Tech support dilemma

A former co-worker once described tech support from a large, well-known software vendor like this: "I found it was better to stand in front of a mirror and describe the problem to myself than to try to get help from XYZ support."

Why is tech support generally bad? The problem may be that once people get to a point where they can be effective at it, then they are at a point where they can be better used elsewhere. Suppose individual X does tech support for a large, complex software product; say a GIS system.

X is good at it, with deep understanding of the underlying specifications, full knowledge of the intricacies and glitches of the product in several functional areas, ability to quickly read customers (generally incorrect) source code and fix problems, communicates well with customers, etc.

What then becomes of X? Probably X will be transferred out of tech support into the consulting, testing or programming groups. In the consulting group the XYZ company can charge more for X's skills. In testing or programming X can bring a greater good than in tech support. In support you can basically help one person at a time and a fixed limited number overall. In the programming or test teams, you advance the product, which benefits everyone who uses the product. Thus more people benefit from X's efforts which should be more profitable to XYZ corp.

X's employer could decide to keep X in tech support because she is very good at it and her customers are happy. However this probably won't last because X can take her skills to a promotion out of tech support at a different company. So if XYZ doesn't promote X out of tech support then another company will.

So this may be why tech support is often bad. Once people get good at it they can be reassigned to more profitable areas. Also because of the cost and learning curve around big, complex software systems, it is better to keep around those tech support who aren't very good because turnover is expensive and the new replacements you bring in generally won't be better than those they are replacing.