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Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Technical Support Representative

💰 $ - $

Customer SupportTechnical SupportIT

🎯 Role Definition

We are seeking a proactive Technical Support Representative to deliver exceptional technical assistance across phone, email, chat, and ticketing systems. The ideal candidate excels at diagnosing and resolving software, hardware, networking, and integration issues; communicates clearly with technical and non-technical stakeholders; maintains accurate support documentation; and drives continuous improvement by identifying recurring issues and collaborating with product and engineering teams. This role emphasizes SLA adherence, first-contact resolution, and high customer satisfaction (CSAT).

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

  • Help Desk Technician / Help Desk Analyst
  • Customer Service Representative with technical exposure
  • IT Support Intern or Desktop Support Technician

Advancement To:

  • Senior Technical Support Representative / Senior Support Engineer
  • Technical Support Lead / Team Lead
  • Support Manager / Customer Success Manager
  • Solutions Engineer / Implementation Consultant

Lateral Moves:

  • Field Service Technician
  • Quality Assurance (QA) Analyst focused on product issues
  • Sales Engineer or Pre-Sales Technical Specialist

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

  • Respond promptly to inbound customer inquiries (phone, email, chat, and ticket portals) and provide courteous, professional support while documenting all interactions in the ticketing system to ensure traceability and SLA compliance.
  • Troubleshoot and resolve end-user issues across software applications, desktop and laptop hardware, peripherals, mobile devices, and operating systems (Windows, macOS, Linux) using structured diagnostic methodologies.
  • Perform advanced troubleshooting for network and connectivity problems, including TCP/IP, DNS, VPNs, proxy settings, and firewall-related issues, and coordinate with network teams when escalation is required.
  • Reproduce, investigate, and diagnose product defects and complex issues; collect logs, configuration files, and system state information and prepare clear technical summaries for engineering teams.
  • Escalate critical or unresolved incidents to second-line or engineering teams with complete incident reports, replication steps, and impact assessments to expedite root cause analysis and resolution.
  • Manage service requests, incident prioritization, and lifecycle tracking in enterprise ticketing systems such as Zendesk, ServiceNow, Jira Service Desk, or Freshdesk, ensuring tickets meet SLAs and update cadences.
  • Provide remote desktop support, screen sharing, and guided walkthroughs via tools like TeamViewer, Zoom, AnyDesk, or Microsoft Remote Desktop to resolve high-impact customer issues.
  • Own customer-facing incident communications during outages or major incidents: compose status updates, coordinate cross-functional response, and maintain stakeholder alignment until resolution.
  • Administer user accounts, groups, and permissions using directory services (Active Directory, Azure AD) and SaaS admin consoles, including password resets, provisioning, and de-provisioning tasks.
  • Assist customers with product installations, upgrades, configuration, and integrations (APIs, webhooks, SSO/SAML, OAuth) and verify end-to-end functionality after changes.
  • Conduct root-cause analysis for recurring incidents, identify trending issues, and propose remediation or product improvements to product management and engineering.
  • Create, update, and maintain high-quality knowledge base articles, troubleshooting guides, FAQs, and runbooks to reduce time-to-resolution and increase self-service adoption.
  • Meet and report on performance metrics including first contact resolution (FCR), mean time to resolution (MTTR), SLA compliance, ticket backlog, and customer satisfaction (CSAT/NPS).
  • Participate in on-call rotations to provide after-hours production support, incident triage, and escalation handling for critical customer-impacting issues.
  • Coordinate RMA, warranty, and replacement workflows for faulty hardware, working closely with suppliers and logistics teams to minimize customer downtime.
  • Conduct proactive account reviews and technical health checks with customers to identify potential risks, misconfigurations, or optimization opportunities.
  • Deliver product demonstrations, feature walkthroughs, and technical onboarding sessions for new customers or new releases to ensure smooth adoption.
  • Work cross-functionally with QA, product management, and engineering to validate bug fixes, test patches, and confirm customer fixes in staging and production environments.
  • Apply basic scripting (PowerShell, Bash) or SQL queries to extract diagnostics, automate repetitive tasks, and provide faster root-cause insights.
  • Ensure compliance with security, privacy, and regulatory requirements when troubleshooting customer environments; follow policies for data handling, redaction, and access.
  • Maintain accurate incident logs, documentation of troubleshooting steps, and time tracking for billing or SLA reconciliation where applicable.
  • Proactively gather and prioritize customer feedback, escalate feature requests, and share product insights that influence product roadmap decisions.
  • Train and mentor junior support staff, participate in peer reviews, and contribute to continuous improvement of support processes and playbooks.
  • Assist in post-incident reviews and retrospective sessions to identify process gaps, preventive measures, and follow-up action items.

