I used to work as customer support for a company that handled some of the support calls for Gateway and from what I have experienced the whole customer support thing was a hit and miss proposition, for both the customers and techs.
First off, if you are lucky you will have a tech on the line who has an inkling of what a computer is. The fact is to be a customer support employee you had to pass a multiple guess test and score a 75% or better. After making the cut you are then trained on what the hell a computer is for 2 weeks. After training you are put in front of a phone and start taking calls.
I know this sounds bad... actually it is, but surprisingly after a few weeks of taking calls a person becomes proficient with the more common types of problems customers call in with (I would say about 80% of all legitimate calls, they do have a very good database of information on known problems (machine or user errors)). But woe is you who get a noob that thought it would be fun to get a part time job while working on that basket weaving degree. For the other 20% the tech can usually find someone else they work with who is more knowledgeable they can draw from.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to justify customer support, you still have the messed up stuff like having to get rid of callers within 15 minutes, non-resolvable issues where you have to basically lie and make an excuse, and just plain morons who will never figure out why the "cup holder" was never discussed during the training class.
The thing is, customer service isn't a one-way street. Customers can also be a problem. Customers first have to realize we are not there to teach them how to use their computer, I mean when you go to the car dealership you don't call them up after you bought the car and ask them how to drive this damn stick. Same applied to us, we have pay numbers we offer to direct you to if you want to learn how to use so-and-so program. Another is a customer who thinks they can tell us how to fix the machine or just wanted us to magically make their computer work while we talked to them. When trouble shooting we usually had certain methods to determine what a problem might be (starting from simple solutions, is the thing plugged in, to where we might asked them to pop open their case or edit some registries). If ppl would just play along we could have solved their problem hrs ago instead of the both parties becoming frustrated with each other. At worst we could have discovered sooner if a replacement part is need or if it would need to be taken in for repair.
There is more to both sides of the story, but I'm not in the mood to relive all those memories... thought drunken customers where always fun. I hope this sheds some light on the subject or at least helps someone get back to sleep.
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Damnit Yoda, get back in you hole!
damnit, can you edit these things?
I used to work as customer support for a company that handled some of the support calls for Gateway and from what I have experienced the whole customer support thing was a hit and miss proposition, for both the customers and techs. First off, if you are lucky you will have a tech on the line who has an inkling of what a computer is. The fact is to be a customer support employee you had to pass a multiple guess test and score a 75% or better. After making the cut you are then trained on what the hell a computer is for 2 weeks. After training you are put in front of a phone and start taking calls. I know this sounds bad... actually it is, but surprisingly after a few weeks of taking calls a person becomes proficient with the more common types of problems customers call in with (I would say about 80% of all legitimate calls, they do have a very good database of information on known problems (machine or user errors)). But woe is you who get a noob that thought it would be fun to get a part time job while working on that basket weaving degree. For the other 20% the tech can usually find someone else they work with who is more knowledgeable they can draw from. Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to justify customer support, you still have the messed up stuff like having to get rid of callers within 15 minutes, non-resolvable issues where you have to basically lie and make an excuse, and just plain morons who will never figure out why the "cup holder" was never discussed during the training class. The thing is, customer service isn't a one-way street. Customers can also be a problem. Customers first have to realize we are not there to teach them how to use their computer, I mean when you go to the car dealership you don't call them up after you bought the car and ask them how to drive this damn stick. Same applied to us, we have pay numbers we offer to direct you to if you want to learn how to use so-and-so program. Another is a customer who thinks they can tell us how to fix the machine or just wanted us to magically make their computer work while we talked to them. When trouble shooting we usually had certain methods to determine what a problem might be (starting from simple solutions, is the thing plugged in, to where we might asked them to pop open their case or edit some registries). If ppl would just play along we could have solved their problem hrs ago instead of the both parties becoming frustrated with each other. At worst we could have discovered sooner if a replacement part is need or if it would need to be taken in for repair. There is more to both sides of the story, but I'm not in the mood to relive all those memories... thought drunken customers where always fun. I hope this sheds some light on the subject or at least helps someone get back to sleep.
My personnal favorite that I have seen was Fightor the fighter.
Its even more fun when they are speaking in Drunk *time to put the speaker phone on and let everyone in on the fun*
Orgon trail... buffalo... yum