We understand the easy temptation. Everybody is comfortable with your online meeting tool. They know where the buttons are. They know how to accept invites. They’re even pretty good at turning on their microphone and camera on the first try! So what’s the harm in using that meeting platform for remote IT support?
Plenty, it turns out. So please, please, please stop treating generic online meetings as the right venue for remote tech support.
Here’s why:
1. Remote IT support needs more sophisticated security controls than generic meetings provide.
We’re not just talking about the password gateways and waiting rooms that are commonplace today. In a live remote IT support session your administrators, managers, and end users need more granular security controls and permissions rooted in a zero-trust mindset. This ensures that users don’t accidentally gain permission to resources (such as shared drives and documents) that they normally lack. It also provides a log of everyone who has remotely accessed a client device, including details of when and for how long. None of these details are captured in a typical online meeting. That level of scrutiny promotes better security and also helps supervisors understand agent productivity and techniques.
2. Purpose-built remote support tools give both agents and clients more control over nearly every device.
Agents can take control directly and execute the necessary tasks, instead of having to provide coaching through voice or chat but leaving the proper clicking and typing steps up to the user. Many end users feel awkward taking administrative action. With secure remote controls, these tasks are put back in the hands of professionals, where they belong. Users know that their support agent is authorized to take steps to help them through the current issue and are still free to restrict or revoke access permission at any time, promoting their peace of mind. This doesn’t just apply to laptops and desktops, but mobile devices and physical spaces and equipment too (the latter via camera sharing through the user’s mobile device) so everything an end user relies on to do their work remotely can be supported – with control.
3. Support sessions can be completed without user involvement.
A regular online meeting for IT support moves only as fast as the end user can keep up with the agent, and requires their focus and involvement from start to finish. With a dedicated solution and authorized remote access, the support professional can take over and make changes and improvements unattended by the user, even during off-hours when the user is not logged in or working.
4. You don’t lose out on session recording.
Easy cloud recording helped online meeting platforms get popular and stay popular, but you don’t have to give that convenience up when you move to a dedicated support platform. Recording and playback are easy with today’s dedicated remote support platforms. So you can turn those remote tech support sessions into best-practices videos for agents, or teaching references for users experiencing a similar problem.
5. IT should use tools that focus on the unique challenges of technical support.
Generic meeting platforms evolve at their own pace, with the goal of promoting more one-to-many and many-to-many conversations, webinars, and the like. They are not currently optimized for remote IT support, nor will their development roadmap focus on the changing needs of IT support professionals. A dedicated remote tech support solution will evolve with the needs of your help desk and even provide more capabilities that make the agent’s day-to-day job easier, like integrated ticketing and automation. Meeting tools will simply never become an agent’s MVP like that.
If you are ready to break this habit (please!) we would like to help.
GoTo Resolve can help your professionals put a professional face on remote IT support, with zero-trust security, attended and unattended support modes, and seamless connections with both on-premise and remote workers. Learn more about remote IT support options built specifically for the needs of the modern IT help desk.