Customers Treated as Culprits in Support Calls?

ApolloX asks: "I've worked in the software industry for a number of years and I understand how volatile large computer and database systems can be. Most of the time, I'm only called in when something breaks. I know first hand that issues such as a lack of concurrency control, or just a bad database optimization, can lead to corrupted or even lost data. What I don't know is, why most customer support representatives, in the event there is a data error, will treat the customer as if they are liars or are trying to scam them. I can recall many similar support calls to other companies over the years in which the phrase 'our computer system is never wrong' was repeatedly used as justification for an issue the representative knew little about. Since when did computers become so infallible such that the customer is always wrong? Why does it take multiple escalations of support calls before anyone starts believing that maybe the computer made a mistake?" "On a recent call to a company, let's call it Givo, my account number was accidentally wiped from the system. Throughout the process, I spoke with half a dozen representatives who claimed I had never had their service before and at each step I was 'guilty until proven innocent'. What's worse was that at some moments, even when presented with evidence of my case history in their system, representatives would disregard it because the system told them my account did not exist and had never existed."

Comments

Its simply an issue with filtering out "noise"

[Shados]

The problem, having worked for a time as customer support for an extremely large company, is simply how many people actually DO lie. It is excessively rare (relatively speaking) that a customer, in most fields, has a problem and its not their fault. Think retail: how many people will try to trade in something they broke? Think an ISP: How many people will claim their internet service is down, when they actually screwed up their PCs? By far, far, the majority. From my experience, its pushing 10 to 1.

So unfortunately, unless you want your company to go bankrupt, you can't take what the customer say at face value: they will, and DO abuse it. But at the same time, if you screw over too many innocents, you will go out of business too... so its a matter of finding a balance, unfortunately.

Re:Its simply an issue with filtering out "noise"

[fstanchina]

> ...to realize that they did broke something.

Like grammar.

Re:Its simply an issue with filtering out "noise"

[twistedsymphony]

Even if I think I know what the problem is I find it best to let tech support decide...

I've never worked in support (thank god) but I find if you're perfectly clear about the problem you're experiencing and treat them with respect (hey, THEY didn't cause the problem) then it generally gets worked out. If you let them run through their idiot scrips and are polite the whole time they're much more likely to just escalate your problem to someone that can actually help you. Screaming at them or telling them you know better (even if you really do) pretty much flips a switch that makes them view you as an idiot. Just be nice and play their game and they'll come to the conclusion on their own that you're not.

Also I've found if you call support during the graveyard shift you'll get much more friendly and intelligent people on the other end. I figure they don't get nearly as many calls so they're a lot less frazzled and a lot more willing to help.

Re:Its simply an issue with filtering out "noise"

[KevReedUK]

I would also second that (third it, if you will...).

A few years ago I was working as a Tech Support Engineer (... well... technically, I was the entire IT support team!) when I encountered this little gem.

We (a medium sized secondary school in the UK) had 2 buildings, about 1km apart. I had a call from a teacher in our English dept one morning asking me to come over and refill the paper in their printer. Not really in the mood for a 2km round trip when I already had plenty to do that day, I simply gave the relevant instructions (pull out paper tray, put paper in, make sure it doesn't go above red line and slide the tray back in), thinking this would be well within the capabilities of someone who teaches English Literature.

Ten minutes later, I get another call from the same department, to say it's still not printing.

What do I find when I get there? They had followed my instructions to the letter and had therefore ommitted the step I thought didn't need stating (take the paper OUT OF THE PLASTIC WRAPPER!!!).

A couple of weeks later, the same initial request presented itself. This time, I repeated the instructions from before, but included the missing step.

When I heard nothing for about an hour, I assumed they'd figured it all out. BIG mistake. I get a cal saying they have a paper jam.

When I get there, the printer is telling me there is a jam in the paper tray. When I try to remove the tray, however, it doesn't budge... at all!

I ask the teacher who'd called what EXACTLY they'd done when re-filling it.

