Sunday, January 28, 2007
Plugged in
Me: "Alright, now we'll need you to turn off your router."
Caller: "How do I do that?"
Me: "Well, the router will either have an on/off switch, or it'll have a power cord."
Caller: "There are, like, three cords going into this box. Which one's the power?"
At times like this, I'm trying to figure out how to give the customer an answer that they'll understand, but not sound condescending while I do it. I mean, this is the power! Most people who've been functioning in our society for any of the last 50 years should be familiar with what a power cord is, right?
Me: "Well, there will be a cord connecting your router to a power outlet."
Caller: "How do we tell which cord that is? There are three cords!"
Me: "Well, you could try following those cords. One of them will go to a power outlet."
Caller: "Oh." (To someone in the background.) "Hey! Which of these goes into the power? ... Oh yeah, the power bar." (Some rustling in the background, then:) "OK, the router is off."
Yeah, they were awesome.
Caller: "How do I do that?"
Me: "Well, the router will either have an on/off switch, or it'll have a power cord."
Caller: "There are, like, three cords going into this box. Which one's the power?"
At times like this, I'm trying to figure out how to give the customer an answer that they'll understand, but not sound condescending while I do it. I mean, this is the power! Most people who've been functioning in our society for any of the last 50 years should be familiar with what a power cord is, right?
Me: "Well, there will be a cord connecting your router to a power outlet."
Caller: "How do we tell which cord that is? There are three cords!"
Me: "Well, you could try following those cords. One of them will go to a power outlet."
Caller: "Oh." (To someone in the background.) "Hey! Which of these goes into the power? ... Oh yeah, the power bar." (Some rustling in the background, then:) "OK, the router is off."
Yeah, they were awesome.
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
New job, same stuff
Whew, it's been a while since anyone's updated this thing, and my update won't even be all that entertaining. I've moved on from the job from which I originally drew material for this blog, but I'm doing similar work at another company, so I'm sure I'll still have lots to contribute. I've heard that the customers here tend to be less extreme on average. For this blog's sake, I hope not. Of course, for my sanity's sake...
Saturday, January 13, 2007
Just be honest!
Today, I've listened to quite a few people call in, tell me that they need to setup their connection on their computer, only to find that they'd already tried creating an account. Now, I can understand that sentiment: you know you didn't do it correctly, so you call us to have us help you get the connection setup correctly.
However, there isn't that much to setting up a dialup connection. If you know how to start the Windows wizard, then it's almost completely self-explanatory. And most of the people calling in who're in this situation today have things almost completely right. In fact, all but one of them have had only one thing wrong: their login information.
I realize that this type of thinking doesn't come naturally to everyone, but I wish people would realize that if you're getting to the point where your connection says "dialing... establishing connection... verifying username and password", then obviously you're getting through. When it says that your username or password is wrong, then it doesn't make sense to check your modem settings, or the dialup number, or your Internet Explorer settings, or anything other than your username and password.
The thing is, some people are determined to get us to run them through the setup, despite the fact that all it'll do is waste everyone's time. It's much faster to just say "I tried setting up my connection, but it's not connecting. Can we take a look at the settings?" Odds are that you've already done the important legwork, and a detail or two just needs to be adjusted.
Just be honest about it. You'll save yourself time in the end.
However, there isn't that much to setting up a dialup connection. If you know how to start the Windows wizard, then it's almost completely self-explanatory. And most of the people calling in who're in this situation today have things almost completely right. In fact, all but one of them have had only one thing wrong: their login information.
I realize that this type of thinking doesn't come naturally to everyone, but I wish people would realize that if you're getting to the point where your connection says "dialing... establishing connection... verifying username and password", then obviously you're getting through. When it says that your username or password is wrong, then it doesn't make sense to check your modem settings, or the dialup number, or your Internet Explorer settings, or anything other than your username and password.
The thing is, some people are determined to get us to run them through the setup, despite the fact that all it'll do is waste everyone's time. It's much faster to just say "I tried setting up my connection, but it's not connecting. Can we take a look at the settings?" Odds are that you've already done the important legwork, and a detail or two just needs to be adjusted.
Just be honest about it. You'll save yourself time in the end.
Thursday, January 11, 2007
How is this helping anyone?
Caller: "Yeah, I'm in Quebec, but my brother in your area isn't able to connect."
Me: "OK, do you know what kind of trouble he's having?"
Caller: "Some kind of message keeps coming up on his screen?"
Me: "Do you know what kind of message it is?"
Caller: "No, I'm not sure. I'm in Quebec."
Me: "Do you know if it's an error message, a notice about the acount, a program crashing, anything like that?"
Caller: "I'm not sure."
Me: "OK... is your brother able to call us?"
Caller: "Yeah. I'll ask him to give you a call."
Good plan. Maybe then we can get something done other than waste time!
Me: "OK, do you know what kind of trouble he's having?"
Caller: "Some kind of message keeps coming up on his screen?"
Me: "Do you know what kind of message it is?"
Caller: "No, I'm not sure. I'm in Quebec."
Me: "Do you know if it's an error message, a notice about the acount, a program crashing, anything like that?"
Caller: "I'm not sure."
Me: "OK... is your brother able to call us?"
Caller: "Yeah. I'll ask him to give you a call."
Good plan. Maybe then we can get something done other than waste time!
