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I am sure that most of you (AO readers) have contacted support at some point in your career. I now have the task of improving our software support staff and just want a few suggestions on what makes a good support staff. What are the things that you guys/gals appreciate when calling tech support?
Also, for those that have/do run tech support, how did you manage statistics? What things did you record and keep track of?
Well speaking english helps. Though nowadays that's a rarity.
Actually listening to what the problem is helps also, instead of going through a checklist of solutions that have nothing to do with the problem.
I guess these are personality traits that support people have to have instead of, say, a policy you could enforce or a process you could make a flowchart out of.
The best advice I can give for tech support staffing is to find people who know what they're doing, don't just give them a checklist. Make sure they can actually solve problems. Also, make sure your staff knows that if they can't solve a problem, it is acceptable to pass the problem to a supervisor.
Check the following:
1- The competency of the tech support.
2- They are polite enough to address customers' problems.
3- They can smile at an angry face.
4- They can ACTUALLY help customers instead of wasting time.
Checking what are the FAQs of customers ultimately helps to imporve the quality of the product or service you offer.
Creating a database for the custoemrs is really delicate in terms of self-development, self-assessment and overall competency of the company.
For instance, if there is an increasing complain about a part of the product or the service these complains MUST be reported to the development team, in order to handle it.
Just my $0.02
Awsome guys/gals. Thanks for the postings..look forward to more input. The guys here that I train/work with do not read scripts. It is all from the head (mostly, some are MS KB items).
My biggest deal is them speaking and understanding english. and actually listening to what you have to say instead of just passing you along or putting you on hold forever. and please speak in terms normal ppl understand.. i mean i work with computers so i usually know what they are talking about but, people like my parents no way!
I agree. We are an American/English speaking company that has not outsourced our tech support. I hope to hear from some AO guys that currently (or have prior) done stats with their techs, so I can gauge what kinds of things I need to log.
Having worked as outsourced tech support for AoHell before it all got re-outsourced to India I can offer up the following from their point of view:
1. You'd be amazed at how many Americans cannot speak English above monosyllables.
2. Tech support won't help you fix windows, no matter how hard you try.
3. It's amazing how well an uninstall/reinstall will work when done properly. Add to this it's amazing how many users reinstall an infinite number of times without uninstalling anything until their hard drive is full and they call tech support complaining.
Now I give you the 'hideously bad' dark secret of AoHell tech support - even when you have a semi-competent tech on the phone with you, odds are he's going by a computer program known as 'Sherlock' - which is designed to ask certain questions based on keywords he enters into its database, and offer up solutions in sequential order. It works just like the 'troubleshooter' MS incorporates into their operating systems nowadays. The downside is that even if the tech knows what the problem is, and knows exactly how to fix it, he's bound by contract to go by the steps Sherlock offers and not his own knowledge. This tends to anger the real techies out there who can fix the systems they're taking calls on, because they know that Sherlock usually takes about 10 tries to find and fix the problem correctly. It also tends to anger the customers because those 10 steps each involve a separate phone call (unless you have a 2nd phone line or are calling from your cell, in which case it involves about an hour of work to do a 2 minute fix.)
Welcome to the age of automated tech support. I refuse to call any of 'em, and couldn't understand them if I did. If they can't fix it realtime through a chat or prompt email responses, I'll blow away their software and reinstall it myself.
Hi,
1. Listen..............then listen some more.......
2. Make sympathetic noises, and DO ask obvious questions............wouldn't be the first time I have gone to "fix" a computer that only needed a fuse in the power cable :rolleyes:
3. Keep records, some hardware and software actually have endemic design faults :eek:
4. Talk to eachother and share your experiences............no prize for re-inventing the wheel!
Checklists are really only for stuff that has been RTB, on the 'phone you should sound natural and confident.
A bit of humour for the end of the week:
nihil: "do the little green lights come on at the front?"
ZT3000 (£$%^&*): "nice to hear that you deal with such a technical customer base nihil"
:D
I like when they throw a lot of techno babble at me hoping that I won't find out they have no F'ing clue what the hell they are talking about.
Then I solve my own problem wondering why I even bothered to call in the first place...
LOL...training is going to be the fun part :)
</BEGIN RANT>
MY BIGGEST COMPLAINT ABOUT TECH SUPPORT:
Every time I call tech support the guy/gal answering the phone cannot solve my problem, since they are reading off a script. Even IF they are capable of helping me, as previously stated, they are bound by contract not to. So the first thing that I always have to do when calling tech support is explain to whoever answers the phone that if they're reading off a script, they can't help me. At which point they forward me to people who, by contract, are allowed to use their brains.
