When you have a connectivity problem, who are you going to call? If you require technical assistance, you go to a single entity in your IT department: the IT support team. 

Since businesses heavily rely on technology and always being connected, all their operations halt if their equipment malfunctions. Those who don’t have a form of technical support might suffer more than those who do have an individual with the right technological knowledge to solve their problems. 

In this guide, let’s talk about what IT support is, what are the most common IT support issues, who are the members of an IT support team, and so much more. 

What is IT Support?

Information technology (IT) support refers to the act of providing technical support and assistance to end users, customers, or employees. In general, you have a dedicated team of IT professionals, computer specialists, or assistance technicians who have the technical knowledge necessary to solve issues related to systems, devices, and equipment. 

The team usually solves problems remotely or on-site. 

IT support is important because it enhances customer satisfaction. McKinsey says that 75 percent of customers want assistance within five minutes of online contact, which makes the need for IT support so much greater. 

Usually, you can have your own team of IT specialists. Or outsource people from another company. 

Let’s talk about this.

In-house technical support

In-house means you have your own team of IT specialists who solve technical IT issues when needed. In general, this team makes sure your equipment is running smoothly and doesn’t disrupt normal business operations. 

What this team usually does is:

• Maintain IT computer systems and networks
• Resolve and troubleshoot technical problems
• Schedule frequent upgrades
• Help employees connect remotely
• Handle sensitive company information

Outsourced IT support

Outsourced IT support is the opposite of in-house support. In this case, you hire a third-party managed service provider to take care of your business’s technical needs. 

These companies have different levels of support, varying from remotely fixing issues when they arise, monitoring your computer hardware and software to prevent disruptions, or moving your IT support and maintenance to this company. 

But what issues do IT support teams solve? Find out next. 

What are Some Common IT Support Issues?

When someone encounters a problem, the IT support professional tries to find the root cause. Let’s explore what these common issues are: 

• Hardware and software troubleshooting: Your team members use different hardware and software tools daily, so ensuring they work properly is a must for productivity. A tech team is ready to solve issues such as slow computer speeds, random computer shutdowns, hardware installation and updates, etc. 
• Server maintenance: IT support teams solve issues related to servers, making sure they’re running smoothly and are always up to date. This helps avoid downtimes, data loss, or total network failure. 
• Cybersecurity implementation: The IT support team is your first line of defense against cyberattacks. They implement the proper security measures to mitigate and prevent risks, engaging in activities such as network monitoring and security or educating employees on security protocols.
• Access and password recovery: Your IT support team might also help people, whether those are employees or customers, with resetting passwords or recovering them. It’s not unusual for someone to forget their passwords, so a help desk technician needs to be there when people can’t log in to their email account, laptop, etc. 
• Data backups: Another problem IT support solves is ensuring disaster recovery in case of a breach, system failure, or power outage. These IT professionals will make sure to recover the lost data and ensure its security. 
• Enabling remote teams: Not all businesses employ the traditional “going to the office” shtick. Some workspaces are hybrid or fully remote, which makes an IT support team vital when people are trying to access company data and resources from remote locations. 
• Health checks and ongoing monitoring: Regular health checks are important for ensuring everyone has access to the company info, spotting signs of issues, or keeping your hardware and software up to date. 

Left unsupervised, these issues might stall your business and give you tons of headaches.

Fortunately, you have an IT support team that makes sure everything runs smoothly. But who exactly should be on your team? 

Who are the Members of an IT Support Team?

Like the Avengers, your IT support team should have a range of people skilled in different technical areas, such as developers, programmers, agents, consultants, and engineers. 

Of course, it all depends on your organization’s size. A small team might not have all these roles, while large enterprises usually have a chief information officer (CIO) who is responsible for the IT department. 

However, regardless of the size of your team, the two most important roles belong to the IT support technicians and IT support specialists. 

IT support technicians 

An IT support technician has problem-solving and technical knowledge skills that make them responsible for more complex issues, such as data security, backup and recovery, troubleshooting, and network management. 

In a nutshell, these people play a key role in making sure your company’s IT infrastructure runs smoothly every day. 

IT support specialists

IT support specialists don’t have the big responsibilities of an IT technician, but they’re still a vital line of support. They usually take care of more straightforward issues, such as software installations or overseeing the company’s network.

