Customer Technical Support Experience with Intertech

Customer Technical Support Experience with InterTech

Introduction

I am very grateful that I have achieved a portion of my goals before I am too old. It was the year 2001-2004; I was enrolled and studying to be a computer technician at Western Nebraska Community College. I learned how to troubleshoot computers; program websites, and work in a database program. As I graduated for the first time at Western Nebraska Community College as a Computer Technician in May 2004, I was persuaded to continue my education by my family and friends and now currently continuing on with Chadron Stage College working towards my Bachelors degree where I am currently earning Internship credits working at InterTECH corporation.

Within high-tech organizations you can typically find a support group called Tech Support. This group provides technical support of the end-user customer, distributor, salesperson or value-added reseller. Tech support people spend their day explaining their products and services and how to use them effectively. The name of the company where I am doing my internship is called InterTech. InterTech Corporation has been serving Cable MSOs since 1997. Their clientele systems vary in size from 100 cable subscribers to 50,000 cable subscribers. They serve more than 65 villages coast to coast; from Oregon to Florida; from Michigan to Oklahoma.

This paper will deal with my internship experiences with InterTech and all the things that I have leaned while working with the customers of InterTech. This primarily involves customer service quality and technical support procedures. Centrally located in Gering, Nebraska, InterTech Corporation was founded as a small cable-operator-owned company providing a satellite-based Internet solution that was at first created to serve other small cable operators and develop them to delve into the Internet Service business. It was initiated to be able to provide service to any size system, with a NOC (Network Operations Center) designed to handle traffic, Web and mail service for a million cable modem subscribers. During this time, the company focus has moved away from a pure satellite solution to one that can be a hybrid satellite land-based solution or a pure land-based connection. With the design and implementation of InterSERV, InterTech has continued to provide quality products and services that are second to none. In addition, our Help Desk Call Center provides Level One support for MSOs (multiple system operators) coast to coast. InterSERV Broadband Self-Provisioning provides a consistent Web-based user interface to manage data subscribers, assets, networks and management reporting. Built-in features include the provisioning and maintenance of Internet services on distributed UNIX systems within a DOCSIS environment. Subscriber input is accomplished through the use of convenient web forms, saving time and money and providing a controlled database of subscriber information. When provisioning services on remote hosts, the system uses secure TCP/IP connections.

I shall present in this paper my various tasks with InterTech and the responsibilities that I have to fulfill in a routinely daily basis. InterTech provides 24 hour per day monitoring and support for our Internet partners from our NOC (Network Operations Center) in Gering, Nebraska. InterTech also offers Customer Help Desk support line from our NOC as well. Monitoring includes:

- Connectivity

- Server Application Monitor

- Router, CMTS (cable modem termination system), Web server, Mail server

- Traffic flow upstream and downstream

Level Two Technical Support is designed for your technical staff to be able to address issues with your plant, headend and Internet connectivity. We are here to answer their questions and help them work through technical issues. We are proud of our response time in helping you deal with your system issues.

I have joined this company because of the famous customer service that hey provide. InterTech was actually recognized as one of the top companies in the country and being part of this company, even for internship program only, is already a fulfilling task. When InterTech provides service to their customers, they order all of the necessary equipment and bring it to their labs to be configured, installed and tested prior to shipping it to the clients. Their technician's knowledge of their server platforms and their installation is second to none. When it's ready, InterTech ships it to the customers, and then they schedule the installation of the client's equipment in their cable headend. When they leave the site of the client, the client's first subscribers are operational.

During the installation process, InterTech technicians take the time to provide hands-on training for the clients and their technical staff. When the installation is complete, the client's questions have been answered and they are ready to continue to install Internet to customers. InterTech doesn't leave the customer just like that. That is were us, the technical support representatives, come into action. We are as close as your phone to continue to help you with any issues that may arise including installation problems that may arise for your client's technical staff. We, the tech support staff are the ones who further teach the clients in using the product.

Customer Service: The Way it should be

As I have realized while working with customers of InterTech, we all know how we would like to be treated when each of us is the customer and this paper that we owe no less to people expecting great customer service from us. Too many organizations talk quality but deliver something less, they do not measure up to high service standards. Here you will examine the skills needed to excel and how to develop them.

It all begins with ownership of the customer's problem and how you provide the service that the situation calls for - it is an opportunity to build a relationship or a chance to preside over a disaster. In this paper the following the ways that truly allows the process of creating good customer service to work are implied:

- Provide extra service

- Speak Your Customer's Language

- Be Culturally Aware

- Take Ownership

- Understand Your Customer's Business

- Don't Share Internal Problems

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