With a VERY sheepish look, she informs me that there had only been about 50 sheets left in the ream, and it was no-where near reaching the red line in the tray, so they'd put a hard-back dictionary into the drive under the paper to bring it up to the red line. 50 sheets later, the printer tries to load a hardback disctionary into a paper path designed for paper of a maximum weight of 110gsm and jams up so badly I had to dismantle pretty much the entire printer to remove it.

The moral of the story... for every idiot-proof system, there is AT LEAST one system-proof idiot!

The other little gem was when I caught the head of our maths dept trying desperately to get a eCommerce website to accept his credit card details on the machine in the staff lounge by repeatedly sliding his credit card in and out of the floppy drive, faster and faster, wiping it, trying again, blowing the drive (I assume to try to dislodge any dust). Eventually he went to phone me only to notice I was already in the room and asked why I'd disabled the ability to read credit cards on ALL computers, not just those in the student labs?!?

Try working as a CSR, first...

[djones101]

Have you ever had to work as a CSR? Have you ever had to take multiple calls per hour assisting users with various computing tasks? Have you ever had to spend hours out in the field diagnosing a problem with someone's machine, only to have them point out (once you finally find the problem) that they "tried doing this or that" with the computer? I spent 8 years as a CSR at a small ISP. We had a saying around the office. "The customer is always right, and the source of 95% of the problems." While the court system may describe someone as innocent until proven guilty, it's futile to apply that to a real-world application. No matter how an application "should" work (it bears noting that "should" is a curse word in the industry), there will always be a user that finds a way to royally screw something up and then blame it on the software (or hardware) not doing what the user thinks it "should" do. Remember the old adage, "make something idiot proof and God will make a better idiot".

Paging Dr. House

[Gothmolly]

EVERYONE LIES.

People drop their iPods and claim that they 'died'.
People hotplug drives that aren't hotplug and RMA them to Newegg.
People push GPOs to servers, then claim "I didn't change anything" to everyone else.

Combine this with the fact that on the other hand, the customers are frequently more knowledgeable than the front line support, and you're bound to have an antagonistic relationship. How many times have you called about a PC problem, and had to wade through the "ok, lets reboot in Safe Mode" or "please click Start, then Run, then "C M D -dot - E X E".... just to fix a farking bad video card?

Re:The problem is

[Cavedragon]

Thanks for the generalization. I resent the statement that I lack the "motivation, nor the intellect to conceptualise or actually solve problems"

I work as a tier 1 support person on a scripted help desk. I have 25 years of computer experience- no formal training, but I can build a PC from scratch in my sleep, configure a wireless network with my eyes closed, and recite from memory most of the common scripts we use. We support 40000 users who use some subset of approximately 1200 applications ranging from Microsoft products to custom applications written by our own developers. My colleagues don't all have the same skill set I have, but we were all trained to the same basic standards. I've seen people fail the training and not be able to work in my department- I owe my job to one. Also, we are expected to reach customer satisfaction goals as well as call resolution goals.

For reasons I do not wish to discuss publicly, this job suits me very well. I'm motivated each day to come in, do my job, and when my shift ends, I go home and live my life without worrying about being on call, managing people, or other job related issues.

I get paid very well to spend my day resetting passwords, explaining to people how to archive their email, and creating tickets for printer jams. I deal with secretaries, executives, developers, and sales people, so I encounter end users of all skill levels. I also encounter problems not covered in our knowledgebase (the scripts). In every case, I do my best to resolve my caller's issues, scripted or not. Sometimes I do solve them. If not, I will pass them along to the appropriate Level 2 (or above) support team.

I find that some callers lie, some provide more information than I need, some won't provide any information. In short, they run the gamut of human experience, just like my colleagues do. The best callers are the ones who say "I don't know much about computers", because I can tell them that they don't need to be, they just need to answer my questions and follow the steps I give them. It's up to me to extract the information that I need to solve their problem from the things they say.

The bottom line, for me, is that if they knew the answers to their questions, I would not have a job. I treat each call as unique, and each customer with respect. I can't say the same for my treatment by the callers, but it doesn't bother me, because I do my best.

It's people like the parent poster that I have the hardest time dealing with- arrogance cloaked in superiority leads to more foolish mistakes than the people who call and say "I don't know much about computers", who tend to make more honest mistakes.