https://www.channelfutures.com/wp-content/themes/channelfutures_child/assets/images/logo/footer-new-logo.png
  • Home
  • Technologies
    • Back
    • Analytics
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • Cloud
    • Data Centers
    • Desktop
    • IoT
    • Mobility
    • Networking
    • Open Source
    • RMM/PSA
    • Security
    • Virtualization
    • Voice/Connectivity
  • Strategy
    • Back
    • Best Practices
    • Business Models
    • Channel 101
    • Channel Programs
    • Channel Research
    • Digital Transformation
    • Diversity & Inclusion
    • Leadership
    • Mergers and Acquisitions
    • Sales & Marketing
    • Specialty Practices
  • MSSP Insider
    • Back
    • Business of Security
    • Cloud and Edge
    • Endpoint
    • Network
    • People and Careers
    • Training and Policies
  • MSP 501
    • Back
    • 2021 MSP 501 Application
    • 2020 MSP 501 Rankings
    • 2020 Hot 101 Rankings
    • 2020 MSP 501 Report
  • Intelligence
    • Back
    • Our Sponsors
    • From the Industry
    • Content Resources
    • COVID-19 Partner Help
    • Galleries
    • Podcasts
    • Reports
    • Videos
    • Webinars
    • White Papers
  • EMEA
  • Awards
    • Back
    • Excellence in Digital Services
    • 2021 MSP 501
    • Top Gun 51
  • Events
    • Back
    • CP Conference & Expo
    • Channel Partners Evolution
    • Channel Evolution Europe
    • Channel Partners Event Coverage
    • Webinars
  • Channel Mentor
    • Back
    • Channel Market Intelligence
    • Channel Educational Series
Channel Futures
  • NEWSLETTER
  • Home
  • Technologies
    • Back
    • Analytics
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • Cloud
    • Data Centers
    • Desktop
    • IoT
    • Mobility
    • Networking
    • Open Source
    • RMM/PSA
    • Security
    • Virtualization
    • Voice/Connectivity
  • Strategy
    • Back
    • Best Practices
    • Business Models
    • Channel 101
    • Channel Programs
    • Channel Research
    • Digital Transformation
    • Diversity & Inclusion
    • Leadership
    • Mergers and Acquisitions
    • Sales & Marketing
    • Specialty Practices
  • MSSP Insider
    • Back
    • Business of Security
    • Cloud and Edge
    • Endpoint
    • Network
    • People and Careers
    • Training and Policies
  • MSP 501
    • Back
    • 2021 MSP 501 Application
    • 2020 MSP 501 Rankings
    • 2020 Hot 101 Rankings
    • 2020 MSP 501 Report
  • Intelligence
    • Back
    • Our Sponsors
    • From the Industry
    • Content Resources
    • COVID-19 Partner Help
    • Galleries
    • Podcasts
    • Reports
    • Videos
    • Webinars
    • White Papers
  • EMEA
  • Awards
    • Back
    • Excellence in Digital Services
    • 2021 MSP 501
    • Top Gun 51
  • Events
    • Back
    • CP Conference & Expo
    • Channel Partners Evolution
    • Channel Evolution Europe
    • Channel Partners Event Coverage
    • Webinars
  • Channel Mentor
    • Back
    • Channel Market Intelligence
    • Channel Educational Series
    • Newsletter
  • REGISTER
  • MSPs
  • VARs / SIs
  • Digital Service Providers
  • Cloud Service Providers
  • CHANNEL PARTNERS ONLINE
 Channel Futures

Strategy


support bot

The Role of IT Support Bots for Service Providers and Internal Departments

  • Written by Kirill Bensonoff
  • November 28, 2017
Support bots can create and assign tickets, schedule support calls, provide status updates and escalate critical issues before a single support staff member is even engaged.

Look over the shoulder of your support team as they field inquiries from customers, assign tickets and solve problems. What do you see? A lot of repetitiveness, data entry and triaging that seems like a massive waste of your precious resources.

Let’s face it, most support issues aren’t that urgent, aren’t that unique and aren’t that hard to solve. But because the customers asking for help don’t necessarily know what they’re asking for, use a variety of terminology and provide varying levels of detail, we feel obligated to have a trained human being run interference and translate their request into something actionable for a technician to handle.

