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Customers are always right --
unless they need Internet help
By Bethany
Crane
September 16, 2008 | I work for a company in Logan
where I take phone calls from those who need help fixing
their Internet service. I have worked there for a year
and on the whole it is not unpleasant but is getting
dull quickly.
The majority of the people who call in expect me to
fix their problem by the end of the call no matter what
the problems is . . . even if it has nothing to do with
the company I work for. Customer service has slowly
turned into something else, something far less prestigious
and far more humiliating. When you are forced to agree
with an unreasonable person and sit for hours being
told what a horrible job you're doing and you can't
retaliate, it slowly wears on your morale.
The customer is always right. Not always true. But
to any company it has become more of a priority to keep
their customers happy, and a side note to keep their
employees just as pleased with the process.
Apparently the correlation between happy employees
and happy customers has not occurred to these companies.
The relationship between the employees and the employers
has also slowly eroded into a habitual pat on the back
when doing something right, and a severe reprimand for
everything else, no matter the cause. But we are the
working gears of this machine and support for us is
just as important as the support we give to the individuals
we help.
But my point is to give a glimpse into some of the
problems I solve and the people who call in to have
me explain to them why their computer screen is black.
So you can understand that despite the fact the question,
"Is it plugged in?" shouldn't have to be asked, unfortunately
it does.
When I hear that 80-year-old voice get on the phone
I automatically cringe away, set myself up with my Dr
Pepper, and expect a long haul to the end of this resolution.
The tenor of the conversation no matter what their age
is, is affected by whether or not they start by yelling
at you or sounding like they think you can help them.
If you own a computer I would expect that at some
point you learned what Google was. Knowing where your
address bar might also be essential. I don't think that
anyone above the age of 55 should have a computer unless
under teenager supervision. There are vast and dire
effects to their sanity and health if they are not looked
after. The idea of looking under their desk where their
modem is at is like trying to understanding Latin. The
suggestions and ways to fix their issue have to be given
in computer terms, so there is already a language barrier.
People who expect immediate fixes are also a joy to
speak to. When you can't magically see their computer
screen from where you're sitting, all of the sudden
you're not doing your job. We have developed this need
to have things immediately at our fingertips and waiting
a few extra seconds is absurd and should not be tolerated.
Now to be fair there are the few golden customers
that listen to exactly what you're saying, understand
that some things are beyond your control, and sympathize
even for you. That is the way I think customer service
always should be and how the representatives should
be treated.
Despite what people seem to think we are not mindless
robots on the other end that can take hours of verbal
abuse and not feel its effects. An interpersonal relationship
has been lost from the days when you actually had to
travel to the store and speak to someone in person.
Now you don't have to recognize the person on the other
end and because they're only a phone call and a slam
of the phone to the receiver away, it is easier to treat
them with less feeling.
It is the few, the unique, the kind, that make my
job more bearable from day to day and continue to give
me hope that courtesy is not completely lost.
NW
MS
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