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What does a technical support advisor do?

Updated January 8, 2025
9 min read
Quoted expert
Babak Beheshti Ph.D.
What does a technical support advisor do

A technical support advisor specializes in assisting customers, mainly through diagnosing and solving issues using their product and service expertise. In most companies, they communicate with clients through calls or correspondence. Through this, they get to identify their needs, answer inquiries, give technical advice, troubleshoot problems, and solve issues and concerns, ensuring efficiency and client satisfaction. Moreover, a technical support advisor works together with the company's internal departments to optimize customer support operations and resolve any issues or vulnerabilities in the current procedures.

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Technical support advisor responsibilities

Here are examples of responsibilities from real technical support advisor resumes:

  • Answer eligibility and coverage questions from insurance agents pertaining to Medicare advantage plans and prescription drug plans.
  • Provide technical and troubleshooting support for both consumers and businesses with PC, printer and internet service issues.
  • Help people troubleshoot their iPhone issues, schedule appointments, and call back customers to make sure their phones are fix.
  • Assess, analyze and troubleshoot customer issues providing resolution to problems.
  • Assist in maintaining of switches, hubs routes, and other network topology.
  • Research and implement the content management system SharePoint for internal document sharing and collaboration.
  • Recognize for delivering high-level technical support requiring diverse knowledge in specialize subject areas including numerous types PC hardware, application software.
  • Configure routers/switches, and other internet enable devices.
  • Enhance web presence of the department through innovative and interactive web features using HTML, CSS and JavaScript.
  • Assist in the trouble shooting of local area networks and stand-alone workstations to determine cause of failure.
  • Aid with web hosting migration, backups and PCI compliance.
  • Diagnose and develop resolutions for problems on workstations and applications.
  • Complete extensive training in Citrix server administration and Hyperion application management.
  • Resolve customer email & various internet relate issues using Citrix GoToAssist remote desktop streaming software.

Technical support advisor skills and personality traits

We calculated that 10% of Technical Support Advisors are proficient in Customer Service, Technical Support Calls, and Troubleshoot. They’re also known for soft skills such as Customer-service skills, Listening skills, and Problem-solving skills.

We break down the percentage of Technical Support Advisors that have these skills listed on their resume here:

  • Customer Service, 10%

    Provide tier 2 technical support and general customer service to wireless customers while using designated power formula in call center environment.

  • Technical Support Calls, 9%

    Handled technical support calls for Apple products.

  • Troubleshoot, 9%

    Assessed, analyzed and troubleshoot customer issues providing resolution to problems.

  • Customer Satisfaction, 6%

    Ensured customer satisfaction by providing an elevated customer experience through demonstrating empathy, professionalism and knowledge.

  • Issue Resolution, 6%

    Image mirroring, wireless network configuration and issue resolution.

  • Technical Troubleshooting, 5%

    Provided technical troubleshooting, help with billing inquiries and their resolution, processed refunds and other post-sales activities.

"customer service," "technical support calls," and "troubleshoot" are among the most common skills that technical support advisors use at work. You can find even more technical support advisor responsibilities below, including:

Customer-service skills. One of the key soft skills for a technical support advisor to have is customer-service skills. You can see how this relates to what technical support advisors do because "computer support specialists must be patient and sympathetic." Additionally, a technical support advisor resume shows how technical support advisors use customer-service skills: "handled technical support calls for our client, apple, as part of applecare maintained superior customer satisfaction and call handling statistics"

Listening skills. Another essential skill to perform technical support advisor duties is listening skills. Technical support advisors responsibilities require that "support workers must be able to understand the problems that their customers are describing and know when to ask questions to clarify the situation." Technical support advisors also use listening skills in their role according to a real resume snippet: "listened to agentcustomer calls and graded the calls. "

Problem-solving skills. technical support advisors are also known for problem-solving skills, which are critical to their duties. You can see how this skill relates to technical support advisor responsibilities, because "support workers must identify both simple and complex computer problems, analyze them, and solve them." A technical support advisor resume example shows how problem-solving skills is used in the workplace: "answered, logged, and resolved 30+ inbound technical support calls daily. "

