I ran a survey a short time ago and these are the results.
Technician Customer Demographics Survey Results
This survey was answered by people who provide technical support to residential customers. It is not device specific. The goal was to see who their customers are and how those customers use their services. There were 73 responses to the survey. This survey was posted on reddit.com/r/computertechs, Technibble, and Bleeping Computer.
Types of technical support
Note that these percentages do not add up to 100% as techs could select multiple forms of support.
Most technicians provide in-person support to their customers. 82% of the techs provide in-person support where they go to the customer and 69% of the technicians provide in-person support where the customers come to them. Remote work was the next most common form of technical support with 70% of the technicians remotely assisting customers. The least common form of support techs provide is training, at 30% of the responses. Additionally, no respondents listed training as their only form of support, in all instances it was in addition to in-person or remote support.
Types of devices
The most commonly supported devices by technicians who responded to this survey were desktop computers and laptops at 98.6% of all responses. This may show that the tech support industry is still dominated by PC support but it is also likely related to where responses to this survey were obtained from. Printers were the next most commonly supported device at 63% of responses. Tablets and Smartphones were in 3rd and 4th most common at 59% and 50% respectively. I think it is interesting to note that almost 10% more support is provided for tablets than smartphones. The next tier were devices from the living room which are provided with almost half as much support as smartphones: this includes Media streamers (25%), TVs (22%), and Game Consoles (21%). The next tier of devices supported are IOT (16%) and smart home systems (10%). The systems that were provided with the least support include cameras (7%), virtual reality devices (4%) and smart watches (4%).
Upon further analysis, these numbers held true both for in-person and remote support as well as for all major age ranges. That said, techs supporting users in the 24-54 age range mainly support computers, phones, tablets and printers. Those who support users aged 55 and above are the techs who mainly also provide support for living-room based devices (TVs, media streamers, game consoles), smart home systems, and IOT devices on top of computers, phones, tablets, and printers.
Gender
There does not seem to be any major evidence that more men or women require technical support. 73% of respondents said that they support both men and women about equally, 15% support women more than men, and 12% support more men than women. The averages hold up when comparing both in-person and remote support. Interestingly, when looking solely at those who provide training, nobody said they support more men than women, but 27% of the respondents said that they are more likely to support women than men. Likewise, for techs who mainly support people over the age of 55, only 5% said that most of their customers are men, compared to 15% having mainly female customers.
Age
Almost all respondents said that their customers are 25 or older. Middle-aged people (25-54) formed the majority of this at 69% of all responses. People aged 55+ formed the second half at 26% of all responses. Those below the age of 25 formed only a tiny portion of the results, 4% between the ages of 18 and 24, and 1% under the age of 18.
Cost
Most technicians (41%) receive around $61-$100 per job for their services. 22% receive more than the average, obtaining $101-$200 per job, while 12% receive less than the average, obtaining $31-$60 per job. 8% of technicians receive considerably more than the average, obtaining more than $200 per job. Only 3% of technicians receive considerably less than the average, obtaining $16-$30 per job. 6% of technicians received no money for their services as it was done on a hobby basis. No technicians reported making $1-$15 per job. Additionally, 8% of technicians provide support that is included in a monthly cost.
These cost averages hold true across both in-person and remote support. The only major difference is when looking at remote support, there are fewer techs that make $201+ per job, and more technicians that provide the job as part of a monthly cost. For training these cost averages change more drastically. When looking at technicians who list training as part of their support scope, the average cost jumps to $101-$200 per job for 41% of all technicians and $61-$100 per job for 32% of technicians. 9% of technicians make more than the average at $201+ per job, 9% make less than the average at $31-$60 per job, and the remaining 9% provide their services as part of a monthly cost. By providing training on top of normal in-person or remote support, technicians receive more per job than without providing training. That said, from the data it cannot be determined if they make more money per hour, if the jobs are simply longer, or if other outside factors are affecting this cost.
When looking at costs compared to supported devices, the main cost averages hold true for most devices although there are some notable exceptions. Technicians who support cameras report making more per job than the average, with 40% receiving $101-$200 per job. Likewise, technicians supporting smart home systems and IOT devices tend to make more than the average with 43% receiving $101-$200 per job for smart home systems and for IOT, 33% receiving $101-$200 per job and only 25% receiving $61-$100 per job. Technicians who support gaming consoles reported a much more varied range of costs per job with costs split almost evenly between average, above average, and below average costs with a slight edge on the average and above average costs (27% for $101-$200, 27% for $61-$100, and 20% for $31-$60).
There are some fluctuations in cost per job based on gender but not enough to be statistically relevant. Likewise, there is little fluctuation when looking at cost per job based on age range. The only major difference is for people between the ages of 18-24, where most techs report providing their service as part of a monthly cost.
