There are many important factors involved in order to achieve a successful virtual or hybrid event.  One of the most important is having a skilled technical support team in place to assist your attendees with technical issues that arise.  With all the many other necessary planning items to keep track of to prepare for your virtual event, the need for technical support can easily be overlooked, especially if you have all the meeting planning responsibilities, plus your regular job on your plate! 

So, why is technical support so critical to a successful event?

It actually can make or break your event. 

Many of our clients have had the experience where they have started the planning process of their event, selected their virtual platform, opened registration, and before they know it, they have hundreds of virtual attendees signed up for their event.  A huge win! 

But the flip side of this is that all those attendees are going to need technical support available if needed for an overall smooth sailing virtual event.  From very small issues, to complicated ones, we must have resources and a plan in place to meet each need and solve it quickly. If not, the volume of issues can compound.  We never want multiple attendee and/or presenter issues piling up.  Beyond obvious reasons, this can quickly tip the balance of a great event to a poorly perceived one.   

As we all know, the attendee experience is the key to a successful event.  If they experience technical issues or can not access the event, attendees are quick to make it known online and unfortunately, the negative perception can cancel out even the greatest content. But, don’t worry, the Digital Motion team has been down this road before.  We can guide you on a great plan for setting up your technical support. 

3 Keys to Great Technical Support for your Virtual Event:

1.) Assign Dedicated Engineers for Technical and People Expertise
Even if the process of joining and participating in your virtual event is crystal clear to you, it may not be to all your attendees.  Issues can range from super simple to surprisingly complex.  Your engineers need to be able to quickly diagnose the issue and then have the people skills to meet the customer where they are and patiently walk through the solution with them. 

Stuart, a Digital Motion Technical Support Engineer, gave us his take on the role, “The role is as much customer support as it is technical. Getting to know the customer in the brief time I have with them, understanding what they're using to access the conference (tablet, phone, or computer: which operating system: which web browser). Having customer skills is just as important as technical skills. A good support team will have all of those skills within it - someone who is better at speaking with the customer, someone who is better at speaking with the technology, someone with the overall view of the whole event - these work together synergistically to provide a higher level of support to the conference organizers as well as the attendees.”  

2.) Implement an efficient process for handling the issues. 
Categorizing the issues effectively and following a standard protocol helps with managing the volume of needs. Here at Digital Motion, we have found that attendee needs fall into the following general categories:A huge win! But the flip side of this is that all those attendees are going to need technical support available if needed for an overall smooth sailing virtual event.  From very small issues, to complicated ones, we must have resources and a plan in place to meet each need and solve it quickly. If not, the volume of issues can compound.  We never want multiple attendee and/or presenter issues piling up.  Beyond obvious reasons, this can quickly tip the balance of a great event to a poorly perceived one.   As we all know, the attendee experience is the key to a successful event.  If they experience technical issues or can not access the event, attendees are quick to make it known online and unfortunately, the negative perception can cancel out even the greatest content. But, don’t worry, the Digital Motion team has been down this road before.  We can guide you on a great plan for setting up your technical support.

Categorizing the issues effectively and following a standard protocol helps with managing the volume of needs. Here at Digital Motion, we have found that attendee needs fall into the following general categories:

• User issue: It can be easy to misread instructions, and having someone go over them with you clarifies that - external processing is a thing!
• Technical issue: Do you have the right version of the software? We have had issues in the past that were resolved by updating Zoom to a newer version. Sometimes just switching browser from, say, Firefox to Chrome (or vice versa) means that the attendee can interact properly with the event.
• Complicated Technical Issue: We're going to have to refer that to the supplier to fix. 

3.) Communicate the Technical Support Availability and Access with your AttendeesYour attendees need to know clearly when the Technical Support will be available to them and how they can access the help.

• Establish your tech support hours and post them in your Virtual Platform.
• Determine your tech support channels (phone, email, chat, etc.) and include these in your communications or announcements.
• Create Technical Support FAQs for reference. 

You don’t have to be the expert!
We get it! You have enough on your plate to also be in charge of the technical support for your next event. We are in the business of partnering with busy people to help make your event a success.  From start to finish, we fill in the gaps and help you make your event awesome. 

We aren't gonna lie, our Technical Support Team at Digital Motion is top notch.  If you would like to get a quote for this service, just schedule a free consultation today.

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