Friday, January 05, 2007
If you ask for the reason, you get the reason
A caller rang in and complained that he was getting disconnected frequently. I checked the logs for his account and noticed that he was also connecting at a slow speed. Those two things often go hand in hand, and they mean that there's a communication problem between the two computers. That problem is almost always an issue either with the phone line or the modem driver. I explained the possible reasons to the caller, and offered him a few suggestions as to how to narrow it down and fix it.
Caller: "No. Every time I call you guys about this issue, you feed me the same excuses: 'It's the line! It's the modem!' I want this issue fixed."
Me: "Do you know why we always tell you the same thing? It's because that's the answer to your problem. It's because you continue to call about the same issue and don't follow the instructions we give you to fix the problem."
What amazes me is how determined he was that the problem was on our end, despite not having any evidence to back that up. It's times like this that I wish I had the magic problem solving button, just so I could shut people up.
Caller: "No. Every time I call you guys about this issue, you feed me the same excuses: 'It's the line! It's the modem!' I want this issue fixed."
Me: "Do you know why we always tell you the same thing? It's because that's the answer to your problem. It's because you continue to call about the same issue and don't follow the instructions we give you to fix the problem."
What amazes me is how determined he was that the problem was on our end, despite not having any evidence to back that up. It's times like this that I wish I had the magic problem solving button, just so I could shut people up.
Thursday, January 04, 2007
The light goes on
A customer called and wanted to setup Outlook Express. This is common enough, and I've probably done it a couple thousand times. It's a task that I could probably do drunk and nearly comatose and not wearing pants.
This particular customer was not particularly familiar with using his computer, and had the always annoying habit of reading absolutely everything on the screen. I directed his attention to the proper area of his screen a few times, and explained that most of the information on the screen at any given time isn't going to be useful for us while setting up OE. After the third or fourth time, he understood!
Caller: "Oh... you guys are pretty precise, huh?"
Me: "Yes, it usually makes it a lot easier to go through these steps when you know exactly what we need you to look at."
Caller: "Oh, I guess you've probably gone through this a lot."
Me: "Yeah, I'd guess a couple dozen times every day."
After that exchange, he listened carefully and followed the exact instructions I gave him. We finished the setup without a hitch. He'd gone from a pain in the posterior to an ideal caller!
Caller: "Hey, that was easy. Thanks a lot!"
No problem. Thanks for listening!
This particular customer was not particularly familiar with using his computer, and had the always annoying habit of reading absolutely everything on the screen. I directed his attention to the proper area of his screen a few times, and explained that most of the information on the screen at any given time isn't going to be useful for us while setting up OE. After the third or fourth time, he understood!
Caller: "Oh... you guys are pretty precise, huh?"
Me: "Yes, it usually makes it a lot easier to go through these steps when you know exactly what we need you to look at."
Caller: "Oh, I guess you've probably gone through this a lot."
Me: "Yeah, I'd guess a couple dozen times every day."
After that exchange, he listened carefully and followed the exact instructions I gave him. We finished the setup without a hitch. He'd gone from a pain in the posterior to an ideal caller!
Caller: "Hey, that was easy. Thanks a lot!"
No problem. Thanks for listening!
Labels: listening, understanding
Hotmail and you
We'll get calls from time to time in which a user has confused some part of the internet with their internet provider. That's no problem. In most cases, a quick explanation helps clear things up, and we can point the user in the right direction for support. For example, if someone calls about having trouble logging into a poker site, but everything else with their connection appears to be fine, we'll explain that the user's best bet is to contact the poker site directly. For most of our callers, that is sufficient.
There are exceptions, though. One lady has called numerous times in the past 12 months about her Hotmail address. Each time, it's clear that she doesn't really get the net in general, as each time she calls, we end up having to explain that we aren't Hotmail and we don't know what her Hotmail password is, or that we can't change her Hotmail email address, or that we don't know if Hotmail is having a technical problem.
Today was more of the same from her, which I suppose isn't too bad, since it's a really easy issue to solve (or not solve, as the case tends to be with her). But she had a few extra comments today:
Caller: "I'm a retired teacher and I don't want to have anyone over here to help me because... because I just don't!"
Caller: "I do have a number for someone. It's Joe. He's at 555-1234."
Me: "Uh, ok."
Caller: "Is he any good?"
Me: "I have no idea who that is. I don't know."
Caller: "Oh."
If we ever develop omniscience, we'll make a killing in the building goodwill department.
There are exceptions, though. One lady has called numerous times in the past 12 months about her Hotmail address. Each time, it's clear that she doesn't really get the net in general, as each time she calls, we end up having to explain that we aren't Hotmail and we don't know what her Hotmail password is, or that we can't change her Hotmail email address, or that we don't know if Hotmail is having a technical problem.
Today was more of the same from her, which I suppose isn't too bad, since it's a really easy issue to solve (or not solve, as the case tends to be with her). But she had a few extra comments today:
Caller: "I'm a retired teacher and I don't want to have anyone over here to help me because... because I just don't!"
Caller: "I do have a number for someone. It's Joe. He's at 555-1234."
Me: "Uh, ok."
Caller: "Is he any good?"
Me: "I have no idea who that is. I don't know."
Caller: "Oh."
If we ever develop omniscience, we'll make a killing in the building goodwill department.
