Do You Need Techs On-Site? Reduce Truck Rolls with Remote Support

Truck rolls are expensive. The Technology & Services Industry Association estimates that the fully burdened cost of a single truck roll is over $1,000!

You know you need to reduce truck rolls to save your bottom line, but you don’t want to risk losing your reputation for excellent customer service and technical support. What can you do? After all, to provide that fantastic service your customers crave, you need to have a tech on-site. 

Or do you?

Below, we’ll lay out the pros and cons of on-site and remote support. After reading these facts about site visits and remote visual assistance, you should have a clearer picture of your roadmap to incredible customer support. 

What is Remote Support? 

Before diving into the pros and cons of both technical support methods, let’s first explain precisely what we mean by remote support. 

Historically, remote support referred to audio-only call centers. A customer dials a 1-800 number, traverses a lengthy phone tree, and then sits on hold for twenty minutes or longer before finally speaking to a customer service representative. Call centers are still an essential element to most remote support efforts. Still, the technology in those centers has come a long way, making remote support a viable challenger to traditional, on-site customer service. 

Modern remote support offers remote video support tools like Blitzz. These tools allow customers and service agents to connect over video chat. This allows the customer and agent to hash out the issue while both parties have eyes on the problem. Take a peek at our free test environment to see how Blitzz works, and read on to learn more about the pros and cons of both methods of technical support. 

On-Site Tech Support 

Pros

The first and most obvious benefit to on-site tech support is that on-site support guarantees that nothing is lost in translation. Instead of walking a customer through a solution they’re expected to enact themselves, an on-site tech can resolve the issue with their own two hands, guaranteeing that the proper fix has been implemented.

Another advantage of on-site support is concerning relationship-building. With modern technology, people can build relationships without in-person contact, but some customers still prefer to do business face-to-face. Sending a tech to a customer site allows the tech to interact with multiple parties on-site, which can help strengthen the bond your customer has with your organization.

Lastly, some issues are too complex to be handled remotely, no matter how advanced the remote support tool you’re using. In these cases, on-site support is necessary.

Cons

The number one downside to on-site support is the cost. As we mentioned above, a single fully-burdened truck roll can cost your company over $1,000. If that figure, multiplied by the number of trucks you roll in the average month, scares you, it might be time to consider offering remote support.

Another negative of site visits is the efficiency—or lack thereof—of this method of customer support. Commute times, traffic delays, accidents, and more all eat into your technicians’ work hours. Remote support allows agents to jump quickly from one appointment to the next without wasting time behind the wheel.

The efficiency of remote support also takes the edge regarding customer scheduling. On-site support is infamous for its appointment time windows.

Instead of scheduling a specific time, your customers generally book an appointment for “sometime between noon and three P. M.” or something similar. This scheduling method is essential due to the travel time mentioned above and the inconsistencies that come with it, but it’s inconvenient for customers nonetheless. 

Related Read: 5 Remote Customer Support Issues that Can Kill Your Business

Remote Support 

Pros

We’ve discussed how truck rolls are prohibitively expensive. It should come as no surprise, then, that one of the chief benefits of offering live video assistance is that it can save your organization a lot of money. Reducing truck rolls means you save money on technician hours and fuel costs, as well as truck maintenance and more.

Another benefit of remote support is that it widens your candidate pool for support agents. Instead of hiring only local talent, remote support empowers you to hire the best agents for the job, regardless of their location. 

Many customer support managers worry that remote support is not as effective as on-site support. This is untrue. Tools like Blitzz offer features like augmented reality and OCR-powered text extract. These features allow support agents to interact with the customers’ video feed to solve problems efficiently and walk customers through that solution with ease. 

Are you worried about your quality assurance efforts? With remote support, you won’t need to be. Every remote support call can be recorded for quality assurance and future reference. You can use the recordings as training opportunities or examples to show other support agents how to handle challenging situations. 

Lastly, a vital benefit of remote support is that it provides that face-to-face contact customers love so much about on-site support. Even when mediated by a camera, face-to-face interactions provide both the customer and support agent with a sense of visual empathy for the other party. 

Cons

One main concern regarding remote support is whether or not all customer issues can truly be solved remotely. The short answer is likely not. Regardless of how advanced your remote support tool is, you will probably still need boots on the ground for more complex customer issues. 

Another downside to remote support is that many customers are intimidated by complicated remote interfaces. Customers may be frustrated that, to receive basic support, they need to download an app or install software on their mobile device. The good news here is that some tools, like Blitzz, have incredibly user-friendly interfaces and require no app download or installation to use. 

Reduce Truck Rolls and Provide Great Service with Remote Support 

So, which method of customer support should your business pursue? The short answer is, you’ll likely need a mix of both. Some customer issues or situations will inevitably be too complex or fraught to handle the problem 100% remotely, so don’t sell all the trucks in your fleet just yet. You can reduce your truck rolls by adopting a remote-first approach. 

Defaulting to a remote-first approach to customer service allows your service agents to solve customer issues more efficiently. To see how Blitzz’s robust yet easy-to-use remote support tool can save you time and money while still delighting your customers, take the software for a free test drive today!