Secondary Functions

  • Support ad-hoc product telemetry requests and help interpret support trend data to inform prioritization and product decisions.
  • Contribute to the organization’s knowledge management strategy, improving searchability and quality of self-help content.
  • Collaborate with implementation and success teams to ensure technical readiness and smooth transitions from onboarding to ongoing support.
  • Help design and refine support SLAs, escalation matrices, and runbooks to improve incident response and reduce repeat incidents.
  • Participate in release readiness activities including release note review, impact assessment, and communications planning for customers.
  • Assist in beta testing new features and provide structured customer feedback from the support perspective.
  • Provide internal training sessions for product updates, common issues, and best support practices.
  • Coordinate with sales and account teams to provide technical inputs for renewals, upsells, and technical qualification.
  • Maintain a library of diagnostic utilities, scripts, and templates to speed up troubleshooting and ensure consistent customer experiences.
  • Engage in process automation projects to reduce manual ticket handling and improve support throughput.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

  • Proven troubleshooting skills across operating systems: Windows, macOS, and Linux.
  • Networking fundamentals: TCP/IP, DNS, DHCP, VPN, routing, and firewall basics.
  • Experience with ticketing and incident management tools (Zendesk, ServiceNow, Jira, Freshdesk).
  • Familiarity with CRM and customer systems (Salesforce, HubSpot) and integrating support context into account records.
  • Remote support tools experience (TeamViewer, AnyDesk, Zoom, Microsoft Remote Desktop).
  • Directory and identity administration: Active Directory, Azure AD, SSO (SAML/OAuth), and user provisioning.
  • SaaS product support experience, including configuration, multi-tenant environments, and tenancy isolation considerations.
  • Working knowledge of APIs, REST, webhooks, JSON, and ability to read and test API calls.
  • Basic scripting and automation: PowerShell, Bash, or Python for diagnostic and automation tasks.
  • SQL query skills for extracting data, running diagnostics, and validating customer reports.
  • Cloud platform familiarity (AWS, Azure, or GCP) and cloud-based services commonly used by customers.
  • VoIP and telephony troubleshooting experience (SIP, codecs, call routing) for voice-enabled products.
  • Ability to collect and analyze logs, trace files, and error output from apps and servers.
  • Knowledge of security and compliance practices: data protection, PII handling, and incident disclosure requirements.

Soft Skills

  • Exceptional verbal and written communication skills tailored to both technical and non-technical audiences.
  • Strong customer empathy and commitment to delivering a high-quality customer experience.
  • Analytical problem-solving mindset with attention to reproducible steps and root-cause discovery.
  • Prioritization and time-management skills to manage concurrent tickets and projects under SLA constraints.
  • Collaboration and cross-functional teamwork across engineering, product, QA, and sales teams.
  • Patience and resilience in high-pressure situations, including incident management and escalations.
  • Continuous learning mindset to keep current with evolving product features and industry best practices.
  • Detail-oriented documentation skills for knowledge base articles, incident reports, and handovers.
  • Ability to give and receive feedback and mentor junior staff constructively.
  • Proactive ownership and drive to reduce ticket volume by improving processes, automations, and self-service content.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

  • High school diploma or GED; demonstrated technical aptitude and relevant certifications can substitute.

Preferred Education:

  • Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Information Systems, Network Administration, or related technical discipline.

Relevant Fields of Study:

  • Computer Science
  • Information Technology / Systems
  • Network Administration
  • Software Engineering
  • Cybersecurity

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range: 1–5 years of hands-on technical support or help desk experience (varies by level: entry-level 0–2 years, mid-level 2–5 years, senior 5+ years)

Preferred:

  • 2+ years supporting SaaS or enterprise software with exposure to ticketing systems, SLAs, and cross-functional escalations.
  • Experience supporting enterprise customers, C-level stakeholders, or high-availability production environments.
  • Certifications such as CompTIA A+, Network+, Microsoft Certified: Modern Desktop Administrator, or ITIL Foundation are a plus.
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