In today’s hybrid world, the boundaries of IT support have changed forever. What used to be a hands-on, in-person role now lives behind dashboards, SLAs and ticket queues. We are well trained at our toolsets, but how good are we at building trust, showing empathy and helping people work?

Whether you’re a supporter delivering a service or the supported depending on it, both roles shape the customer experience and the employee experience. It is well known that an excellent employee experience rolls into excellent customer experience.

The Supporter: The Invisible Frontline

My team members have years of experience supporting our flagship customer. And yet most of them have never met one another. We are solving that by inviting our customers onsite often, which helps them put names with faces or, more accurately, names with voices.

What are some of the major challenges of the Supporters, those who keep the business running by resetting passwords, routing tickets and answering thousands of “How do I…” questions each month?

• Communication without context

In a chat message, “It’s not working” could mean a small glitch — or a full-blown outage. Without tone or body language, IT teams must interpret emotion and urgency through text alone. It’s not uncommon to share screens, too. Yet assumptions are often made, and are usually wrong, because we can’t see each other’s gestures.

• Tool overload

Supporters juggle remote monitoring platforms, ITSM systems, chat apps, dashboards and DEX analytics — all while handling reactive tickets and proactive maintenance. How much is too much? Which tool is most important?

• Emotional labor

Support is more than technical skill. It’s about patience under pressure, empathy during frustration and clarity amid confusion. My teams feel they have seen it all (until the next unique call comes in). Our teams need the ability to rebound. In a remote world, we are always online. Healthy support teams rely on process maturity and automation; not personal heroics

The Supported: The Digital Dependent

When systems run smoothly, IT’s role is invisible. They are often nameless, but important. When things don’t run smoothly, time slows to a crawl and emotions run high. The nameless can become the most important person in the room. Or they may be blamed for the failures. You fix this by building bridges before the problems occur.

Here are some other challenges facing The Supported:

• The trust gap

Remote users can’t “see” IT working on their issue, so they may assume nothing is being accomplished. Transparency through updates, virtual presence or automated progress notifications helps rebuild confidence.

• Shared responsibility

In today’s world, security and productivity depend on both sides. MFA compliance, device hygiene and awareness aren’t just IT’s job — they’re everyone’s job.

When the Supporters Need Support

We just celebrated National Customer Service Week, where we learned new skills, acknowledged our accomplishments and mostly patted ourselves on the back while those we support barely paid notice.

Those who spend their careers helping others often lack help themselves. IT supporters absorb stress all day — solving problems, managing expectations, calming tempers. Without appreciation or recovery time, their empathy depletes. Many thrive on being “the fixer,” but when that becomes their identity, they struggle to delegate or rest. Burnout follows. And because IT’s victories are quiet, supporters can feel unseen.

Leaders must flip this script. Celebrate uptime. Reward process maturity. Normalize asking for help. The healthiest support teams are those that support each other.

IT Support Staff = Say My Name!

Why Great IT Support Is So Hard to Find

A great technician blends engineering precision, hospitality-level service, analytical thinking, and emotional intelligence. That combination takes years to build — and constant care to maintain. A few other things to keep in mind:

• IT touches everyone

Finance serves budgets. HR serves employees. IT serves everyone, everywhere, all the time. The scope alone demands resilience and adaptability.

• Success is invisible

IT’s best days are quiet ones. Systems running perfectly are taken for granted. Outages are public. That asymmetry wears on morale.

• The pipeline is shrinking

Automation and AI have changed many entry-level roles. But these are the very ones that trained the next generation of IT experts. Without mentoring and apprenticeship programs, we could be in trouble. We all know the one team member who just has a troubleshooting vibe. We may have certifications and education. But the vibe has to be experienced.

Bridging the Gap: Humanizing Remote Support

The best organizations treat IT support as a partnership, not a transaction. They invest in empathy, transparency and systems that strengthen trust.

• Empathy as a Service. Teach connection before correction. Train support staff in emotional intelligence and human-centered communication; not just technical troubleshooting.
• Digital Experience Management (DEX). Well-used tools reveal what users experience before they complain — allowing IT to prevent frustration, not just respond to it. More than 50% of all IT problems are unreported. These tools address those problems.
• Process maturity. Frameworks like ITIL bring structure, consistency and predictability to service. Structure gives the Supporters the ability to be human and to be empathetic and creative.
• Feedback loops. Ask both sides: Did you feel supported? Success isn’t just an SLA. It’s an excellent Employee Experience.

The Future of Support

The truth is — we’re both the supporter and the supported. All of us. Leaders rely on their teams. Technicians rely on their tools. Users rely on IT. And IT relies on users who care enough to learn and communicate.

AI will automate responses. Monitoring tools will predict failures. But the heart of IT support will always be human connection. Without the knowledge built by the Supporters, AI is limited.

At its core, support shouldn’t be about fixing systems — it’s about keeping people working, connected and confident.