Good Practices in Application Support

Application support refers to a service or resources offered to ensure the proper functioning, maintenance and resolution of problems related to a software application or applications. Support focuses on serving the customer, or a regular user, of that application. Stay tuned for some ways to better fulfil this need!

Application Support Duties

Application support can be a key point in customer satisfaction with the application itself, even though all applications have errors and dysfunctions. It’s the application support that can make the difference, in the care, attention and importance it gives to each customer. Dissatisfaction with an application can be minimised or even accepted if the user understands that on the other side there is a team ready to listen to their problems and resolve them promptly, and even if they are not resolved as quickly as the customer would like, to keep the customer informed of the status and the resolution with minimal conflict.

Good Practices in Application Support

Application support that adopts good practices will be better prepared to face and solve the problems presented on a daily basis. My suggestions for good practices are:

Clear and up-to-date documentation – Documentation should include topics about procedures and support itself, such as behaviour, troubleshooting guides and configuration information.

Knowledge update – An application can work in a totally different way compared to the first day we saw it, so whenever new features appear or even major changes in operation, they should always be followed up with training and an explanation to the support team.

Clear communication – The great ally of good support will always be a good development team that knows its structure and functionalities comprehensively. It is therefore extremely important to establish channels of communication between support and the development team. Communication should also be clear in customer service, so that no doubts arise beyond the reported problem.

Proactive Monitoring – Implementing proactive monitoring systems and setting up performance management alerts can help to predict and promptly resolve problems that are not yet reflected in the users. Collaboration with the DevOps team is important in this area. 

Task automation – A point that, although not fundamental, can help automate more routine tasks so that they take less time away from the application support team and reduce human errors.

Monitoring Customer Satisfaction – Customer feedback is very useful to identify areas for improvement, whether in the support process or even in the application. 

Although we try our best to summarise what would result from good practices in application support, in the end these are just the results of a team of professionals committing all their skills and abilities to the purpose of a good customer experience, and it’s worthy to remember that each case is different and each application is different. In the end it’s always the professional who has to identify and adopt the best practices that serve the customer’s needs best.

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