Effect of Providing a Web-Based Collaboration Medium for Remote Customer Troubleshooting Tasks

摘要

This study investigates the effect of providing a Web-based diagnostic tool as a collaboration medium on remote customer troubleshooting tasks with and without the assistance of a customer call center agent. The study tested three troubleshooting modes (Web tool alone, call center agent alone, and Web tool + call center agent). The hypothesis that the Web tool + call center agent mode would be faster than the other two modes was not supported. However, the results of the experiment showed that the Web-based self-help diagnostic tool can be a potentially cost-effective way of providing customer support. The performance using the Web tool alone was comparable to the call center agent.