Companies such as Microsoft and Dell each get up to 3,000 calls a day to their Irish operations for technical support. Some callers are totally new to computers, others know quite a bit but have traded up from an older system. And then there are the "power users" - the kind of people who usually solve other people's computer problems but who occasionally need to contact technical support and call for help themselves. On his RTE radio programme recently, Gay Byrne read a piece about a guy who rings up technical support during a power cut and who can't figure out why his computer won't work. The technician finally tells him to put everything back into the box and return it. "Is it that bad?" he asks. "No," says the technician. "You're just too stupid to own a computer."
But some callers say they have encountered limited intelligence at the other end of the line. One customer in the "power user" category says that if he senses the technician he's talking to isn't up to answering the question, he hangs up and dials in again. People complain about not having their problem solved within an hour or longer. Others complain that a technician was to return their call but didn't. Probably the most frequent complaint however is that callers don't know how long they will be left waiting for a problem to be dealt with or solved.
Customers also complain of rudeness, such as the technician who retorted: "That's none of our concern" or a customer who that week had bought a computer but was told brusquely: "We don't give tutorials". And you hear of email queries that aren't replied to. A user new to technical support conference calls (where several callers are put on line to a single technician) found it most odd that the technician didn't acknowledge her presence. There are also customers who are very happy with technical support. When one user's Dell hard drive crashed, he said: "They just changed it. They didn't quibble". Another user who bought a Dell computer last April says: "My experience has always been good". Despite one or two minor problems, he found the support "excellent". A journalist, who had two deadlines looming, had a problem with his Apple computer. He was impressed when the support team instructed a technician who was in the area to visit. He had it fixed within 15 minutes. One person posting to an Internet newsgroup recently said Gateway's technical support "provides the best of what is available".
Annette Condon, product PR manager at Dell, says 90 per cent of issues are resolved first time by phone. Dell does not put callers into conference calls, as feedback from customers indicates that they don't like it. Dell will call back if a problem cannot be fixed on a first call and Dell technicians will call back within one hour or within 24 hours, says Condon. Dell admits that some calls could take an hour or more to resolve. If a customer wants to complain about technical support, they can do so over the phone or they can write or email the customer relations department. Stuart Anderson, services marketing manager for Microsoft, says all calls are answered in less than 60 seconds. The time from answering to resolving a problem varies. Technicians will take a customer's number and call back if necessary, normally within an hour.
He is confident that customers aren't often unhappy, but such people could talk to Microsoft's "customer service recovery". He says it is "extremely important for us that the customer can talk to someone". He says Microsoft's technicians don't only need "skills in the product" but they must also have empathy with the customer.
"Historically, Microsoft was guilty of long waiting-time but not today," he says, but he admits that, even now: "As you wait, you don't know when you will be served". Busy times are 9.00 a.m.; 11.30 a.m. to noon; 1.00 p.m. to 1.30 p.m.; and 4.30 p.m. to 5.00 p.m. and he recommends that people ring for technical support in mid-morning and mid-afternoon. Customers can get support on the Net, where the database of 40,000 to 50,000 known problems is updated daily. Customers should also use built-in tutorials and wizards.
For pre-installed software, customers should seek technical support from whoever installed it - but if they buy off-the-shelf they seek technical support from Microsoft.
"Technical support is always a challenge," said Mike Maloney, Gateway's director of marketing for Europe, Middle East and Africa, who told The Irish Times last week that Gateway hopes to have a call-back facility "within 10 days". Rather than customers being left holding and wondering when they will be dealt with, callers will be told there is, say, a 45 minute waiting time. Customers will be given the option of waiting or having technicians ring them back at an agreed time, he said. Gateway technicians answer questions about software that was not installed by Gateway. Over 40 per cent of calls are about non-Gateway hardware and software but "we don't turn those customers away."
Maloney declined to give the average time spent by customers on the phone from ringing to having their technical query resolved because it was commercially sensitive. But he says he sees it as "absolutely fundamental" to satisfy customers: "The company that has the greatest loyalty will be the one that lasts. The whole business will collapse around bad service".
jmarmstrong@irish-times.ie