The success of Windows 7 can be measured by sales of Windows 7, or by new PC sales with Windows 7 installed, or the number of companies that are offering upgrade of their software to the Windows 7 environment; all positive signs. But there is another measure. The number of help desk calls received by Microsoft for support or assistance in solving Windows 7 problems. That number is a lot lower than what Microsoft expected. This is a sure sign that the product is performing a lot better than predecessors.
According to Barbara Gordon, vice president of customer support for Microsoft, “Overall we are finding our call center volume is down significantly more than we expected.”
Microsoft may have delivered a better OS, but two other factors have contributed to this lower than expected support call rate. One was the introduction of an online forum called Microsoft Answers, the other is by the Microsoft help feed on Twitter.
Microsoft Answers
Microsoft Answers
Forums: Windows Answers - Security Essentials - Live Answers
With the Microsoft Answers forums users can submit questions and they are provided answers from other members of the community and the answers are validated by Microsoft workers to make sure they are correct.
This approach has validated over 60,000 solutions. The company says that 83 percent of English-language queries are answered within seven days. Those in other languages 78 percent are taken care of within a week.
MicrosoftHelps-On-Twitter - 140 Character Limit for Questions - But it gets to the point
As followers of Twitter know, there is a character limit to updates on Twitter, 140 characters. This no-frills texting feature allows people to communicate just the essentials of their question, or problem.
Twitter.com - update page for all tweets, and followers tweets
A tweet acts like a megaphone…one tweet may not rock the boat; but if a lot of users are tweeting about the same technical issue … Microsoft has to look at it. So Microsoft has a team of seven employees that are dedicated full time to the project and they work with the broader support organization to respond to the many tweets. Their goal is to either answer simple questions or to point people to a place where they can get a more detailed answer. With the 140 character limit answers may involve a link to a new location or show the user where to scan in the existing tweets to find their answer.
Microsoft has made significant advances to its customer support program with these additions. Their standard help and support options are still available however. Go to Windows 7 Help and support for additional information.
Windows7 Help & How To
Help and How To
