Tuesday, May 01, 2007
Don't say this stuff
I may have posted this before (I'm not up for hunting through all the previous posts right now), but it's a timeless truth, so I feel it should be said regardless: Think before you say stuff to people. Specifically here, think before you say stuff to the tech support worker who's trying to help you.
Here's an example of a common yet unhelpful thing to say: "I've been working at this all day!" OK, good. Hey, guess what? I've been at my job all day, too! Do you care more about treating me with respect than you did before? I wouldn't. I wouldn't because I would expect me to do my job at roughly the same level no matter how long I'd been at it that day. Similarly, I expect you to still be a rational and polite person no matter how long your computer's been having some kind of problem for.
And another one: "I've called x times now!" Well, now that you've met the magic threshold, we'll start the real troubleshooting! Before you say something like that to a tech agent, think about this: you're still calling with some kind of issue, and the agent is still going to try and fix that problem, no matter how many times you've called. The number of times you've called that day is not directly relevant to the tech worker's job.
I understand that you get frustrated when an issue isn't quickly fixed, and the nature of calling a company means that there's often no one person that you can call in to yell at. Everyone gets frustrated sometimes, but please, consider whether or not what you're saying is actually going to help or not. And if it's not going to, then please, bite your tongue, describe the problem, and let me get on with helping you.
Here's an example of a common yet unhelpful thing to say: "I've been working at this all day!" OK, good. Hey, guess what? I've been at my job all day, too! Do you care more about treating me with respect than you did before? I wouldn't. I wouldn't because I would expect me to do my job at roughly the same level no matter how long I'd been at it that day. Similarly, I expect you to still be a rational and polite person no matter how long your computer's been having some kind of problem for.
And another one: "I've called x times now!" Well, now that you've met the magic threshold, we'll start the real troubleshooting! Before you say something like that to a tech agent, think about this: you're still calling with some kind of issue, and the agent is still going to try and fix that problem, no matter how many times you've called. The number of times you've called that day is not directly relevant to the tech worker's job.
I understand that you get frustrated when an issue isn't quickly fixed, and the nature of calling a company means that there's often no one person that you can call in to yell at. Everyone gets frustrated sometimes, but please, consider whether or not what you're saying is actually going to help or not. And if it's not going to, then please, bite your tongue, describe the problem, and let me get on with helping you.
Labels: communication
# posted by Terry @ 12:33 PM 
