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Ways to avoid making angry help desk callers even angrier

It may not be P.C. but people respond differently to a man than a woman and the expect certain type of responce based on gender. I remember a woman tech, who was well qualified, who had a high number of irate clients. I believe the problem was they expected a woman to respond in a certain way but she presented a 'masculine' responce.

I understand how people have certain exectations based on things like gender, age, and ethnicticity. I am not sure how the translates into the caller becoming irate.

On the question of gender issues, my wife rang a help line and although she gave the sympton and a correct diagnoses she felt she was talked down to, she has worked with PCs since 93. She got so fed up that she hung up. When I came home I rang the same help line aand gave the same answers to the same person and I was thanked for being so helpful and he wished all callers were as good as I was, was it because I was a male?

I've experienced both. I've had people who didn't want to talk to a woman and wanted a "real tech." I've also been talked down to by people I called regarding technical issues.
It's a REAL problem and I think women who are on the receiving end from technical staff at a helpdesk need to send letters to management. It helps to be very specific about what caused the problem because I don't think people are always aware of how they are presenting themselves.

With regard to the other problem, the company I worked for developed a policy of putting the person back at the back of the queue if they did not want to deal with the technician that took the call. I think I usually told them as politely as possible that there would be a wait until someone was available. The company felt all of us regardless of gender were fully qualified and competent to handle calls.

This is a tough field for women to be in. However, unless we stick it out and not allow others views of us devalue us, the technical field will be closed off to women in the future. I don't think anyone wants that.

As a previous help desk supervisor and customer, I know that a repeated "ma'am" or "sir" in place of an actual identity is definitely adding fuel to the fire. Either use the person's sirname or nothing at all. This can also be even trickier with females unless you are certain of the preference of Miss, Ms., Mrs., etc. Being condescending is highly insulting and irritating. Remember that you are starting off with a caller who would rather not have had to call you at all.

In dealing with irate customers I feel it is important to consider yourself the customers life-line. Their last means of help.

Sure it puts the pressure on you, since you now have to solve the problem, but that sense of immediacy and the confidence you must bring to it reassures the customer more than any other method that I am going to get this solved.

Once you take this attitude on, all you have to do is follow through. And you will win your customers over, no matter how cranky they were initially.

It has worked for me in the past and I use it every day to keep it working for me.

Andrew

Customers already think we laugh at them behind their backs (and, of course, we do laugh at what they do, but not at them as individuals). Anything that smacks of reduced respect will only add fuel to the fire.

In my experience, the calm, respectful response recommended in the article will work almost every time, regardless of the method of address.

To an extant, you are correct, if you take a condescending -tone- with these pronouns, then you will irritate callers, but I find people far more annoyed by NOT receiving these minor notations of respect, as well as being offended when people call them by their names, as that tends to imply an intimacy, like you know them. But I will absolutely recommend you avoid the use of sir/maam should you be unsure of a callers gender. Some folks voices are quite androgenous, and you will push them over the edge VERY quickly if you guess wrong!

Coming at the question from both sides(as the help desk tech and the person in need of help), I have come to the conclusion that both the formal salutation and calling a customer by name will result in success (assuming you can give the customer theneeded help).

As a help desk tech, I had customers of that liked the "Sir/Ma'am" approach and some that did not. So I would start out with Sir or Ma'am and then adjust as needed. If the caller referred to themselves by name i.e. "This is Joe Ford", I would give my first name and if he responded in the first name context I would refer to him as "Joe", or if he responed with my last name or any formal response I would stay with the salutation format. Usually, a return customer will, at some point, move to the informal and you shoul follow suit, but be prepared to revert to formal at any time.

I work in a State Ageny that demands you address by rank (ie: good morning Sergeant) but I find that in most of the calls that I take, the users feel much more comfortable with the Support expirience by the Support Pro initiating a dialogue by asking their first name and asking them if its ok to adrress the as such. People are more comfortable on a first name basis and will respond favorably if you recognize their concerns, and reassure them that you'll do whatever is in your power to help them. This helps to convey a little respect, and usually, people give back what they receive.

