Hmmpost

When it comes to tech support, online still isn’t used as much as one might think. A Pew Internet & American Life Project study was conducted on the percentage of users of computers, music players, cellphones, smart phones and internet service found only 2% solve their own technology problems online. The rest? About 38% of respondents called customer service, 28% fixed the problem themselves and 15% got help from friends or relatives.  The rest — about 15% — gave up.

If this study is accurate, would it be a great time to start a local tech help service?  Although this study doesn’t say how many got help from a third party tech support service, I’m curious how many factored that into the nearly 40% who call customer service? Don’t know how it is for most the folks reading, but I’ve long been on the receiving end of the 15% who friends and relatives go to for tech help. I try to fix my own problems using the information online, but will sometimes call customer service if it’s something that well placed search engine queries don’t resolve. I’m not a fan of knowledge bases online, which often seem like the customer service equivalent of searching for a needle in a haystack. I’ve found on several occasions that the built-in support search engines are lacking compared to targeted search engine queries. I’m also not shy about using Live Chat help functions on sites, but find it frustrating when I’m sent to somebody using a script instead of common sense. It’s not a problem to have a script funnel into fixes for problems, but listen to what the customer has tried before diving in and backtracking. Scripted help reps too often in my experience don’t listen and will incorrectly diagnose what you’ve already tried and hasn’t worked. Where do you fit in this study? Are you one of the 2% who try to fix the problems online? I’m pretty sure most readers of this blog will not be in the 15% who give up.