But as your business grows, your support staff has to grow with it to handle the increased inquiry load, which seriously cuts into your bottom line and creates additional headcount on the payroll. Luckily, technology is now able to provide some relief from exponential customer service department growth while still providing a superior customer experience.

That’s because AI and bots have come to lighten the load and streamline the support process. Serving as the first line of support, support bots can create and assign tickets, schedule support calls, provide status updates and escalate critical issues before a single support staff member is even engaged.

With bots handling the initial inquiry, your technical support staff will save close to 30 hours per year each, which means they can help more customers during their shift and you can tap the brakes on hiring yet another support specialist.

And these bots aren’t just chatting with customers and providing canned responses, they’re fully integrated with your suite of PSA tools and calendars to streamline the ticketing process and put appointments in people’s calendars. Over time, the bots will get even smarter and start solving routine issues with customers directly, avoiding the need for a tech to get involved at all.

It turns out that many customers prefer chatting to phone calls when they’re looking for help, especially if they’re just scheduling a future appointment, but having a bot in place doesn’t mean they still can’t pick up the phone and call your toll-free support line. It just means a lot of them will bypass the pleasantries and keep their fingers on their keyboards to get the help they need. And by having your support bots tie into the same ticketing system used in your other support channels, there’s little risk of anyone’s case getting lost in your omni-channel support suite.

So who’s programming these newfangled virtual support team members? There are startups focused on the MSP space, such as SupportBot and Talla, while major tech platform players such as Facebook and Microsoft will also try to gain a foothold in the support marketplace with their AI-driven bot solutions.

Another great benefit of a bot-driven customer support operation is the ability to see reporting and analytics on the entire customer interaction. You don’t have to remember what you said to a given customer or transcribe conversations into a CRM tool, it’s all captured by the bot solution for later analysis.

Of course any customer-facing bot must provide a flawless customer experience; no one wants angry phone calls about a bot interaction that wasted a customer’s time because it tried to do too much or was too picky about input formats. That’s why – for the time being – customer support bots should be limited to triaging and routing inquiries and very basic support tasks.

For MSPs, the key is choosing a solution that seamlessly integrates with the systems already being used internally; no one wants to have to open a different app, tool or browser page to see what’s new with the support bot. But providing customers with a quick way to request support from their devices and routing those requests to the right people using their current toolset? Now that’s a bot we can get behind.

Kirill Bensonoff is a seasoned entrepreneur and the founder of Unigma (by Kaseya), a unified cloud management platform. Kirill blogs regularly about cloud, tech and growing your managed services business. He can be reached at [email protected].

Tags: Cloud Service Providers Digital Service Providers MSPs VARs/SIs Strategy Technologies

Related


  • ldquoAlliant was fortunate enough to actually be in the control of their production with NetBond so we had already made a sale and we turned the service up to one of our customers We sold the connection to Microsoft Manager It was the very first one sold through the Partner Exchange and we turned it up with absolutely no problem at all It39s a very valuable tool to help add value to the MPLS network that they have Customers today are trying to determine do they keep their MPLS or do they move t
    Why Fortinet for my MSSP?
    With hundreds of thousands of customer nodes under management, and billions of dollars of assets under their protection, the world’s top MSSPs hold their firewalls to extremely high standards for reliability, functionality, and flexibility. Read on to learn why Fortinet stands above the crowd of security vendors when considering solutions to address their complex requirements. […]
  • security centric
    Small and Mid-Size Business Security: 4 Steps to Success
    SMBs are attractive targets for hackers, and in the modern age, weak security can put a stop to both of those things. Not to fear though as SMBs, even with limited budgets and manpower, can significantly reduce their risk by using the right technologies that were designed to work together and offer strong protection while […]
  • Endpoint protection MSP
    How SMBs Can Secure Endpoints and Remote Workers for the Long Haul
    This white paper delves into this new world of endpoint and remote worker protection from the perspective of the SMB. On the coming pages we discuss four essential pieces of a successful program. Focusing on these priorities will help resource-strapped businesses hone their financial and human investments where they will matter most. Brought to you […]
  • Cyber security concept. Encryption.
    Mapping the Ransomware Landscape
    Recognizing the value of data, cyber criminals are increasingly turning to ransomware as a means of monetization. They infiltrate IT systems and access data through various hacks, encrypting, locking, and exfiltrating files. Unable to access information that is critical to their businesses, hacked organizations are forced to pay for the information to be released by […]

Leave a comment Cancel reply

-or-

Log in with your Channel Futures account

Alternatively, post a comment by completing the form below:

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related Content

  • Channel Partners Virtual 2021 Is Here — Take Advantage of the Amazing Content
  • Massive SolarWinds Hack Prompts Up to $25 Million in New Security Costs for Company
  • IBM Leans on Partners to Bring Cloud Satellite Services to Life
  • Welcome to the 2021 MSP 501 — Apply Now!

