Date:
Wednesday, May 17, 2006
Author:
Chris Morley
Editor:
Kyle Bennett
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Fear And Loathing In Lost Business

The custom integration market is overflowing with companies fighting for your hard earned money. Many integrators are simply missing the mark when it comes to earning your business and delivering a fantastic custom experience. How do you pick the right one?

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Technical Support Is Paramount

One of the reasons people pay a premium for a pre-built computer is because they want someone there to help them when there’s a problem. If you’ve read a few of our articles, you’d know that we place a premium on technical support. And you’ve probably seen that we have had some wildly different experiences with different boutiques.

The bottom line is that every phone call and every RMA deducts from the profit that a company makes on a computer. If margins are thin, technical support is one of the biggest cost cutting measures that can ensure that a company stays in the black.

Some integrators outsource outside of the country, where labor is cheap. Others contract 3rd party vendors to provide on-site technical support. While there is no perfect solution, there are distinct drawbacks to the different methods that some of these boutiques employ.

First, outsourced technical support that is based in other countries is by far the worst. While typically personable and patient, they are not creative, and stick religiously to scripts and procedures that they are given. They can be repetitive and are not quick to diagnose even the simplest of problems. However, once they issue an RMA, we have found that the automated procedures that kick in afterwards are generally acceptable to us.

Some boutiques offer 24/7 technical support. Most of the time, when you see this, expect to be serviced by a 3rd party contract warranty provider. Some boutiques will even rely on these companies during business hours, effectively outsourcing their entire technical support team. Either way, 3rd party warranty providers will generally do a consistently sub-par to average job of handling technical support calls. Their call centers, from our experience, are based stateside, and we have had some luck with their performance. However, when a builder is using these companies as a shield and not as a value added service, it can lead to problems.

Contracted warranty providers still require interaction with the boutique builder – you still have to call the builder with an RMA number and then you will have your part shipped. While these warranty providers may offer on-site support, it will be contracted through local PC shops, so your mileage will vary. One such company we have dealt with so far is 2Net.

Frankly, 24/7 tech support does not equal good tech support, and most of the time you’re better off talking to the people who built your computer to begin with.

It’s really a matter of reaction time. In house technical support can raise issues with production or quality control in a way that outsourced support simply cannot match. If a company was shipping systems with a particular component that showed high failure rate in the field, a company with outsourced technical support simply cannot be made aware of it as quickly, and more systems would leave the door before they knew about it.