Do You Fear Making a Call to Tech Support?

If you are frustrated from your experiences with past technical support calls and dread contacting tech support for help, you are not alone. When nearly 3,000 people were asked about their biggest customer experience success or failure in the last decade, 76% recalled a failure. Almost half – 45% – could not remember having a single recent successful customer experience success.

It's a universal problem that was a motivating factor when Florida Realtors® created Tech Helpline for real estate agents and brokers some 15 years ago. Our goal for more than a decade has been to eliminate the "fear" out of contacting tech support for members. Fear is a major factor when it comes to technology, ranked one of the top fears of Americans, second only to Man-Made Disasters, according to a study by Chapman University.

Tech Helpline has clearly been successful in removing the fear factor, as not only has it been dubbed the "Genius Bar for real estate" in praise of its Apple-like, personalized, experienced support staff, but has become the real estate industry's no. 1 tech support service. In fact, today, 60 percent of Realtors in North America – the U.S. and Canada – now have access to Tech Helpline.

How is Tech Helpline different?

Tech support really is all about the people, and at Tech Helpline, it's a highly skilled staff that knows technology and deeply understands the needs of real estate professionals. Together, Tech Helpline's office and staff of professional tech analysts have more than 250 years of combined IT proficiency. It really serves as the primary Customer Service experience for the majority of its members who have access.

This is vital because three of the top four complaints most people have about support in general are actually strengths at Tech Helpline. Among these top complaints:

"Customer service not empowered to help properly"

"Customer service unknowledgeable or poorly trained"

Customer "was given inaccurate or conflicting information"

Realtors across the nation consistently rank Tech Helpline as one of their most valued membership benefits, largely due to its skilled staff, who eliminate these kinds of complaints.

It really is their singular focus on our industry from its beginning that makes Tech Helpline different compared to any other technology support provider. And it's because Florida Realtors created Tech Helpline that its focus remains on helping Realtors solve issues so they can get focus on what they do best: helping buyers and sellers.

Rita Tayenaka, President of the Orange County Association of REALTORS®, which began delivering Tech Helpline to its members late last year said it best: "Tech Helpline will help our members boost their productivity by increasing their 'uptime'."

Not your typical tech support experience

Realtors who have not yet experienced contacting Tech Helpline – by phone, email or online chat – can't really appreciate the difference until they do. That's because the standard tech support and customer services experience, for most people, is pretty abysmal, despite it being so vital for a company's success.

A number of studies, profiled in "13 Shocking Customer Service Statistics," show:

• 76% of consumers say they view customer service as the true test of how much a company values them.
• 33% of consumers say they'd 'rather clean a toilet' than speak with customer service.
• 77% of U.S. online adults say that valuing their time is the most important thing a company can do to provide them with good service
• 35% of consumers surveyed rated their experience a success because customer service was pleasant or helpful (35%); customer service was very knowledgeable or well-trained (27%) and customer service was empowered to help properly (24%). Only great product quality ranked equally high as these satisfying customer service experiences at 25%.
• 62% of global consumers have stopped doing business with a brand or organization due to a poor customer service experience.

Tech Helpline success factors that help it defy these industry norms: great people who are highly skilled, knowledgeable, positive and helpful; a bi-lingual staff (Spanish and English); multiple channels of communication to tap into support (phone, online chat or email); and analysts who can adjust their interactions to match the skill level of the caller. The fact is that some Realtors are incredibly technically savvy while most others are not, NAR studies tell us. Having a team that not only understands what you do, but what you know, makes it a better experience for everyone.