A Support Team A to Z: Discussing the Key Points

Among organizations that offer technical support, the pool of responsibilities varies from company to company. They usually include resolving technical issues, consulting users, monitoring systems, helping with hardware and software, maintaining documents, and delivering reports.

At Gameteq, our team has a system of three lines of support. The first line is our moderators. When a user asks a question, it goes into the common pool of messages that get processed by moderators. They don't have comprehensive knowledge, and their access to the company's tools is limited, but they can perform simple checks or answer the most frequently asked questions.

If a request requires closer examination (for example, analyzing a user's logs), the request is forwarded to the second line of support — our team of supervisors. They perform a detailed analysis of the situation and find out where the problem lies, if there is indeed a problem.
The third level is our technical specialists, who have basic knowledge of programming languages. They come into play when we need to check for bugs or perform operations on accounts, etc. When doing so, they don't communicate with users directly, but they can forward requests to the development team.

Our main principle is to provide people with high-quality services that help them enjoy our projects.

We do our best to always follow that principle in our work, but depending on the situation, it can take other forms, like "the quicker we resolve the user's issue, the better" or "we thoroughly consider every request." However, the core principle always remains the same, because speed and attention to detail are both components of a high-quality service in any case.

The main skills are a good command of the language in which support is being provided, critical thinking, and well-developed emotional intelligence.

In terms of language learning, support specialists need to have mastered both the written and spoken language. They must know how to correctly interpret a user's question and how to communicate their own thoughts. Mutual understanding equals successful communication, which, in turn, equals a satisfied user. A support specialist must have that skill from the start because it takes a huge amount of time and practice to develop it. Everything else can be taught: using tools and highly specialized apps, etc. Language learning, however, is complicated and time-consuming.

A support manager must also have critical thinking skills. They must know how to work with information — both the information we receive from our users and the information we provide them with. These skills will help them make the right decision more quickly and prevent errors.

Emotional intelligence is also very important, because working in a support team is working with people. A specialist needs to be able to read the mood of the person they are talking to, find the right words, and manage their own emotions.

As for character traits, the ability to get on well with people is of the highest priority.

There are two ingredients: the team members and the product that the team is maintaining. If the team is weak, its members don't work well together, and its internal processes are not established correctly, then any support provided will be of low quality, even for the best product imaginable. And vice versa, if the product itself isn't interesting and doesn't attract users, no team will be successful.

Communication, of course. When dealing with users, you need to remember that people have different worldviews, communication styles, mindsets, and, of course, a different level of loyalty toward technical support specialists and the product itself.

We are not always able to fulfill all requests and provide all the required information. In the majority of cases, that causes negative feedback. Sometimes, it even leads to an endless cycle, whereby a user won't engage in dialogue and simply keeps asking the same thing again and again. It's very difficult to break this cycle because the user wants information from us, but we can't provide it.

In such cases, there is only one thing we can do: wait for one party to get tired of the interaction first. Before you ask, however, I'd like to point out that we're very patient. However, users sometimes get personal and use swear words, in which case we can cut off the dialogue on our own initiative.

Sometimes, what's difficult is spotting the signs of your colleagues' emotional burnout, rather than overcoming the condition. It depends on the individual: with some people, it's obvious when they're burning out, and you can see it in their behavior and the results of their work, while others suffer from burnout silently. Such people are already burnt out on the inside but continue working with a smile on their faces while maintaining more or less the same performance level.

In order to avoid emotional burnout, we hold team-building events and special coffee breaks. We also periodically arrange one-to-one meetings to monitor our colleagues' condition. If someone is already suffering from burnout, I can make them take a vacation, change their tasks to diversify their working activities, or have a friendly conversation with them — sometimes that's enough.

Our specialists tend to get emotionally involved in a positive sense more often. That is, they feel happy when they succeed in resolving an issue, they empathize with our users, etc.
As for negative feedback, our specialists grow a thick skin over time. If you repeatedly get sucked into negative emotions, you might burn out in a couple of months. Users who contact technical support often pour out their feelings to our specialists. That's why support managers need to know how to build up a psychological barrier.

The user is always valuable, and that never changes. However, the user is only right until it is proven otherwise. Our product is a game that contains a lot of information, and users can sometimes draw the wrong conclusions in some situations simply because they don't see the broader picture. In such cases, our task is not only to fulfill a user's request but also to help them make sense of the matter.
That's why my final answer to that question is that the user is always right until proven otherwise, but the user is always valuable.

First, you need to develop a clear structure, organize the team's processes, and support those two things with job descriptions and regulations. You also need to define the goals of your work and explain them to all your employees. In addition, you need to set up communication between all the teams involved in the product's life.

It's also important to remember that working in support means working with information. That is, you need to know how to deal with it, and, of course, you need to know your product inside out.

And in conclusion, don't be afraid to make mistakes — learn from them instead.