Getting Technical Support Help Online

Sometimes your PC will start acting strange for no apparent reason or a program which you use regularly will all of a sudden stop working as it should. This can be a frustrating experience especially if you have no idea where to go for help. If this happens to you, don't panic! Here are some simple tips which may turn your frown upside down.

1. Don't assume that your problem is unique. The chances are that someone else has had that problem and it has already been solved. Google is a great place for getting technical support help believe it or not. You may have to experiment with wording your problem and refining your search, but it's worth a try. For example my Outlook email client stopped showing me the 'Subject' field when I was composing new email. As a result all of my email was going out without a subject. After a bit of experimenting with wording the problem I found the answer by searching on the phrase "Outlook subject field missing". Someone in an online discussion group had the same problem and the answer was provided. When you find good discussions groups bookmark them for future use. I have a bookmark I call Technical Support Help and it's full of great web sites.

2. The Google trick is good for lots of software but you should always try the web site of the program's manufacturer as well. Sometimes your problem is really a bug and there may be a new release or work around available. Many software web sites have FAQs, discussion lists, and help desks available that provide free support. Sometimes there is a telephone number that you can call but you may have to pay for live help.

3. There are companies that offer free general help for simple questions and then charge a sliding scale for more complicated ones. Support Freaks (www.supportfreaks.com) is a good one to try. Even if you have to pay, the rates are reasonable. Click on the "Freebies" link, under the "Quick Links" menu to see if your question is eligible for free help.

4. There are probably any number of local PC support groups that meet in libraries and other locations near your home. Some of these groups are very specific in nature and some are general. Try searching Google for "PC Support Group" or "PC User group" and the name of your town. Also check with your local librarian and computer stores. They often know of these groups.

5. Speaking of computer stores, you can often pick the brains of the more knowledgeable salespeople if you are lucky enough to find any. Many times these employees love computers so much that they will act as your big brother or sister if you need some quick help. Sometimes they moonlight as consultants at a good rate.

This ought to be enough information to get you started on the road to solving your next PC or software problem. If you are having Internet connectivity problems then your ISP is the first place to start. If you can't get online at all, and you don't think you know their phone number, think again. I'll bet that it's printed on every bill that they send you. You'll also need your account number and you can bet that it's printed on the bill as well.

Remember -- When it comes to getting technical support help, the first rule is: Don't Panic!

Cavyl Stewart. Discover 52 Ways To Do More With Software by signing up for my exclusive Free ecourse. Get resources, tips, reviews and recommendations you can use right now to help you achieve more, easier, and cheaper! 100% Original content. Visit: http://www.find-small-business-software.com/52ways.html

Importance of Good Customer Support in Online Computer Peripherals Shops

Looking for hi-fi computer peripherals? Finding it tough to decide on the product you need to purchase? Not sure about the models that are available? Not sure about the configuration that would best suit your need? Worried that your budget might not fetch you your long dreamt hi-fi? Just relax!! There are many great world class online computer peripherals shopping centers. They offer you not only the best computer peripherals but also friendly online help in their world class online computer peripherals shopping sites. All that you have to do is to avail all the help you need in terms of the counseling you would require on the purchase of the right computer peripherals. These websites have always-available customer support agents’ usually just one click away. The ones that are successful have provided exceptional customer support available online which is dedicated to make their customers feel delighted and satisfied. Because they have learnt the business mantra very well - Their success lies in their customers’ satisfaction.

The main criterion you should look out when dealing with an online shop is whether the online customer support is designed to help the wary customers in product counseling and budget counseling. They should have trained agents who will be able to give you guidance on the computer peripherals that would best suit you. In terms of budget counseling, their agents should be able to choose the most cost effective solution for your need. Any good shop would train their online customer support agents out of their longstanding experience. Look out for the availability of online customer support agents who are readily available to resolve your billing related queries and your shipping related queries. These are the shops you should be buying the products as they can offer the needed assistance post sales.

You got to ask the following questions: What is special about their online computer peripheral site? Is it the price? Is it the quality of the products? Or is it something more than that that makes them popular? Apart from all these usually, it is something more than that, that makes them popular and the most sought after online computer peripheral stores. The website should make you feel important you are not left on your own to be lost in the complicated technical configurations and specifications of the products which often most of the users find difficult to translate it in terms of meeting their practical requirements. The online customer support agents should listen to your requirements and should be happy to counsel you on the product, configuration that would best suit your need.

The website should be flooded with the latest technology products which also maintain consistency in offering the latest technology customer support. Ages have changed and everyone is expected to move along with the time. The same applies for maintaining a website and keeping the customers happy. It requires dedication blended with a sense of service.