If the problem escalates, they pass it on to the IT support technicians. 

Unfortunately, even if you have your dream team, they still might face some common challenges. Which we can discuss next. 

What are the most common challenges IT support teams face?

Here are some of the most common challenges IT support teams face: 

• Limited training: The lack of training in both the end-user and IT professionals is a serious issue. The end-user might not have the necessary knowledge or misuse the equipment, while IT pros might struggle to understand new technologies and require continuous training to upgrade their skills. 
• Process inefficiencies: Lack of transparency and poor security hygiene might pose severe challenges for your IT support team, should they hinder your team’s ability to run health checks. This might prevent your team from reporting truly damaging issues. 
• Fast-changing technologies: New technologies come along every day, especially with the emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) tools. On top of this, digital transformations, the need for remote-enabled work, and more changes (which happen at a fast pace) might mean IT teams need to integrate these new technologies quickly, without disrupting business processes. 
• Inefficient tools: The rapid expansion of the digital world forces IT teams to adopt new technologies and tools to cope with the changing landscape. As a result, they struggle to integrate these new tools into their company, which leads to numerous security risks. 

But let’s not dawdle on the negatives. Let’s explore the different types of IT support available. 

What are the Different Types of IT Support?

In general, there are two different types of IT support: the swarming support and the tiered support model: 

Swarming support model

The swarming support model refers to the process where an IT system analyst tries to solve a problem from start to finish by huddling together with their team members to find a solution. 

Basically, they “swarm” together. The size of the team depends on your business. For small businesses, everyone swarms together. On the other hand, medium-sized organizations have two categories of swarmers: local and severe. 

What are the benefits of swarming support? It decreases the ticket backlog since the chances of you solving them are higher. 

But it also increases communication between your agents and customers, ensuring the customer satisfaction rate is high. Lastly, swarming improves transparency and empowers workers to develop new skills and areas of expertise. 

Tiered support model

This model splits IT support into five levels that address different technical requests and issues. It’s a great option for those who have specific business needs.

Here’s what each level offers in terms of support: 

• Tier 0: This level requires the least amount of effort from IT assistance, as users can retrieve the information themselves via FAQs, blog posts, technical guides, etc. 
• Tier 1: At this level, people get direct tech support through service or help desks, usually interacting with the agent via chatbots or phone. The IT professional has basic technical knowledge, which helps them solve well-known problems. 
• Tier 2: Here’s where it gets serious. Your IT support has more in-depth knowledge that allows them to fix more technical problems. It usually requires multiple conversations between the IT specialist and the client. 
• Tier 3: This level has the best IT support specialists who can solve complex issues that lower-tier engineers can’t. They come up with new solutions to the problem, documenting the fix with Tier 1 and Tier 2 technicians. 
• Tier 4: At level 4, you’re migrating your services to another company. In a nutshell, you hire a third-party vendor to provide the necessary support whenever there’s an issue with a product or service. You can contact them anytime you want. 

That’s it! These are the two different types of IT support you can employ, so choose the one that truly streamlines your workflows.

Moving on, let’s see how to measure the effectiveness of IT support. 

How to Measure the Effectiveness of IT Support

Is your IT support team truly doing its job? You won’t know the answer if you don’t measure its effectiveness and ensure that the IT support responds to service requests efficiently. 

Here are the top metrics you should keep an eye on: 

