On Tech Support
Via my Kuro5hin feed to LiveJournal comes this post about technical support, which arises out of this Slashdot post about this CNN article, related somehow to this CNN article. These all tie in nicely with wlofie's post a little while ago.
It's the same old thing - users hating tech support and tech support hating users. Thing is, as the Kuro5hin poster says, everybody has a point. And what unites everyone is rudeness and hostility. At some point, someone dealt with someone else on the other end that was rude, condescending, hostile, whatever, and has let that experience get to them. Also people don't consider each other's position, which contributes to the problem hugely.
Since it's pretty well documented what we don't like about each other, how about I go into what I do like from users. I absolutely love it, for instance, when I get a caller who is interested in learning something. Ecstatic, even. I don't care if this individual bought their first computer yesterday and hasn't figured out which button makes it go, if they are interested in learning, I am energized and ready to go.
I also appreciate the caller who at the beginning of the call acknowledges frustration and promises to try not to take it out on me. That greatly ups my patience and sympathy reserves. We can both take a deep breath and then dig in.
I love the clueful caller who is patient with me and what I have to go through, who lets us skip quickly through the stupid questions I have to ask in order to get to the meat of the matter. Usually the clueful caller has made a note of all symptoms even remotely related to the problem and also describes everything in great detail. The truly (and by this I mean actually) clueful caller also understands that, if I were as clueful as they, I wouldn't be working in tech support, but rather in systems administration or development or something, so they are patient with me if I need to do deeper research or escalate the matter to a specialist. The truly clueful are usually respectful and understanding.
I get a big kick out of the caller who adopts a team attitude with me and wants to help solve the mystery with me. Like the clueful caller (sometimes they are the same person, sometimes not), this caller has taken note of all the symptoms in detail, and is up to trying anything to see if it helps. Sometimes these kinds of calls lead to excitement at a new discovery, as we find a workaround or an undocumented capability. I really, really love that.
But generally, I like it when the caller is as nice to me as I am to them. I have this T-shirt that I wear to work every now and then. I picked it up in Copenhagen, and it says "I'm not paid enough to be nice to you." What makes the shirt such a joke is that I'm ribbed for being way too nice, all the time, but I like to think I get a higher percentage of callers who are nice to me because I start off being nice to them. It doesn't work as well as I'd like - nice folks are in the minority, but still I bet I get more nice calls than the deadpan techs get. And when there's a payoff, when I get treated well, it feels good.
I do like helping, I really do. I badly want things to work for my customers. I like it when things go the way they should, and I like it when callers recognize that desire, and loosen up and let me help. For those few fleeting moments, the job is actually rewarding.
Ah, so *that's* what you do! NOW I can visualize it perfectly!
And I am -- a hem -- a "nice" caller who has only ever had one tech support guy be condescending, the little shmuck. Last time I was on the phone with tech support, I found out he is a farmer who lives out of the city and raises some kind of unusual horses.
Kate
ps Spring if you aren't reading [dw] these days, I put some info about the song Leonor, about Leonor Fini, which reminded me of you, at xoetc yesterday
Kate <twoshoes@sasktel.net>
- Friday, August 15, 2003 at 10:34:15 (EDT)
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