Markus

As some might be aware, I'm tech mananger for a software deveoplment company and as such I am the chap with whom most people will support problems talk to. I'm kinda proud that people a) get a human to talk to (well, semi-human, depends on what kind of day I'm having) b) they get a good quality response, c) their query is 100 percent answered then and there, or I go off and hit some of the test bunnies to find the problem. In other words, so I'm told, I provide some damn fine support.

Now, there are times when I am busy and thus the odd client might be kept waiting, the powers that be moan a bit at this. My response back is usually that people expect to be waiting on hold when they phone for support.

Question is, am I being silly here, or do most of you feel the same, eg; when you phone for software support, you *know* you're going to be in a queue for a while, and when you dod get through you might not be speaking to one of the R&D team but a dude or dudete in front of a database.

So, opinions please.

ianmiller999

From experience with evesham I found the person on the end of the line to be less knowledgeable then myself.

Long story but managed to sort the problem after speaking to a sales assistant at a panasonic vid cam shop. Who had same problem from many people.

douglasb

Markus - don't know how suitable this is for your situation, but what me and my colleagues tell customers is that the "official" support route is through the help desk. However, we then give them our mobile phone numbers and tell them that we'll be happy to take calls from them, but they have to realise that we (a) may not be available instantly, and (b) may take some time to retrieve the voicemail. To control expectations, we change our voicemail greetings every day along the lines of "Hi. This is douglasb on Wednesday 6th August. I'm in a customer meeting until around lunchtime but should be contactable in the car after that. Please leave a message."

This means that if they phone in the morning, they know that there is no way I can get back to them until after lunch and that even then I won't necessarily have access to the information that they need.

Although customers prefer to talk to us directly, most have found that the help desk route actually solves many of their problems.

Management support the "official routes" policy.

When I'm on the other end and am calling someone for support, I don't expect to speak to the Support Manager and realise that the person I am talking to is probably reading from a script. Don't know if you are a one man support department or have others working for you, but your "powers that be"'s attitude doesn't seem realistic. If you're on the phone to a customer, then you're on the phone. Next in line has to wait.

Doug

Markus

give them my mobile number! you must be nuts! lol They are damn lucky they get my work email address as opposed to the generic support one lol

douglasb

Hi Markus - as I said, I had no idea how appropriate my answer was to you. Depends on the number of customers/support people/customer calls whether that would work for you, and obviously it wouldn't. It pretty much works for us.

A point that is still valid though is that you can only do one thing at a time. If people expect that they can just call you up and speak to you then sometimes they will be disappointed. Customers and bean counters need to understand this.

Do you have a help desk in place to filter the calls you shouldn't have to deal with personally?

Doug

Markus

I am the help desk, well, me and the dev team. Small company you see. As for number of calls, it's a fair few, but then again, there is the odd quiet day.

It just gets to me when I phone support places, as I know what level of support I give, and to be fobbed off. but hey, I'm an impatient geek

Foot_Tapper

Hi Markus,
I have been in desktop/server support for 6 years, mostly as a contractor, working for companies that provide IT services to clients.
Some things I have picked up over this time. Some may be applicable, others not.
1. Service Level Agreements, if in place are supposedly to assure customer they get a response and fix, within agreed timescales.
This protects the customer, but also the provider; enabling them to manage workloads effectively. Some cutomers will abuse this; if you give them a length of lead , they will try to stretch it.
Not all customers know what the agreement times are. And dont like it when you have to inform them; or enforce them.
2. As has been said here, giving personal mobile numbers out to clients, can create a "rod" for your own back. They can and will, call you all times of day/night/weekend, and say "oh sorry, didnt realise".
3. The worst feeling I think customers have is waiting in call Q's.
If you have a number of calls at a particular time of day; you have to ask yourself why !! Is there something that can be done;
Do we need an FAQ about the product, do the customers need to be better informed. Or do we need some call management software, and someone logging calls on it. These can then be prioritised; calls can then be analysed, you can gain valuable information about your products/services by call analysis.

4. It sounds about the time you require some sort of call management.

Cheers
Glenn

Figment

Depends on who I'm callingfor support.

I don't mind waiting if I am confident of getting a useful response from the person who picks up the call. However I 100% detest waiting when I know/believe that the queue is for a call centre where I am going to be fobbed off with countless "remedies", or passed from pillar to post (via more queues) before eventually speaking to someone who has some idea of the answer to the problem.

If your "powers that be" don't like callers being kept waiting, they need to invest in more support personnel, or a better call management system.