Remote Visual Assistance vs. Site Visits: Which is More Effective?

In the past, when you thought of offering support to your customers, your mind likely jumped immediately to truck rolls and on-site technical professionals. 

In recent years, the COVID-19 pandemic has forced many industry leaders to reconsider this method and ask a simple question: Is there a better way? 

It’s time to explore making Remote Visual Assistance your primary service solution.

According to Forbes, 74% of people expect remote work to be the new standard following the pandemic. With so many businesses and individuals adopting a remote-first mentality, companies that insist on sticking to traditional business methods risk appearing outdated and out of touch. But when it comes to technical assistance, can we ever really move to a fully remote support model?

In this post, we will explore the pros and cons of Remote Visual Assistance and explore how you can improve your business through this innovative method of customer support.   

How Work Has Changed: Remote Visual Assistance and Site Visits

Before we dive into how Remote Visual Assistance might benefit your business, let’s first answer the question: What is Remote Visual Assistance? 

Remote Visual Assistance is a method of customer support that allows you to provide technical assistance over video chat. In this model, customers can get technical support immediately instead of scheduling an appointment and waiting for a technician to arrive on site. 

As the world continues to find new and exciting ways to leverage technology, many businesses are still clinging to traditional customer service methods, such as site visits.

You may be thinking; no computer program can replace the benefits of human interaction in customer service!

But do today’s customers still consider face-to-face interaction essential in their service experience? 

At Blitzz, we know customer expectations are changing, and businesses that want to succeed in the current market will need to change alongside them.

Can the benefits of remote assistance outweigh the benefits of having a technician on-site when it comes to customer satisfaction? What are the downsides of Remote Visual Assistance? Read on to find out the answers to these questions and more, or schedule a demo today to see the benefits and features of Blitzz for yourself!

Service Time

Your support is a lot more efficient when you don’t have to factor in the time it takes one of your trucks to commute to a customer site. Instead of scheduling 20-30 minute buffers in between service appointments, your technicians can move seamlessly from one job to the next.

Without concerns about traffic and physical distance, it becomes much easier to estimate when your experts will be available to assist your customers. Instead of giving wide, inconvenient windows, Remote Visual Assistance allows your technical support staff to schedule more specific meeting times with your customers, giving everyone a more predictable schedule. 

Utilizing Remote Visual Assistance also gives your support team more flexibility. When relying on site visits, your staff will need to be within a commutable distance to any customer site they are servicing. 

With Remote Visual Assistance, you can assign your team to client sites based on the expertise needed. This allows you to always “send” every client the best employee for the job, regardless of that employee’s physical location. 

Some modern Remote Visual Assistance tools, such as Blitzz, also provide augmented reality (AR) features that allow technicians to display helpful information directly on the customer’s video screen. This allows remote assistance to go far beyond the standard video call and makes resolving a customer issue remotely quicker and easier.

Customer Volume

Providing support service via video chat is a huge time-saver. Not only does it cut out commuting time, but it also allows your staff to quickly call on the expertise of colleagues in solving a tricky customer problem. By enabling your technicians to tap into the brain trust in your organization, they can resolve cases more quickly, allowing them to move onto the next issue sooner.

Quicker resolution times are not the only benefit here. Remote assistance capabilities also allow your staff to solve customer problems in the moment.

Instead of scheduling an appointment and waiting for the technician to arrive, the customer can get help immediately. In-the-moment assistance for an urgent problem will let your customers know they can count on you and your business in their time of need. 

Contactless Support

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed many business processes, but it has also changed the way we approach things like health and safety in the workplace in general.

During the global pandemic, virtual assistance has been essential, but even as the struggles and dangers of the coronavirus begin to subside, it is important to continue to consider the health and safety of your clients and your staff.

Assisting clients remotely results in fewer germs being transmitted. This is a benefit to your customers and your staff, of course, but also to your business, as it may result in fewer sick days. 

Costs

Site visits are expensive. There are the expected costs associated with the visit, such as the technician’s wages and the cost of gas, but there are other costs to frequent site visits that add up over time. 

Having a technical support model that relies heavily on site visits means you need to consider not only the cost of gasoline, but also the costs of maintenance and insurance for each truck in your fleet. 

The costs go beyond truck maintenance and technician wages. Every time you invest the time to dispatch a service truck, you are also losing money in lost opportunities: Tasks your staff could have been accomplishing for your organization instead of driving across town.

According to the Technology and Services Industry Association, the average fully burdened cost of a truck roll is $1,011. If multiplying that figure by the number of trucks your organization sends out each month results in an alarming sum, it might be time to find a more efficient way to service your customers. 

Sustainability

We have already discussed how cutting down on drive time helps your business and your customers, but there is one more party that benefits when you have fewer truck rolls: The environment.

Cutting down on the number of service vehicles you have on the road can help you significantly reduce the carbon footprint of your organization. 

Limitations

Switching to a remote-first model of customer assistance has a number of benefits, but it doesn’t mean you can get rid of all the trucks in your fleet. There are some limitations to Remote Visual Assistance.

Firstly, problem complexity. A technician will be able to walk your customers through simple to mid-level fixes, but there will be some customer issues complex enough that you will still need boots on the ground. Of course, in these cases, your technician can still leverage your live video assistance tool to call for remote back-up, if needed. 

The second limitation of Remote Visual Assistance is related to human error - specifically, customer error. When assisting a customer remotely, there is always the possibility that they will implement your technician’s instructions incorrectly, and the issue will not be resolved. In such cases, you will still need to be prepared to schedule a site visit. 

Balancing Remote Assistance and Site Visits

Site visits have been the norm in technical support for decades, but with recent advancements in Remote Visual Assistance technology, it is not only possible but prudent to switch to a remote-first model.

Remote assistance may never fully replace site visits, but by adopting a remote-first approach, you will save money, time, and resources every time an issue is resolved with a call rather than a truck. 

In order to provide the highest quality of Remote Visual Assistance to your customers, you will need to make sure you are leveraging the best available technology. Blitzz offers an intuitive, easy-to-use interface that does not require the customer to download a custom application to use for assistance.

To learn more about how Blitzz can help you provide effective, efficient remote assistance to your customers, start a free, 14-day trial of Blitzz today!