Monday, May 19, 2008

Consumers Will Demand Comprehensive Support Services As Technology Becomes Mission Critical in the Home

The expansion of technology in the home has been accompanied by installation and troubleshooting problems that often require specialized knowledge. To help consumers overcome these challenges, IDC believes a new generation of tech support services is rising up that leverages the Internet to provide assistance remotely and directly.

To better understand the technology problems that consumers are encountering, IDC analyzed more than 10,000 consumer support sessions captured by support service provider PlumChoice. Key findings from this data include the following:

--PC software and operating system problems were the most common, representing 41% of the support sessions analyzed.

--Security problems, particularly issues associated with viruses, spyware, and malware, were the second most common session type representing 23% of the sessions. Despite the high number of security related sessions, 82% of consumers indicated that they had security software installed. This suggests that consumers are not regularly updating the software to meet new threats.

--Other categories where consumer support is regularly needed include PC performance issues, networking, PC hardware, and peripherals that connect to the PC or network.

More information on the service and support industry can be found at www.SupportIndustry.com

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