Customer Support

Oh man! Ad-blocking software has been detected! :'(

This website is run by the community, for the community... and it needs advertisements in order to keep running. Blocking our ads means your killing our stats!
Please disable your ad-block, or become a premium member to hide all advertisements and this notice.

I know this might sound like a silly question but I was asked in an interview recently "A customer asks to speak to the manager but he is in a meeting, how would you approach this?". The job was for 1st line Tech Support and not having a lot of customer based experience I don't think I answered it too well.

How would any of you have answered it?

 

Oh man! Ad-blocking software has been detected! :'(

This website is run by the community, for the community... and it needs advertisements in order to keep running. Blocking our ads means your killing our stats!
Please disable your ad-block, or become a premium member to hide all advertisements and this notice.

I think I Would probably reply. "I am sorry he is unavailible at the moment, is there anything I could help you with or shall I pass a message on for him to call you back"

 

Having worked for nearly 3 years doing tech support for a major telco company, I came across a lot of irate customers wanting to speak to a manager or team leader. Below is an example of a typical conversation I have had:

Cust: "I want to speak to your manager"

Me: "May I ask what it is regarding?"

Cust: "I don't want to tell YOU, I want to complain to the manager"

Me: "Ok, I'm not sure if he is available, let me try his extension Mr XXXX, are you ok to hold?

Cust: "So long as I am not waiting long!!"

Me: "I'll be as quick as possible Mr XXXX, thank you for holding"

I would then put them on hold and just wait 15 seconds, go back to the customer and...

Me: "I'm sorry there is no answer from his extension, it's quite possible he is out of the office today"

Cust: "Well what bloody use is that???"

Me: "I do apologise Mr XXXX, perhaps if you explain to me the problem you are having, maybe I can help?"

90% of the time that would sort it, the customer would tell me the problem s/he having and then I would fix it.

 

I would say "Mr Manager is in a meeting at the moment but I have your telephone number. I will pass the request on as soon as possible for him to call you back, but in the meantime is there anything that I could help you with?"

 

What they said, Pablo. Out of interest, is the support job with anyone I might know ???

 

What would you say Jak??

 

OK Nugg, it would entirely depend on which level of managagement the customer wanted - which generally translates as "the Big Boss, Head Honch, Numero Uno" etc, etc...

Obviously, in my case anyway, and I'd imagine most cases, this is not going to happen. Therefore I would commence by saying that it was simply not possible to put a customer through to the MD (cue more greeting and whining), as that channel is not available to me.

They would then almost certainly ask for my supervisor (bear in mind I would have naturally offered to help personally by this point). I would reply that my supervisor/ team-leader/whatever is not available to take the call at this present time (whinge, moan, whine, why not ???). I would explain that they were either on a call, in a meeting, training, etc. Under no circumstance will I pass a call straight through. I would then offer a callback from the supervisor on a suitable number for the customer, and advise them that they will receive a call hopefully within business hours, and certainly within the next 24 hours.

In the time it will take me to tell the customer this, I will have checked the full notes on our CRM and most likely worked out what the issue was regarding, and in many cases would be able to offer an update, or even a resolution to the original problem which they are calling to moan about.


But then that's just me

 

No Gav it was elsewhere. Unfortunately I still haven't heard anything.

 

The promble with this Jak, is that by the time we have gotten to the point that we are asking for your boss is because we are general pissed off because our promble hasn't been solved by help desk personal. So why should we the paying customers have to yet once again explain a situation that we know dam good and well you guys can't fix because you hadn't the last 4 or 5 times we call? Why must we go though a stress level that we just want to choke the living shite out of you guys? That is not the service we are paying for. Why can not a manager just get on the dam phone if help desk can't provide a solution the first or second time. Why must we the cumtomers be pushed to become postal?

 

Couldn't agree more with you Arroryn - I'd go more than the extra mile with someone who is calm and rational, than the "screamers" (who I will still obviously try and help.

Mitzs - sounds like you're venting off on a particular example here. Take it easy - we're discussing a specific scenario in a question that was asked above. I understand that helpdesks can be frustrating, but try an remember that the Guys on the phone are also trying to help you, and a problem may be more deep-rooted than you the customer actually thinks. As was also mentioned, managers taking a call is a last resort - it ain't what they're there to do.

 

I'll be the first to admit that I get annoyed at call centres as with some (Not all) they are pathetic and the person on the other end doesn't seem to give a toss. An example would be Tiscali where I rang up their support line as my girlfriends modem was faulty and all they could come up with was to try to send me another cable after explaining that the modem's cable was hard wired to the modem the bloke on the other end was still trying to send me a cable. I'm not exaggerating when I say it took 30 minutes or so and several times of graphically describing that the modem's cable couldn't be replaced that he finally said he would send me a replacement which I asked for in the first place. The worst bit was that it never turned up and there was no record of the next time I rang asking where the replacement was. Admittedly the call centre was in India and they couldn't understand my Geordie accent eventhough I haven't got a strong accent in the first place. Bit off the subject but I had to get it off my chest...