What is Remote Support?

Remote support, also called visual assistance, allows service organizations to provide technical help to customers and technicians in the field remotely via live video, reducing the need to send workers into the field. In addition to live video, remote support platforms provide Augmented Reality tools that make it easy to collaboratively solve problems and integrations that enable seamless data collection within existing CSM or FSM systems.

Consumer video chat services like Zoom and Facetime connect people and are useful for conversational interactions and presentations. When trying to solve a complex or technical problem from a distance adding video chat is only marginally helpful.

Visual assistance technology such as the SightCall platform offers features that give remote support providers the tools they need to observe, document, and solve problems for their users. Customers or technicians in the feild can use smartphones, tablets, or other mobile devices to get immediate expert help by joining a remote support session.

Rather than using the front-facing camera of mobile device, remote support primarily makes use of the back camera.

Through a live session, the end-user can use their smartphone to show the remote expert what they are seeing. The remote expert can use tools to zoom in, activate the flashlight, pause the live video, and use AR Annotations to add instructions and tools over real-world objects to illustrate steps and reduce confusion.

Other features allow agents to perform accurate measurements remotely, scan codes, import information such as serial numbers and readings, and capture GPS coordinates. The result is a toolkit that provides rich information to remote experts and empowers them to solve problems along with the users during a live video session.

The applications of remote support are universal. Customer service organizations use it to help their customers troubleshoot problems and self-service. If a technician is needed, they benefit from knowing exactly what a problem is and what’s needed to fix it.

Similarly, field service organizations use visual assistance to conduct inspections remotely and help technicians on the ground perform maintenance and repairs by dialing in remote specialists.

In the healthcare industry, visual assistance tools provide a secure platform for telehealth with additional features for remote help with maintaining healthcare equipment for providers and patients at home.

For insurers, using remote support for visual claims allow policyholders to document their claims with a remote adjuster verifying data in real-time.

When adding remote support to your organization’s services, it’s important to choose a platform that addresses your needs and integrates into your existing workflows with minimum disruption.

One of the most important criteria in a remote support platform is a flexible integration system that allows data synchronization between your Customer Relationship or Field Service Management systems with the remote support platform. This allows all resources, such as photos, videos, and information about issues and their resolutions to be saved right inside a case file.

The right solution will offer several deployment options that meet your needs, whether that is a platform that can be integrated into existing service apps or one that operates as a stand-alone remote support application.

In addition to providing all of these powerful features to our customers, we also manage and operate our global network of real-time platform nodes that are connected through high bandwidth connections. This ensures that no matter where the remote expert is, they can help solve problems anywhere else in the world.

To learn more about how remote support can help your organization get in touch today for a free demo of our leading visual assistance platform.