What is expected from a support service

Recently, there has been a trend towards complaints about customer support services across a wide range of companies. Users dissatisfied with the quality of service seek protection and try to find support on forums, on social networks, on a hub ... To do this, they post on public display correspondence or even recording telephone conversations with the support staff of a company. This behavior is understandable, because it becomes at least insulting, and more often outraged that the support service completely refuses to work! Although when paying for a service, program or equipment, we mean that we pay not only for this, but also to ensure that there are as few problems as possible, or at least that if a problem occurs, they will certainly help and support us. What does the user expect when does he call or write support? What do support workers see in doing so? Let's try to figure it out.

Where is the problem

As a rule, there is no one to blame. There are exceptions, but most often the problem arises in the sum of the behavior and conversation of both parties. On the one hand, this is an incorrectly drawn up support request, on the other hand, an incorrect reaction to this request. As a result, we see an offended and dissatisfied user who did not receive the expected support and an angry help desk employee who is struck by the ignorance of users.
Sometimes the support service does not receive a request for help describing the problem, but an indignant response to the fact that “nothing works for you!”. Often, when reading such a message, a support worker automatically filters it and completely ignores it, because it does not find a request for help in it. And the user, in turn, sits and waits for help. A week later, he again, with even greater indignation, writes a letter to the support service with the words: “Are you there, you are not working at all !?”. The response to such a message may be different, depending on whether the letter hit the same employee as the last time or another.
It becomes clear that the problem lies not only in the support services, but in the users who contact them. What to do to make everyone feel good

What the user needs to remember

The first thing you need to remember to the person who contacts the support service is that there is no telepath on the other end of the wire. There is the same person who needs to explain this before understanding something. In general phrases, it is unlikely that something will become clear. Therefore, messages with exclamations: “Nothing works for you! Do something! ” do not carry any meaning and do not bring a drop of clarity to the situation. In order to get quality help, you need to ask for quality help. To do this, the network has many examples of how to make a request to the support service. For example, it might look like this:

"Hello!
My name is Ivan Ivanov, I use the services of your hosting.
Login (client ID): id1234567
When I try to make changes to any file on the server via the web interface, an error occurs that is fixed in the screenshot that I am attaching to this letter. This error occurred yesterday, towards evening, and today before lunch.
Tell me, please, how to fix this error?
Sincerely,
Ivanov Ivan
tel. +7 (999) 123-45-67 "

It is clear that sometimes even after indicating an error, support staff will try to find out something else that will help them in solving the problem, but this is okay - this is a normal workflow. The main thing to remember about mutual respect. It is not necessary to immediately and independently spoil the opinion of the support service workers - people work there too, although sometimes it seems that the robot is talking to you. And sometimes the heads of companies, especially new ones, forget that the support service is simply necessary, like everything else, due to which the company can even exist. And if they don’t forget, then they put in this position completely ignorant:

Things to keep in mind for a support worker

The support service employee should clearly understand that his position is not the last in the company (or maybe one of the main ones), although sometimes the salary and the corresponding attitude may hint at this. But here you need to remember that if you know how to communicate with people and help them, then you need to appreciate your work. After all, the support service of any company is practically the face of the company. Indeed, it is thanks to the employees from the support service that the general impression of the company is formed, and as a result, the reputation. And in the end, the number of customers and subsequent profit depends on the reputation.
The book “Information Technology Market: Problems and Solutions” contains three main aspects that should be remembered both by the company's management and support staff:

Firstly:“It is necessary that the user support process be thoroughly worked out and documented, it requires the same careful attitude as any other business process of the bank. This means creating a clear algorithm for processing applications, their classification, registration, execution, control, etc. "

Secondly: “Employees [...] should not keep in mind several phones and the names of specialists responsible for a particular site. There should be a single support phone number that coordinates all work and interacts with business users on all requests. Effective use of a dedicated email address and answering machines to record calls. ”

Thirdly:“For efficient processing, all requests must be evaluated and prioritized. This is due to the fact that it is impossible to work out all the problems equally quickly, especially since most of them do not require a quick solution. Therefore, prioritization promotes more flexible resource management and eliminates critical issues. ”


But these technical details are not enough to create a good impression for the user who contacted the support service. You must also remember humanity and be extremely polite in any case. If the user still wrote, “Nothing works for you! Do something! ”, Do not ignore this message. Obviously, this is more like a cry of a drowning person than a request for specific help, but do not forget that the user means something and most likely “not work” not everything, but something specific. Why not politely introduce yourself and ask what exactly doesn’t work? It's so easy! And if a request came to your service that was well-structured enough, then there are several good-quality rules for the answer that can be seen in the sample response:

“Hello, Ivan!
Thank you for using the services of our company. We value every customer!
My name is Peter and I will try to solve this problem.
We checked the server and eliminated some of the reasons that could contribute to the occurrence of the error that you wrote about.
Please try again to make any changes to the files and report the result.
We will help you!
Sincerely,
Peter, Customer Support

From the sample response, it is clear that the support worker must respectfully contact the user. It’s better to call “You”, because it is not clear how old the person who sent the request is. An almost indispensable factor for a successful support service is also to assure the user that they value him as a client and will certainly help. It’s also good practice that a support worker after successful assistance to a specific request asks: “Do you need any more help with the services we offer?”.

Instead of a conclusion

It seems clear that the problem of the support service and the user lies in the relationship as a whole. And as attention is drawn in Stephen Covey's book “The Seven Skills of Highly Effective People,” you need to start, first of all, from yourself, and not turn the arrows to another, in search of the guilty one. If on both sides people are a little kinder, then many problems can simply be avoided.