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Pastimes : Computer Learning -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Proud_Infidel who wrote (21845)	8/16/2001 11:30:20 PM
From: SIer formerly known as Joe B.	Respond to of 110653

The future of tech support: no waiting By Diego Ventura, Special to ZDNet Thursday August 16 09:15 AM EDT dailynews.yahoo.com Guest columnist Diego Ventura says most support solutions just offer only piecemeal answers. When will we have a real self-service alternative to traditional technical support? COMMENTARY--For most consumers, calling for technical support conjures up visions of waiting on "hold" forever and then describing the problem to technician after technician. Troubleshooting technical problems even with online diagnostics is frustrating because they deliver mostly generic solutions. End users need--and expect--rapid and accurate responses. Yet today, a recent Forrester Research report notes, 80 percent of U.S. companies are still struggling to deliver real-time support to their customer base. These companies are pouring billions of dollars into technical support call centers, spending $33 per call for telephone support and $10 per email for Web support for a total of at least $2.2 billion in the U.S. alone every year. That's a significant portion of company profits. Technicians, meanwhile, find themselves answering the same questions over and over. In fact, 75 percent of tech support questions are reactive and repetitive. Clearly, the system doesn't work. Most support solutions offer only piecemeal answers. Ask Jeeves, for example, provides links to a long list of documents in response to user questions, but it doesn't provide any diagnostic tools. Users are served by a "virtual librarian" delivering documents rather than by a "virtual support rep" diagnosing problems. left with merely a virtualized librarian to diagnose problems. Customers actually need that virtualized technical support representative to offer intelligent support and recognize each customer's particular situation and delivering relevant solutions right away. To create this virtual technician, companies must integrate today's piecemeal solutions and automate routine technical support, leaving the most unique problems for human technicians. They must build advanced Web sites that weave together contextualized guidance, intelligent transactions, and preemptive support. The existing solutions don't work Three pieces of intelligent support have recently emerged: glorified search engines, chat bots, and menu-driven systems. Glorified search engines usually deliver little more than an endless list of links to documents that may address the user's questions. The series of links requires users to solve their problems on their own without any true context. These applications can be valuable, but only for limited, easily diagnosed problems. Chat bots offer valuable features for enabling flexible communications. They allow the user to correspond with technical staff through a Q&A process. However, the user must describe the problem clearly and precisely enough for the technician to solve it. This is often a time-consuming, tedious task. Menu-driven systems enable powerful diagnostics, but again have limited use because they lock users into a specific set of options without the flexibility of direct personal contact. When will we have a real self-service alternative to traditional technical support? In the next two years, many support solutions providers will claim to have "cracked the code" for providing innovative solutions that solve the technical support crisis. Technology companies will begin implementing Web-based, self-service solutions that combine all three features. Then users will be able to search for answers, engage in self-diagnosis, and chat with tech support online. Businesses should remain wary of piecemeal approaches or incomplete technology. Successful companies will remedy bad technical support by doing more than simply creating a reference catalog online. Instead, they will create virtual technical support representatives. Speedier resolution times and the personalized response of virtual technicians will give consumers a greater sense of empowerment. Empowerment will lead to increased customer loyalty, a key barometer in today's competitive marketplace. Just imagine that instead of picking up the phone or sending an email, you can go to a vendor's Web site and begin to chat with an intuitive, human-like virtual technical support representative--just as you would with AOL Instant Messaging (news - web sites). Just type in your problem or question, using your own words, and the virtual technician either asks a few targeted questions to diagnose your problem or offers an immediate answer. In four clicks or less, you'll have your answer. There's more to it That's just half of the story. Once businesses can begin assessing the problems and questions customers are asking, they can proactively update content, improve products, and enhance customer support. These improvements will free more and more technical support staff to do the job they were hired to do--that is, to solve the more complex problems and make customers happy. Soon a system that combines the best aspects of phone support, email, and search engines will help users diagnose problems and deliver solutions instantly. Customers will be able to carry on an intelligent conversation with a virtual technical support person until they get an accurate, relevant solution. We'll receive real answers without waiting. We won't have endless lists of links to sift through. Companies will be able to increase revenue, reduce support costs, boost productivity, improve efficiency, and maximize their ROI. That's a concept worth working for. Diego Ventura is founder and CEO of noHold, Inc., (www.nohold.com) a Silicon Valley company that recently launched Instant Support.

To: Proud_Infidel who wrote (21845)	8/17/2001 6:59:13 PM
From: The Philosopher	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 110653

I also hear that XP is supposed to have an automatic update feature, so that whenever you go on the web it will look for updates and download and install them. I don't know whether this feature can be turned off. If not, Microsoft could download anything they wanted to into your system, reset it to use IE as the default browser on every update, etc. Of course, Bill Gates wouldn't do anything like that. We're all happy to give over control of our computers to the benevolent forces of Microsoft and their always-perfect code.