The Receptionist conumdrum
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This comment sparked a thought that I want to discuss.
@JaredBusch said in Panzura Find Active Master:
I'm sorry but I'm not going to pay an employee to deal with random non paying people wanting support. That's expensive.
- Typos fixed, also removed the language.
Why do businesses have Tier 1 support channels, usually with multiple people available at a moments notice ready to answer most questions, who then direct you to another support channel at anything even remotely relating to their product and support?
This (Tier 1 chat support) to me is equivalent to asking the receptionist of an office to tell you the time. Would you expect the receptionist to tell that potential client to "Call into the office at <number>" or to tell that person to pound sand?
The questions, if not requiring in depth knowledge (how to read a clock) should in my opinion be able to be answered by the T1 chat support person (receptionist).
Discuss.
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Well typically it is a Tier 0 / L0 triage person, not a L1 tech in those positions. It is purely a customer service position.
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@scottalanmiller said in The Receptionist conumdrum:
Well typically it is a Tier 0 / L0 triage person, not a L1 tech in those positions. It is purely a customer service position.
The receptionist still has some technical capability. They know how to answer a phone call (message) type, use the printer, read a clock etc.
So you're suggesting that these business instead would opt to have separate support channels.
Customer Service who just directs the person to support, and a T1 support department who then needs to elevate from there.
That seems even more costly when looking at it from Jared's quote.
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It's not always true that first level support is useless. Tenable has great support. The guy you chat with is the guy that will work your case. They do everything from chatting, spinning up VMs to test and try to get the same results, analyze diagnostic files, etc.
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@IRJ said in The Receptionist conumdrum:
It's not always true that first level support is useless. Tenable has great support. The guy you chat with is the guy that will work your case. They do everything from chatting, spinning up VMs to test and try to get the same results, analyze diagnostic files, etc.
That may be a different case than I am discussing here. I assume with Tenable only offers paid service, and if you don't pay you get no service and therefore only subscribed customers would ever talk to their T1 channels or higher.
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@DustinB3403 said in The Receptionist conumdrum:
That seems even more costly when looking at it from Jared's quote.
It's often not costly. The cost of an L0 can be close to have that of an L1. L0 to L1 is the big leap in price, typically. Bigger than you find anywhere else in IT. Essentially from unskilled to skilled. Whereas from L1 to L2 is pretty small.
And generally the person answering the phones has to do triage anyway, so that they don't know anything isn't a big deal. Even an L1 would need to point to someone else most of the time. So best to save the money.
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@DustinB3403 said in The Receptionist conumdrum:
@IRJ said in The Receptionist conumdrum:
It's not always true that first level support is useless. Tenable has great support. The guy you chat with is the guy that will work your case. They do everything from chatting, spinning up VMs to test and try to get the same results, analyze diagnostic files, etc.
That may be a different case than I am discussing here. I assume with Tenable only offers paid service, and if you don't pay you get no service and therefore only subscribed customers would ever talk to their T1 channels or higher.
Of course it's paid support.. I do think they support the trial as well, but yeah you need to be in a paid members area to access that chat.
Do you really expect someone to offer support like that go free? That's seems like a hell of a Longshot and actually teaches bad practice. It's important to have a support contract for most products. I just see it as part of the cost of the software.
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@IRJ said in The Receptionist conumdrum:
@DustinB3403 said in The Receptionist conumdrum:
@IRJ said in The Receptionist conumdrum:
It's not always true that first level support is useless. Tenable has great support. The guy you chat with is the guy that will work your case. They do everything from chatting, spinning up VMs to test and try to get the same results, analyze diagnostic files, etc.
That may be a different case than I am discussing here. I assume with Tenable only offers paid service, and if you don't pay you get no service and therefore only subscribed customers would ever talk to their T1 channels or higher.
Of course it's paid support.. I do think they support the trial as well, but yeah you need to be in a paid members area to access that chat.
Do you really expect someone to offer support like that go free? That's seems like a hell of a Longshot and actually teaches bad practice. It's important to have a support contract for most products. I just see it as part of the cost of the software.
If any support is free, you risk people starting to use the support for everything. It's like free French fries. In theory, you could run a burger place that charges $4 for a burger and gives the fries away for free.
Problem is, people will just start eating fries and nothing else. Not because they want fries, but just because they are free.
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@scottalanmiller said in The Receptionist conumdrum:
@IRJ said in The Receptionist conumdrum:
@DustinB3403 said in The Receptionist conumdrum:
@IRJ said in The Receptionist conumdrum:
It's not always true that first level support is useless. Tenable has great support. The guy you chat with is the guy that will work your case. They do everything from chatting, spinning up VMs to test and try to get the same results, analyze diagnostic files, etc.
That may be a different case than I am discussing here. I assume with Tenable only offers paid service, and if you don't pay you get no service and therefore only subscribed customers would ever talk to their T1 channels or higher.
Of course it's paid support.. I do think they support the trial as well, but yeah you need to be in a paid members area to access that chat.
Do you really expect someone to offer support like that go free? That's seems like a hell of a Longshot and actually teaches bad practice. It's important to have a support contract for most products. I just see it as part of the cost of the software.
If any support is free, you risk people starting to use the support for everything. It's like free French fries. In theory, you could run a burger place that charges $4 for a burger and gives the fries away for free.
