A tech support job is one of the most frustrating and rewarding job. I would rather say a customer facing job where you meet, talk to different customers/people is the most frustrating and rewarding job. When I joined the present company, I started with support group. In normal terms it would be those lazy guys who take care of the computers, servers, links, and most important the email service and all important Internet. The people you would like to kill with your bare hands. The people who are never found when you need them. People who you believe are the most inefficient in the whole company. Yup! That’s us!
You get to meet different kind of people. People with attitude, people who are modest, people with anger, people with a smile and fortunately and unfortunately all of them are your customer.
It is said that “Customer is always right”. The biggest problem in the statement is the statement is untrue to a large extent but telling them on their face is not allowed because “Customer is always right”.
It is known knowledge in our company that our department handles computer and network problem. Telephones and problems related to telephone belongs to the Admin department. Although it seem to be our work for a person who had just joined the company. Most of the people know who to call in case of telephone problems.
One day we received a call on our online call logging system which went somewhat like this
“The phone with extension xxxx on table xx on third floor is not working. Could you replace it as soon as possible?”
Call like these make my mind go kaboom. I saw the employee number of the user and knew that he was a very senior in terms of service in the company. A person like him not knowing what each department does was unbelievable. I could have just closed the call with the instruction that it was the admin department’s job to change telephones. But something in the call did not allow me to do that. The call was arrogant in the language. There was no “Please” and it was more of a demand than a request. Of course they have a right to demand service but the call just did not feel right
I instructed my subordinate to close the call with the message;
“Please contact your Group leader for approval”
Minutes later a new call with exactly the same problem was logged by the same user again.
I smiled at myself; “This means war, definitely war”
I closed the call again with exactly the same instruction. I knew that the user would be at the door any minute and it happened.
An angry young man was at the door of our department.
“I logged a call. The number is xxxxxxxxxxx”
“Ok! What was the problem?”
“My phone is not working”
“I had given the solution in the call”
“What do you mean by talk to your GL?”
“Do you know what we do?”
“Yes! I do”
“Do you know we do not handle the phones here?”
“Yes! I do”
“So how do we handle the call”
“See you are the closest support group near my desk. You should help me”
I smile. It’s the worst argument/reason I have heard in my entire career. I count till 10 and then answer;
“If you were sitting on the 2nd floor, would you go to Accounts to solve your PC problem just because they are the nearest department to your desk?”
The man looked at me with anger in his eyes. He was angry and I knew what was expected from him now.
“Idiots!” he starts walking away
I look up and shout after him “Same to you”
Working in support makes you vulnerable for such attacks. It also makes you angry. After some time it becomes really difficult to handle such cases. You tend to be frustrated and angry all the time. I know because I was angry and frustrated all the time. At some point you cannot take it anymore.
But then a job like that also teaches you patience. It does. It teaches you to take insults with a smiling face even when a fire burns inside you. It teaches you that it’s really not worth it to lose one’s peace over small issues like this. Chances are the other person’s day is ruined as well. After the incident it really does not important whose fault it was. Maybe mine or maybe his! I guess more mine than his.
As I said, Tech support job is frustrating and rewarding.
so true that often the techie guys’ job is sometimes treated as not as important… but then also true that their job is super important to keep em customers happy. and often, they are the ones who’d be clearing up the mess others made…
the support team at my company are a cool lot, we call them the ferrari guys. Can imagine the job being taxing, all the same, bon courage!
and yea, good reply to the frustrated fellow!
Punds, Have couple of friends who work in support and they know how to curse, and when I says “Guys!” they go work for tech support for a month and we will see 😉
I have heard horror stories too! All the best!
vi
tha’ts so true. Usually I am at the other end 🙂 Though it’s never so bad 🙂 I used to sit next to the guys from our IT department. They wud always be on the move for this or that issue.
Every job need patience. There is fire in your eyes but have to sustain you smile with burnt heart, Zaban pe controll… while in anger… very tough. Well !! nice answer to that guy (or bull)
ha ha that was a cool post. Just wanted to share a joke on call centers. sorry that it is a bit lengthy
……CALL CENTRE JOBS: PEOPLE WONDER WHY THEY R PAID SO MUCH……FOR JUST BEING ON THE PHONE. ???? read on………….
1).
