Support Ops

Learn to be a customer support pro.

  • Episodes
  • Manifesto
  • Best Of

Archives for August 2012

Twitter Needs Better Writers

August 30, 2012 By Chase Clemons Leave a Comment

From Twitter’s new Certified Products Program:

The Twitter Certified Products Program helps businesses find some of the best products and services to thrive on Twitter. We certify leading solutions from the Twitter ecosystem for the needs of publishers, brands, and partners. We continually work with program members in the following verticals to take full advantage of the Twitter platform and innovate to solve business needs. If you are a business, browse through the directory of products to find those that meet your needs.

Good grief.  I praise Twitter for getting their wording right once and then they do this. It takes a true “master” to write this horribly.  Verticals, innovate, leading solutions… all that’s missing is the corporate buzzword bingo card.

Go It Alone

August 30, 2012 By Chase Clemons Leave a Comment

alone

From Flickr Artist Hryck

That’s kind of strange advice in this day of teamwork and all, right? So let’s square this away right from the beginning. I don’t mean try to do all the support for something on your own. You’ll need others on your team to help out.

What I mean here is this. Have the customer do as little as possible to fix their problem. As much as possible, go it alone and handle the customer’s problem on your end.

  • If your customer wants to cancel their account, go ahead and do it for them. Don’t send them a long set of instructions with links on how to do that from their end.
  • If you customer wants to switch their cable TV package, go ahead and switch it for them. Don’t shuffle them off to some other department or require them to go into an actual store.
  • If a customer wants to return something to you, pay for the shipping and send a label to them. Don’t make them to figure out how much a package weighs and which option to choose to send it back.

Last week, my card that I have on file for my phone expired. I tried the confusing phone tree options for self-service and go no where. Finally, I just went down to the local AT&T store to have them take care of it. Turns out that it’s something that even they have to call into customer service for.

Thankfully, I had a great rep that did it all on his own. He jotted down some notes about the new card number and what other account changes I needed. He then called in and sat on hold for me. He handled all the back and forth with the other support rep. I literally didn’t have to do anything.

That’s how it should be as a customer. If someone reaches out to you with a problem, fix as much of it as you can on your end. The customer doesn’t want to tie up more time with this ticket.

Take care of it yourself so the customer can get back to work.

Henry David Thoreau

August 29, 2012 By Chase Clemons Leave a Comment

Our life is frittered away by detail. Simplify, simplify!

Chatting with Customers

August 27, 2012 By Chase Clemons 2 Comments

Chat Box

When it comes to support options, customers love live chat. It’s quick and easy to use for the customer and the support rep. No one has to search or figure out how to use a chat box. Like email, everyone just knows how to use it.

I’ll talk about three things to remember with it but first, a bit of warning. I’ve been on both sides of live support chat and it’s a two edged sword. Done right, it’s extremely effective. If you do it wrong, customers and reps alike will quickly become frustrated.

Answer quickly

Like phone support, you need to answer quickly. A good rule of thumb with the phone is two rings. That works out to about three to five seconds after the customer starts the chat. Any longer than that, the customer gets irritated thinking you aren’t really there.

Have an avatar

No one likes seeing a default avatar. Often times, it’s a boring shadow of a person that brings no life to the chat. Instead, use a photo of yourself. The customer will appreciate small details like being able to see who they’re chatting with. Whatever you do, don’t use that photo of the guy with a headset smiling into the camera.

Speak their language

When you first answer, keep it informal and human sounding. Don’t go with some weird “Hello. My name is Chase Clemons and I’m your support agent for today. What may I assist you with?” Instead, keep it relaxed and start a conversation like you would normally.

After the first few interactions, you’ll get a feel for how they talk. In the mornings, I sit on my front porch with a cup of coffee and listen to the mockingbirds. These beautiful birds actually reproduce the sound of other birds and animals around them. The mockingbird’s calls are always similar but a little different when they repeat what they hear.