Speaking skills. For certain technical support advisor responsibilities to be completed, the job requires competence in "speaking skills." The day-to-day duties of a technical support advisor rely on this skill, as "support workers must describe the solutions to computer problems in a way that a nontechnical person can understand." For example, this snippet was taken directly from a resume about how this skill applies to what technical support advisors do: "presented at conferences and hosted webinars to discuss products and customer issues. "

Writing skills. A commonly-found skill in technical support advisor job descriptions, "writing skills" is essential to what technical support advisors do. Technical support advisor responsibilities rely on this skill because "strong writing skills are useful for preparing instructions and email responses for employees and customers, as well as for real-time web chat interactions." You can also see how technical support advisor duties rely on writing skills in this resume example: "developed administrative computer skills by writing trouble tickets for technicians. "

All technical support advisor skills

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Compare different technical support advisors

Technical support advisor vs. Customer support technician

A customer support technician is responsible for resolving customer complaints with their network issues through remote communication, providing the customers with a step-by-step procedure to fix their systems. Customer support technicians assist the customers in setting up their programs and applications, guiding them with the instructional manuals, and responding to the inquiries and concerns they have. They also escalate high-level complaints to the immediate supervisor as needed while monitoring system solutions and creating technical tickets.

We looked at the average technical support advisor salary and compared it with the wages of a customer support technician. Generally speaking, customer support technicians are paid $70,837 lower than technical support advisors per year.While their salaries may differ, the common ground between technical support advisors and customer support technicians are a few of the skills required in each roleacirc;euro;trade;s responsibilities. In both careers, employee duties involve skills like customer service, customer satisfaction, and technical troubleshooting.

These skill sets are where the common ground ends though. The responsibilities of a technical support advisor are more likely to require skills like "technical support calls," "troubleshoot," "issue resolution," and "ios devices." On the other hand, a job as a customer support technician requires skills like "sql," "java," "technical support," and "linux." As you can see, what employees do in each career varies considerably.

Customer support technicians tend to make the most money working in the technology industry, where they earn an average salary of $50,042. In contrast, technical support advisors make the biggest average salary, $111,392, in the technology industry.customer support technicians tend to reach similar levels of education than technical support advisors. In fact, customer support technicians are 0.0% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.2% less likely to have a Doctoral Degree.

Technical support advisor vs. Software support technician

A software support technician is responsible for resolving software application issues, diagnosing related system failures, and writing resolution reports for reference. Software support technicians must be highly-familiarized with the system's infrastructure and interface to immediately diagnose malfunctions and identify maintenance techniques to prevent the reoccurrence of downtimes and delays. They also assist the system engineers in the configuration and optimization of networks, including the installment of upgrades and patch updates. A software support technician must have excellent organizational and communication skills, especially in navigating computer tools and applications to create support tickets and fix the customers' issues efficiently.

On average, software support technicians earn a $27,528 lower salary than technical support advisors a year.A few skills overlap for technical support advisors and software support technicians. Resumes from both professions show that the duties of each career rely on skills like "customer service," "troubleshoot," and "technical troubleshooting. "

While some skills are similar in these professions, other skills aren't so similar. For example, resumes show us that technical support advisor responsibilities requires skills like "technical support calls," "customer satisfaction," "issue resolution," and "ios devices." But a software support technician might use other skills in their typical duties, such as, "java," "database," "phone calls," and "software support."

On average, software support technicians earn a lower salary than technical support advisors. Some industries support higher salaries in each profession. Interestingly enough, software support technicians earn the most pay in the finance industry with an average salary of $86,283. Whereas technical support advisors have higher pay in the technology industry, with an average salary of $111,392.software support technicians earn similar levels of education than technical support advisors in general. They're 3.5% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.2% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.

What technology do you think will become more important and prevalent for technical support advisors in the next 3-5 years?

