Building the Right Technology Support Team for your Company
Building a technology support team is something that every business needs to do at some point or another. The issue is that not every business has a person who is comfortable with technology beyond posting the occasional Instagram post. It can be difficult to even know where to start: Do you build the team first or do you establish what software and hardware you are going to be using? These are questions every business has found themselves asking. Here are three tips to smooth the process of building the right technology support team out.
Have a Tech Leader
Whether you are this person, have this person on your team, or have to hire this person - you have to have a tech leader that knows what technology is needed to solve the problems your company is having now, as well as the problems that your company will face in the future. Usually this person will have worked on another tech support team in a well established organization so they have seen how a good (or bad) team functions. They will be able to tell what your organization is doing right and what can be changed. The tech leader will be in charge of selecting the best candidates that will fill the remaining shoes of the technology support team. Since they have a good understanding of the industry and know what languages are important and what is currently being phased out they will be able to make the decision of what is best for you and your new company.
Establish Your Expectations
When you have your own company, or play a large role in an organization, you are often wearing many hats and juggling different tasks. This means you are not going to have constant oversight of any team that is working for you, especially your tech support team. To ensure that everything is running smoothly and they will exceed your expectations, you have to establish expectations before you begin to hunt for the right team. You should set your team up for success by first defining what success is for them. Make a list of goals that they should be ready to meet and define your idea of what a good service team looks like. Additionally, have a list of basic requirements that your team members should meet. This can include anything from being proficient in certain languages and having a bachelors degree in Engineering to having good communication skills and patience. Establishing expectations will facilitate better understanding of the companies and your goals.
Interviewing Effectively
Interviewing for a tech support position can be hard. Often it is easiest to have a free flowing conversation to see if they are a match, but sometimes this can cause you to become susceptible to your own biases. While personality fit is important, but with a technical role like this there should be at least these two parts to this interview. The first being where you are asking questions about their background and how they would solve certain problems. Here you can have a conversation and assess their answers plus their fit. Some questions that are good to would be: What does a good tech support team look like to you? Or, how would you go about handling a question you do not know the answer to right away? In the second part of the interview, giving the interviewee a test series of technical tasks, that would be indicative of the actual work being done by this person in the organization, allows the organization to understand how effective they will be before they hire. This two part process should be able to give you a better understanding of what candidates are a match.
Takeaway
Tech support is necessary for you and your business to operate smoothly without letting technical difficulties get in the way, like not being able to get your critical work apps functioning or having a breach in your database and have information leaked. The best way to go about picking the right team is to first trusting a leader who knows the industry well. Understanding the in’s and out’s of an industry you are not familiar with has a big learning curve, so having a person who knows this makes a huge difference. Additionally, establishing your expectations will help break down barriers between you and your future support team. Lastly, interviewing effectively is the final filter between you and a great support team. Utilizing these three steps will enable you to have the support team vital to your company's everyday operations and future success.
How Waker Can Help
Waker can help ease some of the stress of your support team by providing ongoing support and maintenance of your mobile and web apps. Waker has a top team of developers that are proficient in many platforms and languages that are able to address bugs and glitches that come up in the future. Waker is constantly trusted with the security, support, and continuous standard of quality as we maintain and scale your code.