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The New Rules For Tech Support Customers
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From this day forward, I propose that all technical support and customer service representatives be able to hang up on customers if they violate any of the following rules:
- Coughing or chewing directly into the phone.
- Putting agent on hold to take care of other things that can normally be put on hold till the call is finished.
- Lying an saying you tried a step when you haven’t. (Example: “I’ve already restarted the computer!”)
- Asking over and over again “Why did this happen?” or “Why does this keep happening?” during the troubleshooting process.
- Saying you are a tech and acting like you don’t really need tech support even though you called for help.
- Failing to listen.
- Using speakerphone mode on your phone.
- Asking for suggestions to fix a problem when you’re not in front of the device so that we can troubleshoot.
- Suggesting another product is better. (We really don’t care if it is, by the way.)
- Threatening to switch to a competitor. (See above.)
- Starting to talk before I am done with my greeting.
- Failing to provide information I asked for in my greeting after being asked more than once.
- Making the agent wait while you try your own useless troubleshooting steps.
People that violate these rules are stupid and deserve to be hung up on. They are allowed to call back and try again but will be promptly dismissed again if they violate these rules.
6 Comments
matt
June 10th, 2008
at 1:59pm
Ha, nice list I think I have broken one or two trying to talk to Mike from Windstream, who decides to turn off my Internet weekly for know reason at all.
Jeff
June 10th, 2008
at 3:05pm
I know I’ve mentioned my experience in call centers before so I’ll just leave that out but I’d like to say that I, again, agree wholeheartedly with what you have to say in this blog post.
Based on my experience as a customer service rep I know exactly how irritating it can be to deal with customers like that. I occasionally read blog posts about “shoddy customer service” and I can’t help but shake my head and think that maybe there’s possibly a reason for that?
Customer service reps, regardless of what anyone would like to believe, are not the most well-paid individuals. A lot of the time they’re underpaid for the service that they’re asked to deliver and they’re stuck dealing with the idiots who encompass the qualities outlined in your blog post. People expect good customer service — and rightfully so — but customer service reps expect people who call in to actually LISTEN to what we’re trying to get them to do.
If someone wants to complain about a customer rep “reading from a script” then why the hell are they calling in to customer service or tech support to begin with? If you know you’re only going to get a scripted response then why are you wasting your time? If the rep is trained to assist you using that script and nothing from it helps then chances are that THEY DON’T HAVE THE RESOURCES TO ASSIST YOU.
I still carry a lot of anger from my old position in a call center. It was a stressful and unrewarding position that I would never want to go back to. As mundane as my current job may be, I can at least say I don’t mind coming to work and I’m not stressed about it either. Customer service reps and tech support people have hard and stressful jobs listening to idiots most of the time. They deserve more credit than they’re given.
the oracle
June 10th, 2008
at 4:13pm
As someone who has been on both sides of this, I will say that more of your rules - the ones not easily understood, or beyond common courtesy - might be followed if the customer was not treated, from the outset, like a dolt.
For example
I have an account with Verizon for DSL that is 9 years old. This information is clearly available to anyone on the other end of the line when I call in. It is also possible to see how few times in 9 years I have called - I can think of only 1 time that it was not due to an outage.
SO
perhaps when the ‘customer service rep’ comes on the line, he could do the ‘long time, proven to not be a bozo’ customer a real favor by simply acknowledging that he/she/it might have some idea of the first steps to take in verifying that the problem lies on that customer’s machine.
It is my experience that those treated with kindness, and a modicum of deference, will receive treatment in kind.
oztech
June 10th, 2008
at 4:21pm
You are right Oracle. I should put in a disclaimer about this not applying unless you are a rep that actually cares to service the customer.
teddgcm
June 11th, 2008
at 4:28am
As a tech rep myself…I feel your pain my freind, I really do! ::tear in eye:: We are there for the customer sure, and I do my best to help and resolve the issue, but some customers are just plain stupid! That “Goodbye” button looks so inviting sometimes. One of my pet pieves is when a customer claims to be loosing several thousand dollars a day because his cell phone isn’t working and when I pull up the account it’s our lowest plan and overdue for almost 2 months.
See my posts at http://www.lockergnome.com/cellphones/2008/05/26/how-to-call-technical-support-2/
and
http://www.lockergnome.com/cellphones/2008/03/01/tecnical-support-and-the-consumer/
mhz
June 11th, 2008
at 10:05am
Sounds good, the problem is you’re trying to screen out a certain TYPE of people from calling. Those are probably the ones who need tech support the most, and they need it because they ARE that type of person.
The characteristics that make them annoying on the phone are the same ones that make them unable to fix it themselves.
The type of customer that you prefer– focused, patient, methodical, polite, etc. are probably going to solve most of their problems for themselves.