A computer is an expensive thing, and it’s heartbreaking for someone who has saved up hard-earned money to experience an issue with their system. Whether out of the box, or more than a year into use, the idea of having to go through technical troubleshooting can be daunting, especially for first-time buyers. Luckily, the trained experts at Starforge Systems don’t rely on scripted responses, are uniformly empowered to make decisions regarding system RMAs and have industry experience that forever brings us closer to our goal of building the best PCs in the Universe.
One of the most commonly asked questions our Customer Care team receives is some variation of “Why don’t you all have a call-in phone support line?” The inquiry seems simple enough, but ultimately has a less-than-straightforward answer. This article is meant to give a deep-dive into the structure of our RMA and technical support process as well as the reasoning behind why things are run the way that they’re run.
No one likes standing in a long line. Being on hold is awful. Very little is as aggravating as watching other tables receive their food while hungrily sitting in a restaurant. The list of time sinks that can sour a customer experience seems to go on forever.
These are things that Starforge Systems doesn’t want to just diminish, but avoid completely. It may seem strange to structure a support system that doesn’t offer on-call tech support. In planning customer experience, we took learned lessons from other industries, as well as reviews from other companies within the pre-built PC industry and sought to remedy flaws that existed in these practices. What stood out most to our team was the fact that secret shoppers had metrics not just for the performance of the PC, but also the length of the wait.
After spending close to an hour on hold, it’s hard to imagine being faced with a scripted response from a support agent who has a dozen questions about your order before actually starting the resolution. Enduring all of that, if the responding agent has to escalate your problem to a more senior representative, it could be hours before your PC is up and running again. And yet, that is the unfortunate reality of many people’s pre-built PC experience. To make sure that our clientele never has to sit and wait for an unknown amount of time, Starforge Systems is proud to offer its support through an appointment-based system.
While it’s true that scheduling a call for the next day may increase the total amount of time it takes to reach a resolution, the benefits certainly outweigh the risks. A scheduled support session allows the dedicated agent an opportunity to review your order ahead of the call and come prepared. Our system is also flexible and won’t require a second call. Too long of a hold means having to hang up and come back another time. With an appointment, there’s no need to worry about weighing a fix for your computer and other obligations against one another as our schedule conforms to yours.
Calls are almost always available the next business day, and are always with a technician who is intimately familiar with our systems. There’s no offloading to a call center overseas. There’s no escalation to another team member for approval should the system need to be sent in for repair. One of the clear benefits to a support call that is planned ahead of time is that our support team has the opportunity to read email troubleshooting ahead of time and look up any necessary information before the call even begins. The person on the line is equipped and empowered to make the decisions necessary to ensure the customer on the other end of the line is set up for success by the time that the call ends.
The rationale behind our technical support team not dealing in scripted responses is two-fold. The first, and most obvious reason is that it can be incredibly alienating to hear the same few sentences over and over. It also doesn’t instill a great deal of confidence in the average customer that the person advising them on technical troubleshooting knows what they’re doing. Which brings up the second main reason our team doesn’t use scripts: They simply don’t need to. Starforge is proud to hire domestic technicians with a wealth of knowledge and previous experience. Whether it’s reinstalling drivers, reseating RAM or otherwise remotely servicing your computer, the team at Starforge has done it all before.
In the instances that something can’t be resolved on the phone, our support team will quickly initiate an RMA (Return Merchandise Authorization). Unfortunately, not everything can be fixed remotely, but Starforge Systems wants nothing more than to make this process as quick and as painless as possible.
That starts with shipping. We always ask our clientele to keep their packaging materials on hand in the event of an RMA. Having these on hand may take up a lot of space, but they’re the best thing to use to protect your system on its way back to HQ. These are also the perfect materials to pack up a PC for when changing addresses. With the knowledge that not everyone will keep their internal packaging or outer boxes. We make replacements available throughout the lifetime of a PC’s warranty. While we charge a fee to replace lost or discarded packing items, the return shipping of a computer back to Starforge Systems Headquarters is part of our warranty agreement. Outgoing shipping of the PC once it’s been fixed is similarly covered. After spending so much with us, if something goes wrong, the least that we can do is to make sure replacing whatever component may have failed comes at no further cost than your time.
Our clientele is often pleasantly surprised with our usual turn around time on repairs and replacements. While repairs aren’t ever guaranteed in a certain timeframe, as each PC is approached from the ground up, regardless of the issue, systems are usually on their way back within a coupe of business days of being received in our warehouse. Our RMA technicians, like our support team are incredibly experienced and knowledgeable. With parts on hand and systems in place to make for speedy repairs, our ability to fix your issue in days rather than the weeks is one that we take great pride in. For those who cannot wait, Starforge Systems has Advanced RMA/replacement options that can make an already short wait time non-existent!
No company ever wants to see their products returned for repair. Our testing process has been refined and iterated on over and over and we put a great deal of trust in the manufacturers of individual parts. However, in the event that your PC ever does run into issues, we here are Starforge Systems have the personnel, the skills, and the processes in place to make sure that you’re back at your system playing your favorite title in no time at all.