Number of customers
The number of customers supported monthly by technicians varies greatly, but the majority (40%) support 16-50 customers a month (21.9% supporting 16-30 and 18% supporting 31-50 customers). By these numbers it appears that most technicians provide support on a casual basis with only a few customers per day or less. 26% of technicians provide regular tech support with over 100 customers per month (12.3% supporting 101-200 and 13.7% supporting 201+ customers). 10% fall in between these 2 ranges with 51-100 customers per month. On the other end of the spectrum, 25% of technicians provide very casual support with only 1-15 customers per month (13.7% supporting 1-5 and 11% supporting 6-15 customers).
When filtering by types of support, technicians who provide in-person tech support where the customers come to them or provide remote support generally assist 16-50 people per month, but they are more likely to provide support to 100+ users than they are to 15 or less users. On the other hand, technicians who provide in-person support where they go to the customers are considerably more likely to provide support to only 1-5 people per month than the average, but beyond that, the other averages hold true. Technicians who provide training to customers are more likely to support more customers in a month than the average.
Filtering by the amount technicians charge per job, those charging the least tend to also support the least number of customers. Every respondent who charges less than $30 per job said they have only 1-5 customers per month. Of those charging $31-$60 per job, 33% have 1-15 customers per month, 22% have 1-5 customers per month, and another 22% have 16-30 customers per month. No technicians in this cost bracket reported more than 100 jobs per month. Technicians in the cost bracket of $61-$100 per job are supporting the average of 16-50 customers a month, with the majority beyond that supporting 100+ per month. The same holds true for technicians in the cost brackets of $100 and above.
Most common fixes/jobs
The most common job is repairing a computer after it has been hit with a virus. This accounted for almost half the results. Hard drive related fixes, computer cleanups, internet/networking related issues, and hardware replacements make up most of the remaining work. Windows-related fixes are common and jobs related to setup and repair are both equally common. Not as common but still a trend were email-related issues, printer problems, backups, and speeding-up slow computers. This data does not seem to change drastically based on other factors.
Insights
Raw Stats: https://awesome-table.com/-KrS2CZiLH2LADQY-NyZ/view
Technician Customer Demographics Survey Results
This survey was answered by people who provide technical support to residential customers. It is not device specific. The goal was to see who their customers are and how those customers use their services. There were 73 responses to the survey. This survey was posted on reddit.com/r/computertechs, Technibble, and Bleeping Computer.
Types of technical support
Note that these percentages do not add up to 100% as techs could select multiple forms of support.
Most technicians provide in-person support to their customers. 82% of the techs provide in-person support where they go to the customer and 69% of the technicians provide in-person support where the customers come to them. Remote work was the next most common form of technical support with 70% of the technicians remotely assisting customers. The least common form of support techs provide is training, at 30% of the responses. Additionally, no respondents listed training as their only form of support, in all instances it was in addition to in-person or remote support.
Types of devices
The most commonly supported devices by technicians who responded to this survey were desktop computers and laptops at 98.6% of all responses. This may show that the tech support industry is still dominated by PC support but it is also likely related to where responses to this survey were obtained from. Printers were the next most commonly supported device at 63% of responses. Tablets and Smartphones were in 3rd and 4th most common at 59% and 50% respectively. I think it is interesting to note that almost 10% more support is provided for tablets than smartphones. The next tier were devices from the living room which are provided with almost half as much support as smartphones: this includes Media streamers (25%), TVs (22%), and Game Consoles (21%). The next tier of devices supported are IOT (16%) and smart home systems (10%). The systems that were provided with the least support include cameras (7%), virtual reality devices (4%) and smart watches (4%).
Upon further analysis, these numbers held true both for in-person and remote support as well as for all major age ranges. That said, techs supporting users in the 24-54 age range mainly support computers, phones, tablets and printers. Those who support users aged 55 and above are the techs who mainly also provide support for living-room based devices (TVs, media streamers, game consoles), smart home systems, and IOT devices on top of computers, phones, tablets, and printers.
Gender
There does not seem to be any major evidence that more men or women require technical support. 73% of respondents said that they support both men and women about equally, 15% support women more than men, and 12% support more men than women. The averages hold up when comparing both in-person and remote support. Interestingly, when looking solely at those who provide training, nobody said they support more men than women, but 27% of the respondents said that they are more likely to support women than men. Likewise, for techs who mainly support people over the age of 55, only 5% said that most of their customers are men, compared to 15% having mainly female customers.
Age
Almost all respondents said that their customers are 25 or older. Middle-aged people (25-54) formed the majority of this at 69% of all responses. People aged 55+ formed the second half at 26% of all responses. Those below the age of 25 formed only a tiny portion of the results, 4% between the ages of 18 and 24, and 1% under the age of 18.
Cost
Most technicians (41%) receive around $61-$100 per job for their services. 22% receive more than the average, obtaining $101-$200 per job, while 12% receive less than the average, obtaining $31-$60 per job. 8% of technicians receive considerably more than the average, obtaining more than $200 per job. Only 3% of technicians receive considerably less than the average, obtaining $16-$30 per job. 6% of technicians received no money for their services as it was done on a hobby basis. No technicians reported making $1-$15 per job. Additionally, 8% of technicians provide support that is included in a monthly cost.
