It is fundamental that when you’re looking for a new software support package that it will offer you sufficient assistance and your business expectations are met. Making an informed choice and finding the right software support can really assist in helping transform your processes and ensure you help eliminate “our software system has gone down at 2 pm on a Friday afternoon” scenario. To help you find the best solution to software support, we have pulled together the key differences between reactive and proactive support along with the importance of building relationships and trust.
How would you define “great customer service” for your business?
When you’re delving in deep to find the best software support package, it is best to strip it back and ask yourself the above question. However big or small your business, you want to make sure that the support package you opt for suits your business and customer needs and fulfils your overall expectations.
- Do you simply want someone to solve an IT issue with a support ticket?
- Do you want to communicate with the support team and learn how to develop and enhance your business?
- Do you want a roadmap and plan on how you can adjust your systems with updates and ensure issues that do arise are resolved?
It is recommended to create an essential feature list of what you would expect from support, this will help you narrow down and choose the best package for your business.
Proactive vs reactive support
When something goes wrong, especially with software a quick fix seems the most appealing option. However, small problems can easily escalate into larger ones if not addressed properly.
The traditional support ticket would investigate and fix the problem and the ticket would then be closed with little or no communication from anyone bar raising the ticket and confirming its closure. This still exists, and does work for some businesses, but usually doesn’t get to the root of the problem. This is known as a reactive approach to support whereby you fix problems that arise and don’t really look at future issues which could occur within your systems. This approach is a quick win situation (if the problem is solvable quickly) however, what will happen if advice is needed, or you need your systems to be keeping up with digital transformation within your industry? That is when you should be looking at a more proactive approach to supporting your software systems.
The proactive approach will cover off the basics in terms of handling tickets as they are raised but it is more of a roadmap, you have individuals who look at your systems and give you the best advice to move forward and keep an eye out for future issues that may arise. It is an approach that can be flexible and fit with your business. This will also help you set out a roadmap to ensure you’re always ahead of the game and look for opportunities to develop, health check and monitor your systems.
The importance of relationships and trust
Working closely with a company that is offering proactive support enables you to create a relationship and build trust. Business goals for clients and improvements can be achieved with system supports that are delivered by a team of confident communicators with an impeccable reputation based on trust and expertise. A team of experts who listen carefully, know their stuff and how to enhance the individual needs of a business, is key to success and satisfaction. Being able to pick up the phone and have your questions answered promptly, delivery of your clients expectations through results, response to problems, and on-call availability build the foundations of a successful lasting business relationship.
Paul Kirk our Support Manager said: “Excellent support starts with the partnership and trust you have with your provider. That relationship provides the foundation for recommendations and improvements to be made that are focused on exceeding business goals.”
Our packages are not a ‘one size fits all’, instead, they have been designed to provide you with flexible and scalable technical support to maintain, enhance and evolve your software systems.
If you’d like to find out more about how we can help you with our Flexible Support packages, please get in touch.
