 Customer Service 101
Business Know-How, like a lot of small companies, operates with a very small
staff. We rely on highly skilled contractors and paid product support services
to handle jobs that we don’t need done daily on a set schedule. In fact, when we
choose technical products, we look as closely at the vendor’s support services
as we do at the product itself. As a result we often pay top dollar for products
or services, but we expect that the support we will get will be top-notch too.
And usually support is good. But every once in a while we run into situations
where a vendor’s tech support staff is less than helpful – or worse, seems to
have an attitude problem.
That was the case recently when my assistant contacted a long-term vendor
about a problem with their service that started while I was out of town on a
business trip. The tech person we usually work with wasn’t available, so another
tech support rep took the call. My assistant explained the problem we were
having, expecting that the tech support person would either look into it while
she was on the phone, or say he’d check it out and get back to her.
But the support representative did neither. Instead of indicating how he’d
research or solve the problem he said, “Whaddaya want me to do about it.”
The tech support rep finally made one suggestion – one that my assistant knew
was something we considered a last-ditch effort. So she called me to explain
what had just happened and ask how to proceed. She then called back the vendor,
got the same contact support person, who in the meantime had tried solving the
problem with some more acceptable options.
In thinking back over what happened (and having dealt with this alternate
tech support person myself at times), I can’t help thinking that what sounded
like a rude or arrogant initial response to my assistant, was really a lack of
training. The tech support person did all the things we would expect the vendor
to do, but angered the customer because he didn’t know how to communicate
effectively.
How can you be sure your tech support isn’t irritating your customers? Begin
by listening as your staff answers phones and works with customers. Are they
answering politely? Do they use full sentences, identify themselves and your
organization? Are they actually listening to the customer, or just giving them
pat answers that may or may not solve their problem.
Send customer satisfaction surveys to your customers, too. Be sure the survey
is short, and that there is the opportunity to write in comments as well as
answering one or two multiple choice questions.
Consider providing customer support training as well –either sending them to live
training seminars, or, if that’s not practical, providing training on disk, or
through manuals.
Recent Columns
About the author
Janet Attard is the founder of
the award-winning Business
Know-How small business web site and information resource. Janet is
also the author of The
Home Office And Small Business Answer Book and of Business
Know-How: An Operational Guide For Home-Based and Micro-Sized Businesses with
Limited Budgets.
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