Though still used in many websites, customer support offered through telephone has become a headache for both the customers and the companies that offer the support. Making calls to toll free numbers and waiting for long minutes have become obsolete. We understand our customers better and are aware how tired and frustrated they feel about making calls just to hear a monotonous reply – “Your call is in queue please wait”. Live chat customer support has changed the situation. Immediate response accompanied by valuable suggestions has become the specialty of having live chat customer support on websites. But this doesn't apply to all great websites as the toll free support is relatively good. You should look for a good customer support that you prefer, if you want phone, email, snail mail or chat you should look out for the shop that offers the right support like the one you prefer.

One good online Computer components and peripherals store that offers great support is the theredhotgroup.com. You can also take a look at the training packages offered in redhottraining.com

Automating Your Customer Support

 

My regular readers will know that one of the things I highly recommend doing with any online business is automating as many of your day to day tasks as possible.

From a personal point of view, one of the tasks that takes up a lot of my time is answering emails. It isn't just answering email that eats up the hours - sorting through and deleting spam and junk mail absorbs a lot of time too. In the good old days, I used to get a couple of spam emails a day. Now it is closer to 1000 a day!

In fact, when you look at it, email isn't always the best form of online communication. Not only is there the junk mail issue to contend with but also the fact that email is not 100% reliable. Emails do 'go missing' far more regularly than you might expect. Often this is simply because the recipients email software has decided that a particular email is junk and has transferred it directly to the 'Delete' folder. Other times it may be because the recipients ISP has decided that the email is junk and deleted it BEFORE it has even been seen by the recipient! (Yes this really does happen - imagine if your postman sorted through your mail and made the decision of which letters you want and which ones he should throw away?!)

One way to help avoid the spam problem when dealing with customer support enquiries is to make use of a contact form on your website instead of posting an email address. This will certainly help to cut down on spam but it still means that you have the problem of emails not getting to their destination (and when you have a frustrated customer waiting for assistance this is not ideal).

Therefore, probably the best option on the market presently is a full-blown helpdesk system. Setting up a dedicated helpdesk is a superb way of automating your customer support and speeding up the process of dealing with enquiries and support emails. Not only that but if you use a system that allows customers to create 'tickets', you don't have to rely on email as your customers can login to a special web page and view both their tickets and your replies online.

Another feature of many helpdesk scripts is an 'FAQ' or 'Knowledgebase' section. This is simply a collection of the most frequently asked questions/queries/problems along with answers and solutions. This means that customers can search the knowledgebase and hopefully find the answer to their question without having to contact Support at all.

Some of the more advanced scripts will even scan the customers support ticket prior to submitting it and then list a few possible answers to their questions just in case they didn't read through the knowledgebase before typing the ticket out - very clever stuff.

These scripts are also very powerful in terms of how they can benefit you. Just think how much time you could save if, say, 40% of your customer support emails just stopped coming due to the fact that your customers were now able to find the answers to their questions automatically.

Having an online helpdesk is also of benefit if you travel around a lot or if you are away from the office on vacation etc. Instead of having to take a laptop loaded up with previous emails from customers, you can simply login to your helpdesk admin page and all of your previous correspondence will be online and at your fingertips. It also means that you won't have to spend hours in an Internet cafe deleting a days worth of spam at a time just to get to the important emails since only the important emails will have made it through to the helpdesk in the first place.

As with most things, setting up a customer service helpdesk is one of those tasks that is always better done when you first start your online business. That said, it is fairly easy to integrate such a feature into your existing set up and that is exactly what I have done for all of my websites...

Over the next few months, I will be phasing many of my email addresses out - I simply can't stand the spam any more! With immediate effect, all customer support issues for all of my products and websites will be handled via a central Customer Support Helpdesk.

I am confident that this will improve the overall 'support experience' for both my customers and me :-)

If you are interested in installing a similar helpdesk on your own website/s, there are numerous options when it comes to suitable software. I chose a product called eSupport (link below) and whilst this is a very powerful script, I am hesitant to give it my full recommendation since the installation/set up process was, how can I put this, slightly painful. It doesn't help that there is no manual for the software which means that new users are left to figure out how it works by trial and error or by trawling through hundreds of posts on the company forum. That said, I am advised by the software creator that a manual is in the process of being written and will be available soon. As I say, an excellent and powerful script once installed and configured but definitely not for those lacking patience (and indeed, some computer knowledge). If you opt for this script, my advice would be to get the publishers of the software to install it for you. You can find out more about eSupport at: http://www.kayako.com

Other alternatives (neither of which I have tried myself) include Perldesk ( http://www.perldesk.com ) and Cerberus ( http://www.cerberusweb.com ). One advantage of Cerberus is that there is a free version :-)

Richard Grady has been helping ordinary people earn online since 1998. He writes a free newsletter which is published every two weeks. To subscribe (and claim your free gifts), visit: http://www.thetraderonline.com/newsletter.html