• Ticket backlog: This refers to the customer requests still unsolved, a KPI that shows if your team can handle the number of requests. If the backlog is high, for example, then your IT team is ineffective in solving tickets. 
• Ticket volume trends: By analyzing this metric, you can find out how much support is actually needed. It indicates the number of tickets the IT support team handles over a certain period. This can help you manage and optimize your resources better. 
• Cost-per-ticket: How much does it cost to solve a ticket? If it’s high, it can mean inefficiencies in your process, something you must know about if you want to stay on budget. To find out your costs, divide the total monthly operating costs by the monthly ticket volume. 
• Mean time to resolve (MTTR): This metric refers to the average time it takes your IT support team to solve a problem. Efficient support teams have low-resolution times, which means they can solve problems in a short amount of time. 
• First call resolution rate (FCRR): When an IT support team is efficient, it shows in this metric. It’s a percentage that indicates how many problems are solved within a single response, without any follow-ups. This means that the user provided enough information to assess and resolve the problem without needing to engage further. 
• End-user satisfaction: Also known as customer satisfaction, this KPI is about measuring how pleased users are with your services — how fast the response was or how quickly they got a solution to their problem. 
• Software asset utilization rate: This metric measures the percentage of software and licenses used by a business, usually categorized into high-risk, free software, or malware. 
• Infrastructure stability: This refers to the availability of IT professionals and tools, as well as the low number of major incidents or lost business hours. 
• Lost business hours: Speaking of lost business hours, this metric refers to the hours lost or disrupted over a period of time due to IT issues, such as help desk inefficiencies, lack of training, etc. 
• Change success rate: This KPI measures the adjustment process of implementing new processes, systems, hardware, etc., as well as how many changes failed or were successful. 

There are a lot of things to measure, but doing so thoroughly helps you see if your IT support staff are effective. 

Moving forward, let’s talk about the software tools they need to become even more efficient. 

What Software Tools Do IT Support Teams Need To Be Efficient?

Aside from certifications, the level of your IT support team’s effectiveness highly depends on the tools, resources, and technologies they use. So, if you want your team to be at their peak, you need the right ecosystem: 

• Self-service knowledge bases and internal wikis: These tools help end users solve their own problems by accessing a self-service portal with system documentation, FAQs, troubleshooting guides, etc. Guru is the perfect tool for the job, offering instant and relevant answers to all user queries, greatly increasing user satisfaction. 
• ITSM and ticketing tools: Around 59% of organizations deployed ITSM tools to enhance their user experience — and it’s easy to see why. A streamlined ticketing system allows your IT support team to track open, assigned, and solved tickets, so they can properly monitor their progress. 
• Communication systems: Communication is the key to any good relationship, so a tool focusing on communication will help your IT teams collaborate better over chat, video calling, teleconferencing, etc. 
• Remote support software: Since many companies nowadays work remotely, such tools are vital for your IT support team to access remote computers and devices. This way, it’s easier for them to interact and solve issues, especially if the problem is a complex one. 
• Change support tools: Last but not least, change support tools help your team plan, manage, and audit the effects of your new technology implementations or digital transformation initiatives. It ensures that everything goes smoothly, from beginning to end. 

When it comes to choosing the right technology for your IT support teams, there are a few things to keep in mind. Let’s see what these are. 

What Tech Support Features To Look For

Here’s a list of the tech support capabilities to look for in IT technologies: 

• Collaboration: One important feature is collaboration, as it allows your IT support teams to access, prioritize, and assign tasks related to the tickets. Guru brings technology infrastructure, system configuration, and support articles together in a single platform, successfully streamlining your IT services. 
• Chat: Your chosen tool should offer the possibility for your team to send links, share resources, and offer instant responses to your clients. Guru is a great option, as it provides your agents with quality insights when they need them most. 
• Self-service: Allow users to solve the problems themselves with a self-service portal like Guru. This saves your agents’ time and helps them focus on higher-priority tickets. 
• Automation: Automating menial tasks like running canned scripts can free up your IT support team’s time, allowing them to solve other inquiries faster and more effectively. 
• Troubleshooting: Your new IT support technology should provide the necessary transparency and visibility into your problems. Moreover, it should be able to quickly identify security threats and make solving them as easy as pie. 
• Reporting: Getting real-time insights into how effective your IT support team is will help you improve your services over time. Guru offers accurate insights and metrics powered by AI that will help you solve tickets faster and increase user satisfaction. 
• Scalability: The digital world is constantly changing, so keeping up with these demands will greatly help you in improving your services. Make sure the tool you choose scales with your business and meets your evolving needs at every stage. 

This might be a lot of information to absorb, but don’t worry, we’re done! Now, over to you.

Over To You

The bottom line is that, hopefully, this guide has convinced you that IT support is the way to go. And you can start improving customer satisfaction and give the right knowledge to your IT team by investing in Guru, which you already know a bit about.

But, if you want to know more, sign up for Guru and try it today. 

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