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Case Study #2: Not great, but undeniably better
My experience with
second company wasn’t stellar; in fact, it was downright frustrating. Nevertheless, technical support reps who handled my case exhibited a great deal of class, and they were clearly sensitive to my frustrations. Here’s what I mean.
The power adapter on my laptop had failed and its battery power was starting to run low. My computer was still under warranty, so technical support rep assured me that they would ship me a new adapter soon.
I took that opportunity to express concern about fact that this was second time my laptop had failed in just eight months. (Its hard drive crashed just two months earlier.) Obviously, there was nothing that this rep could do about that, but I could sense sympathy in his voice. At end of my call, he asked, “Is there anything else I can do for you? I’d really like to help.”
Now that was a class act.
Sadly, things did turn for worse. I was assured that power adapter would be shipped on Friday, so when that day came around, I called to ask for a tracking number. After some confusion on their end, I got following response from another rep:
Rep: “I’m sorry sir, but part isn’t in stock.”
Me: “It’s not? Then why I was promised that it would ship today?”
Rep: “I’m sorry, sir. Our ordering system doesn’t tell us if our warehouse has parts in stock.”
Me: “It doesn’t? Almost all vendors that I deal with have that capability.”
Rep: “Yes, and it would be really nice if our system did that too, but right now, it doesn’t. I’m sorry.”
Me: “Well, why was I promised that part would be shipped today? Wouldn’t it have been better to tell me that you still need to verify if part is in stock?”
Rep: “Yes, that would have been better, sir.” I could feel regret in his voice.
Me: “And if it turns out that a part isn’t in stock, shouldn’t you tell customer? As things stand, I might have to spend thousands of dollars on a new laptop tomorrow morning. I wasn’t notified of this problem when it occurred, and now it’s too late to make alternate arrangements.”
Rep: “I feel very bad about that, sir. I really do.” And so forth, and so on.
We discussed matter further, but suffice to say that this fellow didn’t try to make excuses. He recognized problem, and acknowledged that their system had failed. Like other rep that I spoke to earlier, he was consummately respectful, and made his desire to help very clear.
So this is a situation where technical support reps spoke to customer respectfully, didn’t stick to some cookie-cutter script, and knew enough to express empathy in a crisis. Those attitudes can go a long way toward defusing a volatile situation. Despite my frustration at company’s screw-up, I couldn’t help but appreciate their efforts.
(Sadly, story did not end there. I spoke to someone from their customer service department a few days later, with intent of providing constructive feedback. Unfortunately, while aforementioned technical support reps had been empathetic and responsive, this customer service rep answered my every comment with “That’s not our policy!” or words to that effect. That’s a whole ‘nuther case study though, of which I’ll write about soon.)
In summary, these case studies show how proper training of call center staff can make a huge difference in customer relations. A cookie-cutter, heavily scripted approach to troubleshooting can be disastrous—especially when service reps are not trained in basic relations etiquette and customer empathy. In contrast, some basic people skills can go a long way toward defusing an ugly situation.
V. Berba Velasco Jr., Ph.D. is a senior elec/software engr at CTL (Europe, China). He regards engineering as a holistic discipline, and frequently says that there’s a huge interpersonal aspect to engineering which is seldom taught in schools. This article provides an example of what he means.
