Having worked as a DSL and dial-up tech before, let me give some advice about how to get great service from phone tech support. The most important thing is to get into the mindset of the technician. Most technicians work for a support subcontracting firm, they don’t work for the company that made the product. The subcontracting firm makes money by helping as many people in a day as possible. The technician will likely loose his job if he can not keep average call time close to what makes profit for his company. Examples: 11.5 minutes for DSL, 8.5 minutes for dialup (this is for two very large ISP’s, not AOL) and 17.5 minutes for printers (probably the largest printer manufacturer with 100’s of products). Many of the “call centers” were the technicians work are made in economically depressed areas, for example one I know of in Canada the local area has an unemployment rate close to 30%. So, to the technician THE AVERAGE CALL TIME IS EVERYTHING!
DO’S:
1. Be prepared for the call: have your computer turned on (if needed), have pen and paper handy, have your account information/date of purchase ready, and know the product model number and/or software version(s).
2. Listen carefully to the technician, the technician will speed up if he feels that you are listening well. The faster you both go the more tech work you will get from him (remember average call time). One example: me---“sir please right click on the icon in dial-up networking, when the menu pops up then left click on ‘create short cut here’, it will give you an error message I want you to click YES to the error” customer----“Windows could not”….. me---“Please click YES” customer----“…create a short cut….” me----“please click YES” customer----“…here, would you like to have windows put one on the desk top” me-----“YES YES YES GOD PLEASE YES!!!”
3. Understand that you may have to call more than once to solve a problem. Technicians often break up lengthy troubleshooting into more than one call to keep call times low. This is also true if the tech went down the wrong path to solve your problem, many problems are a crap shoot as to witch path to take, so if the second path is lengthy the tech may try to find a way to have you call back. Don’t be discouraged, just call back.
4. Follow the directions. Often troubleshooting steps seem futile, but for the technician to send your issue to a higher level specialist he has to do ALL the basics. This is true even when the technician knows that what he is doing will not solve the problem. (Sometimes those “basics” actually solve the problem hehe) Many of the calls are recorded and his case notes are always recorded, so there is no sidestepping this stuff.
5. Wait for the technician to ask you what is wrong (don’t blurt it out the second you get to him), and state it clearly. Have ready for the tech exactly when the problem started. If you can reproduce the problem, have ready BEFORE you call the exact steps it takes to reproduce the problem.
6. If you feel that a tech doesn’t know what he is doing ----simply say “I have to leave for work and will call back”. (Or alternately: “my cat puked on the carpet, or I need to pick my nose” etc…..) This will make sure that the tech puts in his case notes that you will be calling back. Then simply call back right after you hang up, you will not get the same tech again (if you do I’m taking you to Vegas).
DON’T’S:
1. Don’t engage in idle chit-chat. Technicians hate this, it lowers the amount of time he has to solve your problem and raises his average call time. If you get a tech who chit-chats with you, you know instantly that you have a newbie. Veterans never talk about the weather, aunt Erma’s cat etc….
2. Don’t tell the tech that you are a fortune 500 network administrator (even if you are) or that you are going to sue for loss of business or that you are going to take your business to the competitor-----he doesn’t remotely care or is impressed. This to him is just more idle chit-chat. (I worked for Microsoft as a tech and often people would say how they are going to sue---I would be thinking “Oh ya, you and what super-power” hehe) (got slack?)
3. Don’t offer the solution (after all if you had the solution you wouldn’t be calling hehe). Just give what went wrong and when. If you want to out-geek the tech, tell the tech what went wrong and when then ask for possible solutions--- then tech it your-self after the call is over.
4. Don’t ask for a supervisor---you will not get one. If you do, you will likely get non-tech manager or the guy in the cube next to the tech you called. Remember that most of the time you are not talking to the people that made your product. You will only get a specialist if all the basic tech stuff was done over the phone. Also, if have done many troubleshooting steps prior to making the call, you may have to do them again over the phone before you get the specialist.
5. Don’t get ahead of the technician. If he tech pauses for a second it is not an invitation to out guess him, he may be typing case notes or looking up additional information. Example: when a tech says to shut down your computer, don’t out of habit restart immediately---he may be trying to get into your bios.
6. Don’t expect the free tech-support to troubleshoot things that are unrelated to the product you are calling about. For example: if you are having trouble connecting with your DSL modem but just coincidentally you happen to have BSOD’s every five seconds, don’t expect the tech to rebuild the operating system (especially in 11.5 minutes hehehe). If you need that kind of tech support you will likely have to pay for it, or lurk at Techimo (and the other place) for five years.
7. Don’t expect the tech babysit you through a long download, “just to see if it works”. You will need to call back with the results.
8. Don’t put them on hold—their livelihoods depend on low call averages. Even if you have been on hold for sometime to get to him, besides then you are lengthening the time that next caller has to wait to get help.
9. Don’t be afraid to call. Many technicians take 50 or more calls a day regarding a very narrow scope of tech support. A 1000 calls a month can hone any area of tech support to a fine edge. Even computer guru’s rarely deal with that many problems on ONE subject in a career. If they can’t help you, they may be able to point you in the right direction.
I wrote this because with a little help, the free phone tech support can be a useful tool (though not as helpful as Tech imo). It really doesn’t have to be painful.
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