A thought

[hoffman-log.livejournal.com]

The following crossed my mind when I was reading about how our customers can chew us out.  Now, everybody in this community can get off their high horse (if on it) and just outright confess that while we may be smart with computers, we don't know everything.

But everything is what our customers expect us to know, right?  Has anybody else been chastised by a caller because you didn't have the answer or solution for them right off the bat?  Show of hands, please.

That's what I thought.  Not pleasant, eh?

Then it occurred to me.

There's an old story about two men hiking through the woods and accidentally come across a hungry and angry bear.  Fearing for their lives, the men wonder how they'll escape death.  One of the men kneels down and proceeds to tighten his shoe laces.

"You don't actually think you'll out run the bear, do you?" asked the other hiker.

"Nope", he responded.  "I just have to out-run you."

Isn't that the case with tech support?  It bothers me how a customer chews me out for not knowing anything, when he's the schmuck who called me for help!  Ironic, but not like they notice.  So in a way, the situation is the same.

"I don't have to be smart enough to fix the problem to be tech support, I just have to be smarter than you."

I'm going to use that the next time I'm getting chewed.

_MaH

Comments

[ex-deliveryboy.livejournal.com]

I will be the first person to admit that I know precisely dick about computers. However, I am pretty good at thinking quickly and come up with a halfway plausible solution/answer/excuse. Normally, if we/I can't fix it, then it's obviously not in the realm of our support and I have to refer them to a local tech, computer manufacturer or neighborhood kid

I guess that's why they promoted me to assistant supervisor awhile back.

If you can't dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bullshit.

[hoffman-log.livejournal.com]

If you can't dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bullshit

That one belongs right up there with the mantra: "We don't support that"

Beautiful. Just beautiful.

_MaH

we don't know everything.

[irishmasms.livejournal.com]

What?? We don't???? Speak for yourself - because I am a certified SPEoE! I even add this to my list of alphabet soup next to my signature block in my emails.



What is a SPEoE?



Self Proclaimed Expert on Everything! ;)

[swwinchester.livejournal.com]

Icon Deja Vu .....

[hoffman-log.livejournal.com]

whoa... yeah! I dunno where you got that icon, but I made mine, so I can absolutely assure you I didn't rip it off from you :-P

_MaH

[swwinchester.livejournal.com]

Don't worry, I could tell. You're using the darker version with the hat-button and the heavier text. Mine's definately different.

A friend of mine made the one I'm using. It's just a nice bit of Deja Vu.

[taleya.livejournal.com]

But everything is what our customers expect us to know, right? Has anybody else been chastised by a caller because you didn't have the answer or solution for them right off the bat? Show of hands, please.

In a way, you reap what you sow. If you come across as arrogant, or some all-seeing god to people, of course they're going to absolutely delight in seeing you torn down.

Personally, I've never been told off for a customer for "not knowing" something. I've been screamed at for not performing the physically impossible, and for not giving them what they want when they don't, and won't deserve nor EVER get it, but not knowing? nup.

Mind you, my time is split between simple ISP tech and network support, so on one hand I *do* know what I'm doing, and on the other, we do occasionally come across some crazy-ass problems that has pretty much every other engineer and network manager in the workplace going "the fuck??" and we all just start spinning conjecture until something concrete forms :)

[methedras.livejournal.com]

I agree, the only time I've had a customer get the shits when I didn't know something is because I was telling them that it wasn't covered in our support scope.

Thing is, I probably knew how to fix it, I just love fucking with them. Heh.

But I agree Hoff, you just have to be smarter than them, and it aint that hard.

[the-s-guy.livejournal.com]

Or "the difference is, I can probably fix this eventually without having to call tech support."

[the-s-guy.livejournal.com]

"Knowing is half the battle, sir. The other half is raw intelligence, sheer stubbornness, years of experience and occasional high explosive."

[jacobine.livejournal.com]

My users actually appreciate it when I tell them I don't know. Or a lot of the time I'll hazard a guess, but I'll tell them it's a pure guess. If it doesn't work, I send them to someone who knows more about it than me.

It helps that I work internal support, though.

[geekgrrl-ca.livejournal.com]

I had a customer get upset that I couldn't remember an obscure part number off the top of my head (we literally have hundreds of thousands of parts, some physical, some for things like extended care). I had no qualms about passing her off to a supervisor.