fbpx

8 Tech Support Mistakes You Should Avoid

Technical Support Mistakes

Technical support is a vital business function in promoting a better business-to-client relationship. The help desk is where people ask for assistance regarding troubleshooting and other technical issues of products they’re using. 

Like any other business function, tech support has always been the subject of massive complaints ranging from long waiting periods to difficulty understanding complex terminologies. These complaints may negatively impact a business’s performance in the eyes of its customers. With this in mind, how a team of support representatives handles customer complaints plays a critical part in feedback, satisfaction ratings, and overall company reviews. 

It is also understandable, though, that dealing with tech support matters can be taxing for employees and the organization as a whole. While it’s understandable that every company strives to deliver better products or services, tech support mistakes remain a struggle—and sometimes, without the full awareness of the employees. 

What are the tech support mistakes to avoid?

Image Courtesy Antoni Shkraba

Although mistakes often happen, these can be avoidable. These are the tech support mistakes that representatives commonly must steer clear of. 

1. Forgetting to acknowledge 

One of the things that tech support has failed to do the most is acknowledging the concern before resolving them. This mistake often makes customers feel neglected, and that should be a no-no for companies. Upon addressing the problems, tech support representatives should also learn to be empathetic and understand the context of the issue.  

2. Not being proactive  

The lack of initiative of tech support representatives to remedy problems is another big mistake they should avoid. Even if help desks generally respond based on customer’s reactions, tech support representatives need to be proactive to receive fewer complaints and gain generally positive feedback and customer satisfaction.  

3. No given timetable for response 

It may be understandable that customers’ concerns are always urgent, and tech support representatives need time to solve them. However, the inability to inform a timetable for this process can leave customers frustrated. It might show the lack of initiative on the company’s part to better its products or services. What can a help desk representative do is acknowledge the problem, apologize for the inconvenience, and give a realistic timetable to do a follow-up as the company works its way to resolve such concern. 

4. Failure to live to its promise 

Tech support tends to make promises to customers, which, in hindsight, may become a problem in the long run because failure to deliver on what was initially promised would hurt the company’s reputation. Moreover, it would hurt both the company and its customers if a tech support representative committed an overpromise. The closest thing to avoid this blunder is to be realistic about what a business can assure to deliver in a certain time. 

5. Overlooking the basics  

The 1-2-3s of tech support’s communication with their customers, such as addressing complaints and apologizing for the errors, may appear dull and routinary. Still, customer support outsourcing companies should always comply with these standards. For instance, overlooking the basics could result in potentially losing customers through unresolved issues or arguments. Even the effortless responses like ‘Thank you,’ ‘Please,’ or ‘We are very sorry for the inconvenience caused by…’ could become a helpful gesture in lightening the mood of an irate customer.  

6. Unreachable lines 

Suppose all possible ways to connect with the company’s tech support department (e-mail, chat, voice, text messaging, and app) are too busy. Chances are it would rile up customers and ignite distrust between them and the business. Although having automated features like chatbots would help enterprises keep up, it’s always best to have a tech support representative on standby because clients want an actual human to interact and address their problems. 

7. Lacking product knowledge  

The inadequate knowledge of tech support representatives may be attributed to their lack of experience and training. This mistake could create more problems because if a tech support representative doesn’t know anything about the products or services, how would the customers trust the organization? Undertrained or inexperienced trainees might need some help from their superiors or counterparts. Thus, equipping the new employees with proper technical knowledge should be addressed early on before handling customer concerns. 

8. Using support templates 

Employing an automated set of responses and chatbots may work for data gathering, but entirely resorting to this would create other errors instead of resolving them. If no one’s around to address customers’ problems, they would be dissatisfied and frustrated with the company’s service. Customers want authentic interaction with a human help desk from the service they avail. Therefore, businesses should let tech support representatives get in touch with customers in real-time to recommend more accurate actions to the customer’s issues. 

Why should tech support professionals avoid these mistakes? 

Technical support is essential today, and it continues to do so as technological advancements keep impacting the growing demands of consumers.  

Given these points, tech support representatives should be aware and knowledgeable on what they are offering and what they can deliver to their customers. Specifically, they must understand each concern and be proactive in assessing what they could do better to avoid any other case of tech support mistakes.  

Other than these precautionary steps, companies may offshore technical support services to a business process offshoring company. Offshore support desk representatives specialize in addressing technical issues efficiently because they are up-to-date with the latest technologies and trends. Offshoring tech support does not only help customers resolve their problems; it also ensures that companies deliver excellent service through streamlined processes. 


Technical support is a crucial part of building a seamless business-to-client relationship. This service helps businesses run their day-to-day operations smoothly as help desk representatives handle customer’s concerns with much ease and competence. 

Technical support offshoring is one of the services that One CoreDev IT (CORE) offers to businesses. With our employer of record solutions, we ensure your company’s excellent service by assisting customers with our specialists’ knowledge and expertise.

Aside from that, we also have a wide range of flexible, cost-efficient, and scalable solutions such as merchant customer services, back office services, online proctoring, and more. Check out Our Solutions page! 

Share on social media

On this page

More Insights

Receive the latest news

Stay in the loop!

Get notified about new articles