That’s what I want you to do now. Listen to how the customer talks and replicate it. If you’re dealing with a programmer looking into missing emails, it’s okay to get detailed and dive into the world of IP addresses and whitelisting. If you’re working with Grandma trying to clear her browser’s cache, walk her through it slowly with exact info on what she needs to be looking for. Like the mockingbird, adjust how you chat based on their responses.

But wait, there’s more

There’s always more to learn with live chat but these are some great basics. Depending on the app you use (and there are tons out there), you’ll have shortcuts, ways to route chats to the right support reps, and more.

The last thing I’ll leave you with is the same thing we started with – don’t do live support chat halfway. Either commit to it as a team or stay far away from it.

Smile First

August 22, 2012 By Chase Clemons Leave a Comment

Smile before you pick up the phone or talk with a customer.

It’s such a simple trick with phone calls.  They’ll hear the smile in your voice, which goes a long ways with a customer.

It’s OK Not to Know

August 20, 2012 By Chase Clemons Leave a Comment

question-key

From Flickr artist Oberazzi

But it’s not okay not to find an answer. 

It never ceases to amaze me at how people will try to answer questions even though they don’t know their product.  I was on a call with my Internet company and the support rep didn’t have answers to about half my questions.  His training evidently didn’t include some of the things I was looking for help with.

That would’ve been fine if he promised to get some answers.  Instead, at the end of a line of questions answered with “I don’t know”, he asks if there’s anything else he could help with.  Dumbfounded, I paused and asked, “Are you going to find out some answers to these questions?”.

Never leave your customer in this situation.  It’s okay to not know everything.  When that happens, just let them know you don’t have the answers yet.  Then politely put them on hold while you get some answers.  If it’s the middle of the night and no one else is around, let them know you’ll call them back as soon as you have an answer.

As a customer, I’m fine with a support rep not knowing something.  It’s the lack of effort to find out that’s the real crime.

Care About Typing

August 17, 2012 By Chase Clemons Leave a Comment

From Brett Kelly at Bridging the Nerd Gap:

If you write things, then write everything with care and attention.

Everything.

If you spend two hours meticulously crafting a blog post or six months editing your manuscript, don’t even think it’s alright to clumsily shit out a three-sentence email full of mechanical errors, typos and poorly-worded sentences just because your Mom is the only person who will ever read it.

With customer support, you never know when your email might get picked up and posted online for everyone to see how awful or awesome you are.

Peter Drucker

August 17, 2012 By Chase Clemons Leave a Comment

“The single most important thing to remember about any enterprise is that there are no results inside its walls. The result of a business is a satisfied customer.”

This Just In

August 15, 2012 By Chase Clemons Leave a Comment

I just got this email from a support ticket I sent in last week.  It’s an app that I use regularly and have been stuck with the same error message since Thursday.

We received your mail in a satisfactory manner.  You will soon receive personalized attention from our executives to support you with your questions and needs.

United’s Lack of Service

August 14, 2012 By Chase Clemons Leave a Comment

“When she came back she said should was going off her shift and could not help.  My husband then asked her if she was a mother herself and she said “yes”—he then asked her if she was missing her child for 45 minutes what would she do?  She kindly told him she understood and would do her best to help

United Airlines lost a little girl and this was the reply from the customer service rep.  The entire story is completely astonishing but this is the part that got me the most.  The rep was more concerned with ending her shift than finding a missing girl.  Sure, she reversed course after the father asks her but I’m still lost on the rep’s initial reaction.

A girl goes missing and you’re more focused on the end of your shift.  What kind of craptastic service is that.

  • 1
  • 2
  • Next Page »
A weekly podcast that helps you deliver a better support experience to your customers.

Read Our Guides
Support Kit
A Brief Guide to a Better Email

Find a Specific Episode

Copyright © 2021 Support Ops · Made with Basecamp and WordPress.