Now understand the rationale behind this. The simple fact is that most problems can be solved with a simple script and that most customers are technical idiots. To hire CCNA or Netowork+ phone monkeys is simply too expensive, and I am not willing to pay more than I already am for Internet when a simple solution to my complaint exists.
The first time I was forwarded to a "real" tech support employee, I asked if they were able to put my name on some sort of list, so that, when calling in the future, I would not have to deal with informing the zombie on the other end that he/she can't help me (which is difficult because they get mistaken for idiots by everyone - so they ignore me telling them that they can't help me). After I enter the account number, figure out that I am on a "second teir" tech support or something like that, and just put me through to someone who can help me. By not doing this you are wasting everyone's time. I also know that this type of support exists for those with business accounts.
They will not do this. They are quite happy to waste their money and my time (and money), making me first wait on hold (which I can accept within reason), and then spend 10 minutes with the first monkey to get forwarded to the second one. This is simply a waste of time and money on both sides of the fence. I can see no valid reason why they insist on doing this. Especially after calling 13 times in the last year (yes I keep a record of it) and ending up with a "real" techie. The first 7 times I even let the first monkey go through the whole script, just to make sure that it really wasn't me being an idiot.
In general, tech support is geared towards technical idiots, since most calls come from them. But to keep the geeks happy, they should have another level of support for knowledgeable people. Keeping them happy is more important than some ISP's may think as well, since on geek vote (in any area with competition) probably equals 2 or 3 lay votes.
There is one more thing.
Every time I call, and I mean EVERY F***ING TIME, they try to sell me a cell phone and satellite tv. It gets incredibly annoying. I have telephone and DSL from the same company here. I don't mind the company trying to earn money through additional sales. I really don't get upset over someone trying to sell me something. But every time? They refuse to keep a note in my account that says "do not sell to this guy - he won't buy" or something similar. This also wastes my time and theirs. Just deal with the fact that I'm not buying anything else, keep a record of that, and that way everyone's happy and nobody's time gets wasted.
</END RANT>
Damn, that felt good.
I ..as with many other members here...will try and fix myself...because of the same experiences I have had with the tech spouting nonsense.....
Then again...I have had very good experiences with MS server support.....you pay for it.
They ask you..."are you an IT professional???" and go from there...they qualify you..I think it is about 3 steps...initial call, product, basic problem....transfer to front line product...few more questions...then onto the technical engineer....works well...and they follow up.
I guess it depends on WHAT you are supporting, and your userbase.
Dell laptop support...they use scripts....you can tell.But I have had very knowledgable assistance from thier Server support side.
I have found most software problems...will be solved if you read the "READ ME" file, visit the vendor site, and search google for users with the same issues. If that all fails...I will try tech support...via email...unless critical.
I have an excellent direct contact at my ISP...that helps...cause he knows I have tried resetting\ping\tracert etc everything BEFORE I contact him.
|3lack|ce made very excellent points.....on your basic users and their ability to communicate...
And then there are the...just basic dumb dumb dumb ......tech support calls...
Take for instance this morning....I am dripping wet just out of the shower and my daughter hands me the phone (7:30 am...must be important...cause NOBODY would call and try and talk to me before I have had my coffee)
Its the office admin from a small 20 node network I support...
admin >"We have a MAJOR problem with usernames machine.....it wont boot"
Me> "whats the error"
admin "when we turn it on..it just sits in dos "invalid system disk..."
Me> "tell her to pop out the floppy disk..."
admin> "oh...we tried that...oh wait a minute....ok thanks...its working now"
That call just cost them $$$
...specially at that ungodly hour :cool:
Anyway as I stated before...depends on who your userbase is, what you are supporting...try and qualify the user...then route to the appropriate support.
Just my .02 CDN
MLF
We support products for Exchange SQL Oracle Citrix and a few others. Also, we have patch management programs. So the users (I hope) are not your "mom n pop" types of people. The problem is that some of the users that DO call my company, really DONT know much. There are those that know alot as well...I guess that goes with the territory
Whatever solution you put in place it won't be perfect the first time so remember to get some feedback and use it to modify how your support works.
Treat the staff well so they are pleasent and motivated on the phone to the customers.
Don't make the staff speak from a script and only a script it's nice to know that you are speaking to a human especially if you have to wait for a while. It's more pleasant to speak about the weather/football for 5 minutes than listem to on hold music.
Having a list of competent users is probably a good idea to let them bypass the 1st line support monkey more quickly.
If the staff say they are going to call a customer back make sure they do it!!!
If there is going to be a delay in getting back to a customer with information or whatever let them know about the delay. People are far more forgiving if they are kept informed.