These cost averages hold true across both in-person and remote support. The only major difference is when looking at remote support, there are fewer techs that make $201+ per job, and more technicians that provide the job as part of a monthly cost. For training these cost averages change more drastically. When looking at technicians who list training as part of their support scope, the average cost jumps to $101-$200 per job for 41% of all technicians and $61-$100 per job for 32% of technicians. 9% of technicians make more than the average at $201+ per job, 9% make less than the average at $31-$60 per job, and the remaining 9% provide their services as part of a monthly cost. By providing training on top of normal in-person or remote support, technicians receive more per job than without providing training. That said, from the data it cannot be determined if they make more money per hour, if the jobs are simply longer, or if other outside factors are affecting this cost.
When looking at costs compared to supported devices, the main cost averages hold true for most devices although there are some notable exceptions. Technicians who support cameras report making more per job than the average, with 40% receiving $101-$200 per job. Likewise, technicians supporting smart home systems and IOT devices tend to make more than the average with 43% receiving $101-$200 per job for smart home systems and for IOT, 33% receiving $101-$200 per job and only 25% receiving $61-$100 per job. Technicians who support gaming consoles reported a much more varied range of costs per job with costs split almost evenly between average, above average, and below average costs with a slight edge on the average and above average costs (27% for $101-$200, 27% for $61-$100, and 20% for $31-$60).
There are some fluctuations in cost per job based on gender but not enough to be statistically relevant. Likewise, there is little fluctuation when looking at cost per job based on age range. The only major difference is for people between the ages of 18-24, where most techs report providing their service as part of a monthly cost.
Number of customers
The number of customers supported monthly by technicians varies greatly, but the majority (40%) support 16-50 customers a month (21.9% supporting 16-30 and 18% supporting 31-50 customers). By these numbers it appears that most technicians provide support on a casual basis with only a few customers per day or less. 26% of technicians provide regular tech support with over 100 customers per month (12.3% supporting 101-200 and 13.7% supporting 201+ customers). 10% fall in between these 2 ranges with 51-100 customers per month. On the other end of the spectrum, 25% of technicians provide very casual support with only 1-15 customers per month (13.7% supporting 1-5 and 11% supporting 6-15 customers).
When filtering by types of support, technicians who provide in-person tech support where the customers come to them or provide remote support generally assist 16-50 people per month, but they are more likely to provide support to 100+ users than they are to 15 or less users. On the other hand, technicians who provide in-person support where they go to the customers are considerably more likely to provide support to only 1-5 people per month than the average, but beyond that, the other averages hold true. Technicians who provide training to customers are more likely to support more customers in a month than the average.
Filtering by the amount technicians charge per job, those charging the least tend to also support the least number of customers. Every respondent who charges less than $30 per job said they have only 1-5 customers per month. Of those charging $31-$60 per job, 33% have 1-15 customers per month, 22% have 1-5 customers per month, and another 22% have 16-30 customers per month. No technicians in this cost bracket reported more than 100 jobs per month. Technicians in the cost bracket of $61-$100 per job are supporting the average of 16-50 customers a month, with the majority beyond that supporting 100+ per month. The same holds true for technicians in the cost brackets of $100 and above.
Most common fixes/jobs
The most common job is repairing a computer after it has been hit with a virus. This accounted for almost half the results. Hard drive related fixes, computer cleanups, internet/networking related issues, and hardware replacements make up most of the remaining work. Windows-related fixes are common and jobs related to setup and repair are both equally common. Not as common but still a trend were email-related issues, printer problems, backups, and speeding-up slow computers. This data does not seem to change drastically based on other factors.
Insights
- Technical training is generally not standalone, it often is coupled alongside in-person or remote technical support.
- Computer support is the most common, then printer support, and then smart phones and tablets, with more going towards tablets. After phones and tablets, living room devices (TVs, media streamers, game consoles) are the next most common.
- Smart home devices and IOT are relatively new but already make up around 10/15% of support.
- Support for living room devices and smart home devices tends to be geared more towards people aged 55 and up.
- Support is fairly evenly provided for both men and women on average. That said, when it comes to training and people over the age of 55 (both separately), female customers seem to be more common than men.
- Most techs support people between the ages of 24 and 55, these make up 69% of the results. Techs supporting people aged 55 and up form around a quarter of the results.
- The average cost per job is $61-$100. Around 25% of technicians make more than the average, receiving $101-$200 per job, and around 12% make less, receiving $31-$60 per job.
- Technicians who provide training generally receive more money per job that the average with the majority receiving $101-$200 per job. Likewise, technicians who support cameras, smart home systems, and IOT devices generally receive more, around $101-$200 per job.
- Most technicians who answered this survey support 16-50 customers per month.
- Technicians who provide training to customers are more likely to support more customers in a month than the average.
- Technicians who charge the least tend to also support the least number of customers. As price per job increases, up to $100+ per month, the average amount of jobs per month also increases.
- The most common job technicians provide is repairing computers after a virus. Hard drive related fixes, computer cleanups, internet/networking related issues, and hardware replacements are also common.
Raw Stats: https://awesome-table.com/-KrS2CZiLH2LADQY-NyZ/view
