Getting off on a technicality

Technical support is not just about fixing things when they go wrong, it’s also about preventing problems before they occur, solving business problems as well as technical ones, and helping clients to get the best out of their system.

For certain people, software support presents an endlessly fascinating challenge. A software technician, such as Daybook’s Balinder Walia, sees each call as a fresh problem to be solved and an opportunity to excel in what he does best.

Balinder explains: “Clients tend to accept things as they are and do not bother to change them. But just a few minutes spent talking to the Daybook Customer Support Team can often bring about surprising results, as we can help clients to make the most of their investment.”

He continues: “What many clients don’t realise is that tailoring a flexible product like Modulus or Daybook Enterprise means it can do things that specifically meet your business needs. In this ways we can, for example, provide people who work in accounting and finance with a complete system to support them in a number of time-consuming and expensive tasks.”

Don’t Always Believe What You Hear

Every technical support department has its share of humorous stories that illustrate how a frustrating problem can come down to something simple. One Daybook anecdote concerns a secretary in a large financial services company who complained that her database would sporadically freeze for two minutes. It turned out that while experimenting she had recorded two minutes of complete silence and made it the system ‘beep’. So, every time her machine wanted to alert her by ‘beeping’, it played two minutes of silence!

Having said that, Balinder admits that technical problems can often be far from simple to resolve. As well as being intermittent, they might also be specific to a machine or a particular system configuration. For this reason, Daybook technicians prefer to have the option to log into a client system remotely and be able to examine the problem first hand.

If the problem turns out to be connected to data, as many are, then remote access often means that it can be fixed without any downtime on the system. Suddenly distance becomes unimportant, allowing Daybook to effectively support clients as far away as the United States.

Balinder adds: "No two companies are alike and every company needs a different level of support. For some, the basic level will suffice, but it is also important to realise that there are many other options, such as the ‘Daybook Health Check’, a regular programme of remote and on-site support designed to ensure that users are getting the optimal performance from their system.”

Despite their diversity, all Daybook’s clients share a common goal; they need to be sure of system availability if they are to run their businesses successfully. The Daybook technical support team recognises that it is vital to deal with client issues speedily and effectively. It aims to respond to a request for support within four hours, but starts looking for a solution as soon as possible after an issue is reported.

Balinder continues: “For clients that can’t afford an IT department, we are there to plug the gap and, boosted by SupportPlan’s hardware and operating system support, we are able to provide a complete, integrated service."

Communication is Key

Communication plays a vital role in collecting the information needed in order to resolve an issue, Balinder explains: “The technical support team realise how important it is to listen carefully when a client rings with a problem so as to fully understand the issues involved. We are also very aware of, and sympathise with, the frustration felt when problems prevent work from proceeding smoothly. The speediest solutions usually come when clients talk a team member through what they have done so that the problem can be replicated.

“In short, Daybook knows that it is our high standard of technical support that helps it to build and maintain such good relationships with its clients.”

Daybook is constantly improving its support services and looking to implement systems that are increasingly effective. No matter whether a customer is on its doorstep in London or across the Atlantic in the US, the support team will make every effort to reach them during their business hours.

Managing Director, Steve Gibson, adds: “Being a provider of business-critical software solutions is about much more than just writing software. It is about providing a complete service * and support is a vital component of this. There’s only one way to provide great support and that is to make it the very foundation of the business and to do our absolute best for our customers every time.

Technical Consultant, Nigel Greenlee concludes: “The great advantage of having support provided by professionals, such as ourselves, is that there is a strong possibility we will have encountered a similar problem before, and will therefore be able to find the most efficient way to fix it.”

High-level expertise, remote access and real commitment all combine to produce what Balinder and his equally talented colleagues hope is a great result. For them it is fun, frustrating and rewarding by turns, but a job they enjoy - unlike most of us they just love those technicalities.

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