As a smart home brand, you know that when a customer calls in because their device is having connection problems, there are all kinds of things that could be going on behind the scenes. In fact, a lot of the time, it’s something in the customer’s home network, not anything with the device itself.
No matter the source of the problem, though, the customer will see it as part of the service you provide to them through that device—and they expect your company to be able to fix it, even if it means long calls with reps and playing a literal game of telephone to find and diagnose the issue.
And if they can’t figure it out? Well, there’s a chance they’ll return it, even if there’s nothing wrong with the device.
So what’s a smart home brand to do?
First, let’s look at the common causes of home network problems.
Not too long ago, we analyzed over 100,000 home networks around the world to find the most common causes of issues that consumers experience when setting up and connecting smart devices on their WiFi. You can find the full story on that here, but here’s a quick snapshot for now of what the top five were:
- Invalid or special characters in the SSID put there by the customer
- Congestion on a channel caused by too many users, primarily in densely populated areas
- Blocked communication caused by troublesome router settings
- Disconnections or interference caused by a device’s location relative to the router
- Disconnections or interference caused by 5G or merged networks
When a customer runs into one of these issues, typically all they’ll see is the device disconnecting or a video refusing to load. But they’ll call your company for support, not realizing how close to home the problem could be—and your reps will get to play a game of 20 questions, trying to find a problem they can’t see.
So how can you make home network problems visible for your reps?
The key to being able to resolve an issue quickly and effectively is being able to see it in the first place. And for that to happen, your reps need tools that can act as their eyes within the home network.
RouteThis gives reps the visibility they need, no questions asked. With detailed diagnostics clearly displayed on the agent dashboard, agents can quickly assess problems, and suggest courses of action to resolve those problems using guided resolution paths.
Plus, Self-Help can help you reduce the overall volume of calls by giving customers the ability to scan their networks and resolve problems before they decide to pick up the phone.