Smartphone Email Will Cripple Helpdesks

[Jason Dunn]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.whatpc.co.uk/News/1151305' target='_blank'>http://www.whatpc.co.uk/News/1151305</a><br /><br /></div>"The complexity of smartphones could create a support headache for mobile operators, research claims. Operators risk rising user support costs, user frustration and lost revenues unless they are able to manage users' devices more effectively, according to a consumer survey commissioned by mobile software firm Intuwave. Around 44 per cent of smartphone customers are now using the devices for email, and a further 19 per cent are keen to use them for email but do not currently do so."<br /><br />I can see a lot of truth in this article - as phones get more complicated, the questions help desks will receive are less about the network ("Why doesn't my phone work here?") and more about the device ("Why is the SMTP server rejecting my authentication?"). This will require the carriers to train up or hire a new breed of support people - ones that understand how to troubleshoot computer problems, rather than just phone problems. I predict many months of painful support while they prepare for how to do this. <br /><br />Has anyone experienced this yet with their carrier? i.e.: Calling in with a question about your Smartphone, and having the person on the other end have absolutely no clue what you're talking about? Have any good stories about it?<br /><br />I'm not trying to bash the help desk people by the way - the sheer variety of phones and issues to support must be daunting, but it's up to the carrier to give the help desk people the tools they need to help the customers.

[pdantic]

I recently switched from a "regular" T-Mobile data account to the VPN account (same price) as I was having difficulties making a VPN connection to our work WAN. The end result of this relatively simple change was an inability make consistent GPRS connections for over a week.

While I've usually been very happy with T-Mobile's support folks, this seemed to push the envelope for the first-line support people. Every time I called in, I had to go through the same explanation and was then pushed to the second-line support. Although I was absolutely sure it was a GPRS connectivity problem, they sent me to their third-line Bluetooth support personnel once since I had mentioned that I was using a BT link to my various devices.

I definitely think this is going to tax the regular support personnel. My company does support for a large utility company; when we had a group of executives start using wireless iPAQs to get to the corporate Exchange servers they had so many problems initially that a separate support team had to be created!

This could be an opportunity for the carriers to look at creating very focused support teams to troubleshoot and fix wireless email problems, then charge the customers a surcharge for support. I'm not sure customers would appreciate pay-as-you-go support for extra service, but the extra time, effort and cost involved is probably going to make this a necessity.

[James Sonne]

Charge more for support, but please don't increase the price of the service itself.

[Kris Kumar]

I have been pretty happy with T-Mobile support..though the level one has never been able to solve my problem. But they have always been quick to transfer it to level two..and level two does a quick transfer to level three.

I was amazed that the level three guy was walking me thru the Smartphone menus, asking me to go into settings etc, this was over six months ago !!

As for support...to keep costs down and to get more computer savvy support personnel - outsourcing...which has already started.