Since ChatGPT pushed generative AI into the mainstream, every organization has been asked some version of the same question: what should AI in Customer Support actually do for us? At Hudson Software, our answer is straightforward: we see it as a force multiplier. Not a replacement for people, but an accelerant for what good people…
Most companies don’t fail at outsourcing because outsourcing doesn’t work. They fail because they choose the wrong outsourced tech support vendor, or more often, prioritize the wrong things when choosing one. After more than 30 years in technical support, we’ve seen the same patterns over and over again. The “Global Vendor with a US Presence”…
While the low cost of offshore labor may seem attractive, the high costs associated with unresolved problems and dissatisfied customers often offset any potential savings. We frequently hear our clients express frustration with offshore call centers, emphasizing that a successful outsourcing experience hinges on the partner you choose. Although offshore centers might offer significant upfront…
In the fiercely competitive world of educational technology, EdTech companies are always on the lookout for ways to distinguish themselves. An often-overlooked strategy for standing out from the crowd is through exceptional end-user technical support and proactive customer success programs. While some EdTech companies might lean towards managing these critical services in-house, the daunting task…
One of the most important things to keep in mind when outsourcing is that the agents will be representing you! The time spent with tech support is often the only direct contact you have with your customers. And it occurs when your customers are feeling vulnerable, since they have a problem and need help fixing…
Tech Support: Delight or Fright? Does it pay to delight your customers with great technical support or customer service? An article recently published on the Zendesk blog is titled, Why delighting customers doesn’t pay caught our attention. Since we like delighting customers, we read the article carefully. The conventional wisdom is that the way to…
A recent article from the Association of Software Publishers echoes something that we at Hudson have been telling our clients for years: that tiered support, the way most call centers do it, works very poorly. Here is what they said: “For a while now, forward – thinking customer support and call center managers have realized…
If you view technical support vendors mostly based on price, do you think that technical support is a commodity? Wikipedia: “The exact definition of the term commodity is specifically used to describe a class of goods for which there is demand, but which is supplied without qualitative differentiation across a market. …The market treats [commodity]…