Tag: Customer Service Page 7 of 8

We’re all human

On March 1, 2013

Apple has a reputation for stellar customer service and Chrisg shared his story of The Coolest Experience I Had as an Apple Store Employee.

He talks about assisting a group of students who were all communicating in sign language with each other and their teacher.

And then it dawned on me that all of these students were all speaking to one another in sign language.
They were from a school for the deaf.

The story continues later in the day when he came upon the same group on the mall’s food court and learned it was an assignment. The students were all pretending to be deaf to see how they were treated as they visited different stores in the mall.

The next part of her story made me feel awesome inside: She said that I was the only person they worked with all day that had treated them like real people, and actually tried to be as helpful as the situation allowed. They had all been impressed with my idea of using TextEdit to communicate, because nobody else in the mall had even bothered to grab a pen and some paper.

You never know who will get to help everyday. Every interaction you have with a customer is a chance to make their day a little better. In this case, Chris got to make these kids feel good in contrast to everyone else they had met. And in return, he got the great feeling of making their day better through great service.

This reminded me of a time when I worked for Best Buy over the Christmas holiday. I was in college and needed the extra money so I was a seasonal employee with Best Buy working in the PC/Home Office department.

One day, I had an older gentleman come into the store. He was looking to buy a printer and I quickly realized he was hard of hearing so talking out.

He wasn’t deaf so he didn’t sign and neither did I, but I did have a pen in my pocket so I pulled a sheet of paper from a nearby printer and we had a long conversation about printer features and costs. How many pages would this printer hold? What did I recommend for pictures versus documents? How much was the ink going to be when it ran out? What was the most reliable machine?

I “talked” with him for a half hour answering all of his questions and at the end he thanked me and made his choice and wished me a Merry Christmas.

It made me feel great that I could take the time to help him get exactly what he needed and he didn’t feel neglected.

The best feeling in customer service is when I can give great service because the reward is how you feel afterwards.

Rookie Mistake

By Carl

On February 22, 2013

In Observations

I was reading A Rookie Mistake over at Support Ops today. Chase talks about an exchange with a customer that went like this.

Me: Where are you logging in at? I’ll take a look and see what’s going on.

Customer: My desktop computer.

This got me thinking about the assumptions we make with our customers. In the course of my job, I find myself in similar situations all the time.

For instance, the newest version of the VPN client we use at work was updated and VPN is no longer in th name. It is now called Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client.”

A computer savvy person wouldn’t find a huge problem with this. However, when I’m trying to explain to a customer they need to click the VPN Client icon and they don’t see anything that says VPN they become confused.

Along with the name change, the icon also changes from a padlock icon to a generic looking bubble. So the customers who are creatures of habit and have learned what they need to click by name and icon are not completely lost.

Working with customers who have varying levels of computer savvy and varying understanding of the English language means my job is part translator and part computer technician.

Sometimes I must translate geek to human, other times geek to English, sometimes just plain English in terms my customer can understand.

I try to keep a rule in mind when I am going to help a customer and that is simply to assume nothing. Don’t take anything for granted. Don’t walk into a situation assuming your customer knows anything. Start with simple questions and see where they take you.

If the customer is computer savvy, you will quickly find out and can elevate the conversation. However, if the customer doesn’t know anything about their computer you don’t frustrate them further.

Customer Service Is

By Carl

On December 12, 2012

In Observations

Customer Service is…

Working three hours past lunch time to fix problems.

Staying a little late waiting for a meeting to finish.

Relentlessly tracking down a customer who works odd hours.

Cover for a teammate when they get sick or slammed with work.

Communicate outages and issues to the larger team quickly and accurately.

Read notifications about upcoming maintenance.

Read emails from the team and management.

Read.

Learn.

Toiling all day in a basement then leaving to a beautiful sunset.

Saying Yes. And meaning it.

Promising to followup. Then following up.

Taking time to answer questions. No matter how mundane or simple they may appear.

Speaking slowly and clearly.

Remembering to smile.

Calling people by their first name or preferred title.

Politely pushing back when a customer want something unethical or illegal.

Treating every customer like they’re the first person you’ve seen that day.

Knowing every problems has a solution.

Putting the customer first.

Remembering the customer is a human being too. Not a ticket number. Not a line on a spreadsheet.

Remembering we are all fallible.

Remembering we all make mistakes.

Being kind.

Being confident.

Being trustworthy.

Being trusting.

Being approachable.

15 Minutes to Critical

By Carl

On November 20, 2012

In Observations

Critical ticket comes in 15 minutes before I’m scheduled leave work. Computer won’t boot. I cringe. I debate. I call the customer. He is there. I act nice even though I’m secretly disappointed. I agree to see him. I race upstairs.

Windows 7 greets me. Looking cranky as ever. “Inaccessible Boot Device” flashed across the screen.

I cringe again. This could be fast or this could be days. I say a silent prayer as I calmly reboot and talk to the customer. Reassuring him everything will be OK.

Inside I pray louder. It shuts down.

A pause.

It starts up again. Black screen. Blank. No beep. No messages. Yet.

I wait. Milliseconds seem like eternity as the machine decides my fate.

It sings to us. I see blue. Not a sickly error blue but a soothing corporate blue.

Windows Starts Up.

Press Ctrl + Alt + Del to Logon.

Success.
Inside I cheer.
Outside I’m calm and smiling confidently.

My customer thanks me for my quick response. I thank him for his patience.

He logs in.
I leave.

Victorious.

NanOMGWriMo

By Carl

On November 2, 2012

In Observations

Ambition

I am starting an ambitious plan this month. I am going to get the book that’s been in my head out and into a form for people to read and enjoy.

Technical Support is Customer Service

I’ve been working a series of customer service and technical support jobs for nearly a decade. I’ve come to realize they are the same. I am passionate about customer service and treating people right.

Technical Support has long been about supporting technology first and people second. I want to turn that idea on its ear. Technical Support is more about supporting the people using technology than the technology itself. Technology is merely a tool to accomplish a task.

Planning

I’ve planned and thought and read. Trying to give form to this idea inside my brain. And all of a sudden, it became November. And with November, comes NanoWriMo.

I am going to write my book this month. I am going to take the collection of thoughts and experienced inside my head and put them into words. Then turn those words into a book after the month ends.

It has begun and I have written the first 2,000 words towards explaining why I care so much about customer service in technical support and how other people can learn from my near decade of experience in support companies and government agencies big and small.

Metamorphosis

As the month started and I signed up for NanoWriMo I had no idea how I was going to write 50,000 words on customer service. I care about it a lot and I have some good ideas around making people better at it. But I had no idea how I would fill those virtual pages.

Until it hit me.

Becoming a Well-Rounded Technician

The idea was bigger than simple tech support or customer service. The idea I had in my head all along was about becoming a better technician and all the parts that go into the job.

So the book was born. Becoming a Well-Rounded Technician is my working title and terrible name but it’s what I’ve titled this adventure.

I’ve got 2,000 words down and another 48,000 to go to complete NanoWriMo successfully and by that time, have enough of my ideas fleshed out I can organize them and put them into a book.

I am excited. I am scared. This is going to be great fun and a huge challenge.

The longest thing I ever recall writing was a 20 page story in a creative writing class in 8th grade.

Wish me luck. The adventure has begun and I’ve leapt in with both feet. If you want to follow along, this is my NanoWriMo page and if you’re writing too, let me know, I could use some buddies.