of the department could not connect the blocked valve with the operation of the firewall. One of the colleagues' help desk took her handset from her and asked the user to carefully read again from the screen what kind of error he had displayed. And what do you think was there? Class not registered! Have you shared funny mushrooms with him?
- The user called, said that he had problems with the work of the program, Traffic Inspector blocks the necessary sites. We began to find out the settings of his program, from his own words, everything seemed to be done correctly and the sites should not be blocked. Began to understand and decided to reinstall the program for insurance. And then the user blurted out: “Actually, I haven’t installed Traffic Inspector, but this is definitely his fault.” Insidious program, insidious ...
Instead of an epilogue
Today we compared the technical support service of various major software vendors for network security and Internet access control on one of the most important indicators - accessibility. After all, how fast the client finds the necessary information on the site and receives answers from support for the missing, and his loyalty to the IT-producer depends.
Thanks for attention. Join the discussion, we will welcome your comments and additions. Tell us about the organization of technical support in your company and remember: the operator is also a person.
Previous posts:
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/255623/
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