How do "You" prefer to receive Technical Support?

For anyone that visited this blog for the last few weeks, noticed the option to vote on "how do you prefer to receive technical support". I should have been a bit more specific on what type of product etc, but I was really interested to see how people would respond. Initially, I was a bit bummed at the number of responses, but a fellow blogger mentioned that if you get a 2% response rate that is about average. I am proud to say, I received a response of ~6%.

Not surprising, the answers are a bit spread out. In my experience, individuals all learn differently and all like to search for help differently. I think it is the responsibility of the various vendors to know their user base and ensure that they provide support in a format that is catered to their users and not simply what is best for the vendor.

Interestingly, you see the two extremes are the most popular. That is some folks prefer to call and talk to their support engineers and the other extreme, some prefer to learn via video. Click the image below to enlarge.


Not to stereotype, but I find that support preference is partially governed by the generation of the engineers you ask. I think we are simply comfortable with what we know or how we were taught. Meaning, in the past, support was only available via phone and user manuals, then email became popular, and now videos and user forums seem to be popular. We have engineers that obviously span all of these options. But I think all will agree with the following, "We want the correct solution to our problem, in the fastest amount of time with the least amount of effort." Each person has their own tolerance and limits of these factors.

An interesting option, that I intentionally left it out, is "chatting" with support folks. Personally, I love it - used it today to talk to Dell and to my wireless provider. What do I like about chat?

1. Allows me to receive support and answer the phone, respond to emails etc while I am trying various suggestions provided by support
2. I don't have to sit on the phone and wait for them to look through the database, pull up my records, place me on hold while he checks on some things.
3. Plus, as with Dell, they email you the chat so I now have a written record of what to try when and if I ever have that problem again.

Personally, I love it. Can you receive "chat" support for CFD or for CAD? For some things, yes. Some things, no. If it is something real quick that you want to go back and forth with support, it can work. If the problem is a bit more sophisticated, you may need another medium. The point is, you should have the option that solves the problem the way you want to solve it.