by Carly Stewart

The support team at Inphonite does a lot more than simply answer questions about our product.  Each team member has many roles in the hard-working, ever-growing, collection of focused individuals that make up Inphonite's Technical Support.  Answering questions, training customers, troubleshooting, attending several weekly meetings, and being knowledgeable in a wide array of topics are just a few of the many tasks the support team is responsible for.   

Support requests can come in a variety of ways. The best and one of the easiest ways is to submit a request through the application on the customer's automated system called the "Support Center" which customers have already installed on their InphoniteVoice machine; others come in by way of web request , email or phone. When they are received through the Support system the requests are automatically entered into our database, otherwise once the request is received it must be manually entered into our queue to determine which request came in first so we can work down the line in an organized manner depending on the type of question asked and service needed, the cases are divvied up amongst our top-notch support team.  The great thing about our support team however, is that everyone is willing to help as best they can even if it is not their specific expertise. 

One thing our support team is known for is the way in which they handle situations that they are unsure how to solve.  When someone has a problem, no matter what level of support they usually offer, another team member is always available to help.  Developers will help with general queue questions, Managers will help Developers, and Implementation Specialists will make suggestions to the Developers, so on and so forth. 

Weekly department meetings are another crucial factor in the success of our technical support team.   Two weekly department meetings take place: One includes the support staff and the other is for the Implementation Specialists.  Daily "hot case" meetings also take place in which the team discusses specific cases and offer suggestions on how to better meet the needs of our customers. In addition, each engineer has a weekly one-on-one with a manager to discuss problems and find ways to continually improve.  These meetings not only provide a place where questions regarding specific cases can be answered, but also an opportunity for Developers and Managers to teach new features and logistics of our product to the whole team.  Questions are brought up and answered by a knowledgeable and qualified member of the team who explains the issue to the rest of the team.  As one engineer, Gregory Williams said,"The support team must utilize the technical strengths of all individuals to be highly efficient as a whole." '

In addition to each employee's personal goals, the Support Department as a whole strives to meet the over-all goal of "same-day closures," -- meaning that any case that comes in will be closed the same day.  This is why the cooperation, aid, and organization of the tech department are so important.  Without the excellent leadership and organized structure of Inphonite Support, this goal would be unattainable.

When asked 'what is the most important thing to remember in regards to customers', Technical Support Manager, Rick Clayton, states:

"You must take the issue seriously and see it from the customer's perspective. Take it as seriously as they do and "humanize" them. They are not just ethereal voices on the other end of a phone line.  They are people, with dreams, hopes, desires, and jobs to do. And the issue they are reporting is keeping them from doing other important things."