Solving the Problem Twice

Lately I have been thinking a lot about customer service and tech support. My thoughts have been around devising a way people can get answers to technical and system-related questions without having to be dependent on other people’s schedules via email and phone.  It’s quite obvious to me that although I cannot create this system myself, I can begin to identify the types of issues that might be resolved by customer’s interacting with some means of “online intelligence” – a system that helps people identify not only solutions but more importantly what exactly their problem is….

The goal is to make it so they do not need to call someone but rather can resolve issues independently with the help of a great online support system. At least those issues we can identify as repetitive and capable of being calculated. It’s not meant to dissolve interpersonal relations but rather reserve them for more important items which require dialogue and to provide customers with immediate results to mundane problems.

So analysis is in order… I really like the idea of solving problems twice as advocated by Joel’s 7 steps…be sure to read number one of his customer service tips but I like ‘em all.