Galleries

View all

McAfee Sells Enterprise Security Business; Separately, Feds Charge Founder

March 8, 2021

Industry Perspectives

View all

What is FirstNet–and What Are the Benefits for Channel Partners?

March 8, 2021

5 Ways XDR Can Improve Operational Efficiency for MSPs

March 4, 2021

Multi-Cloud: Strategy or Inevitable Outcome? (or both?)

March 3, 2021

Webinars

View all

A Partner’s Perspective on Channel Success in 2021

March 23, 2021

XDR and Why it Matters to MSPs

March 24, 2021

Top Security Trends Impacting Technology Security Providers In 2021

March 25, 2021
  • 1

White Papers

View all

Why Fortinet for my MSSP?

March 2, 2021

Small and Mid-Size Business Security: 4 Steps to Success

March 2, 2021

How SMBs Can Secure Endpoints and Remote Workers for the Long Haul

March 2, 2021

Upcoming Events

View all

Channel Partners Conference & Expo

November 1, 2021 - November 4, 2021

Videos and Fastchats

View all

FASTCHAT: How SOAR Eliminates Security Challenges and Elevates Service Provider Revenues

January 6, 2021

Happy Holidays from Channel Partners & Channel Futures!

December 21, 2020

FASTCHAT: How Old, Unpatched Technologies Are Creating New Security Threats for MSPs and Their Customers

December 3, 2020

Twitter

ChannelFutures

A UK-based MSP got a lesson in grace when a post intended as a joke was mistaken for online bullying.… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

March 9, 2021
ChannelFutures

Learn more about #FirstNet and partnering with @GetWirelessLLC. #LTE #firstresponders #connectivity #IoT… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

March 8, 2021
ChannelFutures

Have you heard? @McAfee is selling its enterprise security business. And 75-year-old founder #JohnMcAfee faces deca… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

March 8, 2021
ChannelFutures

Today we celebrate the achievements of women worldwide, and we are proud to give the rockstar women in the channel… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

March 8, 2021
ChannelFutures

The list of #Accellion FTA breach victims keeps growing. Another bank joined the list over the weekend.… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

March 8, 2021
ChannelFutures

Happy #InternationalWomensDay! The Channel Futures / @Channel_Online team is proud to support @AllianceofCW and… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

March 8, 2021
ChannelFutures

#MSPs can help businesses deal with #cloudcomputing and #cybersecurity pain points, says @Dreamix_Ltd.… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

March 8, 2021
ChannelFutures

Chinese hacker group #HAFNIUM exploits critical @MSFTExchange Server vulnerability, could impact thousands.… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

March 7, 2021

MSSP Insider

Newsletters and Updates

Sign up for The Channel Report, Channel Futures Update, MSP 501 Newsletter and more.

Live Channel Events

Get the latest information on the next industry-leading Channel Partners event.

Channel Partners Online

Want more? Find more channel news and analysis on our sister site, Channel Partners.

Media Kit And Advertising

Want to reach our audience? Access our media kit

DISCOVER MORE FROM INFORMA TECH

  • Channel Partners Online
  • Channel Partners Events
  • MSP 501
  • MSSP Insider
  • IoT World Today
  • Webhostingtalk

WORKING WITH US

  • Contact
  • About us
  • Advertise
  • Newsletter

FOLLOW Channel Futures ON SOCIAL

  • Privacy
  • CCPA: “Do Not Sell My Data”
  • Cookie Policy
  • Terms
Copyright © 2021 Informa PLC. Informa PLC is registered in England and Wales with company number 8860726 whose registered and Head office is 5 Howick Place, London, SW1P 1WG.
This website uses cookies, including third party ones, to allow for analysis of how people use our website in order to improve your experience and our services. By continuing to use our website, you agree to the use of such cookies. Click here for more information on our Cookie Policy and Privacy Policy.
X