Problem is, people will just start eating fries and nothing else. Not because they want fries, but just because they are free.
Well sure, but why have a receptionist then? People could just constantly ask the receptionist for the time or to make a call for them. Without ever being a customer.
The same scenario applies as the free fries case.
You could make the argument, once you buy a burger you get free fries for so long. But after that you need to purchase another burger.
Which that is the same support channel that we're discussing doesn't exist here. T1 is answering the receptionist phone.
T1 should be handing out free fries.
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Now I may be completely off the mark here, But from what I understand:
@DustinB3403 said in The Receptionist conumdrum:
This comment sparked a thought that I want to discuss.
@JaredBusch said in Panzura Find Active Master:
I'm sorry but I'm not going to pay an employee to deal with random non paying people wanting support. That's expensive.
- Typos fixed, also removed the language.
Why do businesses have Tier 1 support channels, usually with multiple people available at a moments notice ready to answer most questions, who then direct you to another support channel at anything even remotely relating to their product and support?
Like ISP's (cox Communications for example - same set up)?
This (Tier 1 chat support) to me is equivalent to asking the receptionist of an office to tell you the time. Would you expect the receptionist to tell that potential client to "Call into the office at <number>" or to tell that person to pound sand?
isnt the job of a receptionist is not to tell you the time but to point you in the direct of someone who can answer your question and our set you up with a time and date to ask your questions?
The questions, if not requiring in depth knowledge (how to read a clock) should in my opinion be able to be answered by the T1 chat support person (receptionist).
Discuss.
My Opinion on this:
the point in a receptionist is to take call and forward to the people who need contacted - You call your Doctors office right? They dont troubleshoot your health over the phone, They take your information and set you an appointment or send that information to the Nurses and they get back to you. another example is: Our company (Save all sarcastic comments til the end, Please and thank you.) has a receptionist, Who answers calls, and creates tickets - (She also handles billing and other things non tech related such as book keeping, Gatekeeper in a way, etc.) but she does no troubleshooting. She answers the phone, and puts in a ticket that we then call the customer back and resolve the issues.
If she were to do troubleshooting then we would have no reason for her to be working here. and it would be call center type - like your local ISP Call center when internet goes down or cable (whatever point is: ) you call a line and get put on hold tell the next available person picks up, that takes away the whole point in having a receptionist if you have multiple people available to answer phones.
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@WrCombs Yes, this would be like calling your ISP and getting support immediately when someone answers. That is what "Chat with Support" is.
It's calling into T1 call center (chat center).
It's also calling into the receptionist at the same time.
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@DustinB3403 said in The Receptionist conumdrum:
@WrCombs Yes, this would be like calling your ISP and getting support immediately when someone answers. That is what "Chat with Support" is.
That's what I was thinking.
It's calling into T1 call center (chat center).
It's also calling into the receptionist at the same time.
Wait what?
How?
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@WrCombs said in The Receptionist conumdrum:
@DustinB3403 said in The Receptionist conumdrum:
@WrCombs Yes, this would be like calling your ISP and getting support immediately when someone answers. That is what "Chat with Support" is.
That's what I was thinking.
It's calling into T1 call center (chat center).
It's also calling into the receptionist at the same time.
Wait what?
How?
Because there is no option to "Chat with sales" on the site being discussed. So it's an all in one "chat center" T1, Sales, Customer Service.
You're chatting with the people who "put a different hat one" based on what. Why have those same people need to wear a different hat if, as scott says, their T0, but as the ISP example shows their T1. And their own website offers "support".
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@DustinB3403 said in The Receptionist conumdrum:
@scottalanmiller said in The Receptionist conumdrum:
@IRJ said in The Receptionist conumdrum:
@DustinB3403 said in The Receptionist conumdrum:
@IRJ said in The Receptionist conumdrum:
It's not always true that first level support is useless. Tenable has great support. The guy you chat with is the guy that will work your case. They do everything from chatting, spinning up VMs to test and try to get the same results, analyze diagnostic files, etc.
That may be a different case than I am discussing here. I assume with Tenable only offers paid service, and if you don't pay you get no service and therefore only subscribed customers would ever talk to their T1 channels or higher.
Of course it's paid support.. I do think they support the trial as well, but yeah you need to be in a paid members area to access that chat.
Do you really expect someone to offer support like that go free? That's seems like a hell of a Longshot and actually teaches bad practice. It's important to have a support contract for most products. I just see it as part of the cost of the software.
If any support is free, you risk people starting to use the support for everything. It's like free French fries. In theory, you could run a burger place that charges $4 for a burger and gives the fries away for free.
Problem is, people will just start eating fries and nothing else. Not because they want fries, but just because they are free.
Well sure, but why have a receptionist then? People could just constantly ask the receptionist for the time or to make a call for them. Without ever being a customer.
Because the receptionist "charges" by being a delay. They charge in time. The receptionist won't give out the time, and is slow to transfer calls. It has no value to the person calling in.
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@IRJ said in The Receptionist conumdrum:
It's not always true that first level support is useless. Tenable has great support. The guy you chat with is the guy that will work your case. They do everything from chatting, spinning up VMs to test and try to get the same results, analyze diagnostic files, etc.
Elastic is the same way. They have a dedicated developer pair that supports you and since we were DoD we could even get cleared people as support so they could on site visit.
