Tuesday, December 05, 2006

Tech: help at hand for tech support

I was talking to a bloke who was having trouble with his broadband connection. Trouble was, there were several links in the chain (eg hardware, software, ISP), and they kept fobbing him off to someone else – ‘not my problem, it’s theirs”, etc.

Trouble is, that bloke figured I was in computers, so I could help him. All I could do was tell him I’d been in the same boat myself. I’ve paid a few times to have a support bloke come in. One time they changed the modem – because the service call was cheaper if they did so. (Now I have a spare modem that may – or may not – still work.)


I suggested there’s a fair bit of money to be made in taking on full I.T. support for people. Somewhere between an insurance policy and a support company – except they would fix everything.

I’m not that bunny. But a New Zealand telco has something that must be a breath of fresh air. Telecom New Zealand is supplying its customers with a software tool (from a US company called Motive) that will work its way through “common internet problems”. If it ultimately can’t provide resolution, it provides codes that will allow actual support people to identify the issue – as opposed to playing 20 questions with the customer.

I’d like that.

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