Tech Support: “I need you to right-click on the Open Desktop.”
Customer “Ok.”
Tech Support: “Did you get a pop-up menu?”
Customer: “No.”
Tech Support: “Ok. Right click again. Do you see a pop-up menu?”
Customer “No.”
Tech Support:: “Ok, sir. Can you tell me what you have done up until this point?”
Customer: “Sure, you told me to write ‘click’ and I wrote ‘click’.”
2)
Customer: “I received the software update you sent, but I am still getting the same error message.”
Tech Support:: “Did you install the update?”
Customer: “No. Oh, am I supposed to install it to get it to work?”
3).
Customer:: “I’m having trouble installing Microsoft Word.”
Tech Support:: “Tell me what you’ve done.”
Customer: “I typed ‘A:SETUP’.”
Tech Support:: “Ma’am, remove the disk and tell me what it says.”
Customer:: “It says ‘[PC manufacturer] Restore and Recovery disk’.”
Tech Support:: “Insert the MS Word setup disk.”
Customer:: “What?”
Tech Support: “Did you buy MS word?”
Customer: “No…”
4)
.Customer:: “Do I need a computer to use your software?”
Tech Support:: ?!%#$
5)
.Tech Support:: “Ok, in the bottom left hand side of the screen, canyou see the ‘OK’ button displayed?”
Customer: “Wow. How can you see my screen from there?”
6)
Tech Support:: “What type of computer do you have?”
Customer:: “A white one.”
7).
Tech Support:: “Type ‘A:’ at the prompt.”
Customer:: “How do you spell that?”
8).
Tech Support: “What’s on your screen right now?”
Customer: “A stuffed animal that my boyfriend got me at the grocery store.”
9).
Tech Support:: “What operating system are you running?”
Customer: “Pentium.”
10).
Customer: “My computer’s telling me I performed an illegal abortion.”
11).
Customer: “I have Microsoft Exploder.”
12).
Customer: “How do I print my voicemail?”
13).
Customer: “You’ve got to fix my computer. I urgently need to print document, but the computer won’t boot properly.”
Tech Support: “What does it say?”
Customer: “Something about an error and non-system disk.”
Tech Support: “Look at your machine. Is there a floppy inside?”
Customer: “No, but there’s a sticker saying there’s an Intel inside.”
14).
Tech Support: “Just call us back if there’s a problem. We’re open 24 hours.”
Customer: “Is that Eastern time?”
15).
Tech Support:: “What does the screen say now?”
Customer: “It says, ‘Hit ENTER when ready’.”
Tech Support:: “Well?”
Customer: “How do I know when it’s ready?”
16).
A plain computer illeterate guy rings tech support to report that his computer is faulty.
Tech: What’s the problem?
User: There is smoke coming out of the power supply.
Tech: You’ll need a new power supply.
User: No, I don’t! I just need to change the startup files.
Tech: Sir, the power supply is faulty. You’ll need to replace it.
User: No way! Someone told me that I just needed to change the startup and it will fix the problem! All I need is for you to tell me the command.
10 minutes later, the User is still adamant that he is right. The tech is frustrated and fed up.
Tech: Sorry, Sir. We don’t normally tell our customers this, but there is an undocumented DOS command that will fix the problem.
User: I knew it!
Tech: Just add the line LOAD NOSMOKE.COM at the end of the CONFIG.SYS. Let me know how it goes.
10 minutes later.
User: It didn’t work. The power supply is still smoking.
Tech: Well, what version of DOS are you using?
User: MS-DOS 6.22.
Tech: That’s your problem there. That version of DOS didn’t come with NOSMOKE. Contact Microsoft and ask them for a patch that will give you the file. Let me know how it goes.
1 hour later.
User: I need a new power supply.
Tech: How did you come to that conclusion?
User: Well, I rang Microsoft and told him about what you said, and he started asking questions about the make of power supply.
Tech: Then what did he say?
User: He told me that my power supply isn’t compatible with NOSMOKE.
Aare take a chill pill. Tension nahi leneka aise logon ko tension deneka, you should have told him you have remote access to his phone and you are working on his problem everytime he called 😀
LOL Harish let me add one more!
Where is the “any” key?
Punds, you should now post a rewarding experience. 😉
Harish & Vi, that was funny! LOL