Babak Beheshti Ph.D.Babak Beheshti Ph.D. LinkedIn profile

Dean, Professor, New York Institute of Technology

-The enormous growth of IoT and wearables. The number of connected devices is expected to be more than 26 billion in 2020. That includes things like household appliances, controllable lighting, and much more. This trend is likely to continue as it is expected to see the industry grow to 661 billion dollars by 2021.

-We will be witnessing a more widespread commercial deployment of 5G in 2020. With the implementation of the Standalone 5G devices based on the 3gpp release 16, we should be seeing the more robust mobile broadband deployment of 5G, wider availability of 5G smartphones, and a push towards an all 5G Network in select urban areas around the world.

-Significant growth in AI-based technologies, from face recognition and voice recognition to business intelligence and market predictions. As machines and deep learning algorithms get integrated into many applications, many industries will undergo substantial changes. AI systems will continue to interact with our phones; cars will interpret and analyze their surroundings and intelligently drive themselves. Online vendors will monitor our browsing habits, and Google decides what kind of search results to give us, based on who it thinks we are.

Technical support advisor vs. Systems support

A systems support agent is responsible for resolving system applications and network issues, performing technical configuration, and upgrading systems infrastructure. A systems support representative conducts regular maintenance and diagnostic tests on the computer applications to ensure its optimal performance and efficiency to support business operations and avoid delays in deliverables. They also assist the technology team in designing backup systems and improve existing networks according to business requirements and specifications. They write resolution reports for reference to prevent the reoccurrence of system malfunction and inconsistencies.

An average systems support eans a lower salary compared to the average salary of technical support advisors. The difference in salaries amounts to systems supports earning a $43,167 lower average salary than technical support advisors.Using the responsibilities included on technical support advisors and systems supports resumes, we found that both professions have similar skill requirements, such as "customer service," "troubleshoot," and "customer satisfaction.rdquo;

Some important key differences between the two careers include a few of the skills necessary to fulfill the responsibilities of each. Some examples from technical support advisor resumes include skills like "technical support calls," "issue resolution," "ios devices," and "inbound calls," whereas a systems support is more likely to list skills in "technical support," "pc," "provides technical support," and "desktop support. "

Systems supports earn the best pay in the professional industry, where they command an average salary of $72,760. Technical support advisors earn the highest pay from the technology industry, with an average salary of $111,392.systems supports typically earn similar educational levels compared to technical support advisors. Specifically, they're 2.9% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree, and 0.1% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.

Technical support advisor vs. Desk support technician

A desktop support technician is responsible for assisting end-users with their network issues, grant authorization requests, and create user accounts. Desktop support technicians maintain the safety and security of networks, preventing unauthorized access and illegal dissemination of database information. They also handle the software configurations and upgrading the network infrastructure to avoid system downtimes and operational delays. A desktop support technician must have excellent communication and technical skills to monitor systems performance and enhance network navigation.

Desk support technicians average a lower salary than the annual salary of technical support advisors. The difference is about $66,483 per year.While both technical support advisors and desk support technicians complete day-to-day tasks using similar skills like customer service, troubleshoot, and technical troubleshooting, the two careers vary in some skills.While some skills are required in each professionacirc;euro;trade;s responsibilities, there are some differences to note. "technical support calls," "customer satisfaction," "issue resolution," and "ios devices" are skills that commonly show up on technical support advisor resumes. On the other hand, desk support technicians use skills like technical support, provides technical support, phone calls, and desk side support on their resumes.desk support technicians enjoy the best pay in the technology industry, with an average salary of $50,316. For comparison, technical support advisors earn the highest salary in the technology industry.The average resume of desk support technicians showed that they earn similar levels of education compared to technical support advisors. So much so that theyacirc;euro;trade;re 1.3% less likely to earn a Master's Degree and less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree by 0.3%.

Types of technical support advisor

Updated January 8, 2025

Zippia Research Team
Zippia Team

Editorial Staff

The Zippia Research Team has spent countless hours reviewing resumes, job postings, and government data to determine what goes into getting a job in each phase of life. Professional writers and data scientists comprise the Zippia Research Team.

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