Just remember 1 thing:
You are the HUMAN on the other end of the phone.
ITS NOT ROCKET SCIENCE

Yes, but your State Agency is not the norm. If I was in the same situation, I'd probably be releived to use first name basis. Then again, the superior officer on the other end of the phone might not agree. Personally, I hate the Sir/Ma'am stuff... but if I'm calling into a help desk, I want to feel like I'm being handled in a professional manner. Mr., Ms., Mrs., Dr., whatever it is, those are really the best to use. You should only use Sir/Ma'am in situations where the caller's name may betoo hard to pronounce properly, and then you must make a concerted, active effort to NOT sound condesending. "The Customer is always right," that means the customer can call you whatever he/she wants - Sir, Dude, Tech Guy, First Name, Last Name - whatever.
Beyond all the other circumstances; time on the queue, being disconnected, or anything else, you have to realize that having to call Tech Support is a huge inconvenience for people. It's not like the old days anymore, where people would be happy just to have tech support during reasonable hours. You must keep in mind that their problems keep you employed and with that in mind your main goal should be to keep the customer on the phone until he or she is satisfied.

You forgot to address those callers who have gone through the troubleshooting guide, read all the FAQ's, called the helpdesk as a last resort, only to have their non-FAQ problem shoehorned into a FAQ answer. I've lost track of the number of times I've had a problem, and recognize "experts" going through the same FAQ/troubleshooting checklist that DIDN'T fix my problem, usually ignoring the difference between my problem and the problem described in their checklist.

Sit at a busy help desk for one month and all of your suggestions go out the window. Especially the ones about "swearing" and "bad attitudes".

I can see where you are coming from, I too grow tired of callers that blame me for someone else's idiocy (often times their own). But no matter how busy your help desk is, how much swearing and 'tude is flying your way, it doesn't change the fact that you're in a professional position. I just got through a period where for a while I was the only person in the call center, and all in all I had been slammed to a ludicrous degree for the better part of an entire year (merger + reorganization + renovations, etc.) Lots of people were still angry about the state of affairs the company's IT service was in before I even got there, and the fact that we need to shake it up to correct it never helps. But if I'm a problem solver, and they've got problems within my responsibility, I can't use my own anger and frustration with them as a viable excuse not to solve their problem. And if I'm insulting them I'm not solving their problem.

What I'm getting at is just wait for the call to be over to get the negative stuff off your chest. If they fail to get a rise out of you, you won.

If someone swears at me, the first thing I do is make sure I know that they're the one that's angry and that I'm not. (If I let it go too long, and get angry myself, I may have already lost my professionalism.)

As long as I'm clear that I'm not angry, it is very easy to ask politely whether they want my help or not. They'll generally realize that their own emotions have gotten out of hand and settle back down into a problem solving mode. As long as we are both working toward solving theirproblem, we'll both get what we want out of cooperating.

If all they want to do is rant, I just let them. With no response from me, it generally ends quickly.

This whole article is a "Red Flag". It contradicts an earlier article on TechRepublic in every way. Help Desk Pros should not have to put up with abusive calls. Just as abuse is not tolerated in any other line of work.

RED FLAG!

I've worked as a Helpdesk tech/analyst for 2 different large firms.

Here's my 2 cents on the whole matter:

First of all, take control of the call. I've never been one to sit on the phone and let ANYONE abuse me.

I'm there to help, and I make the perfectly clear.

Butter coating the calls with ma'am's and sir's is a waste of time as well as sitting there and telling them how sorry you are. That's foolishness.

My personal mission as a helpdesk professional is plain & simple: 1 phonecall, 1 correct answer, 1 happy customer/employee/caller.

It's been my experience that MANY MANY help desk employees are NOT technically adept. THOSE are the ones with the sorry's and ma'ams & sir's.

What NEEDS to be done in EVERY caller center is training for effective call taking. Including anger diffusion. The faster you take control of the phone call, and extract the facts/information you require the FASTER you can solve the callers problem.

Sitting in a queque and getting buttercoated with 1/2 correct answers is the perfect recipe for an irate caller.

If management TRULY wants an efficient call center they would train their call takers to be effective, instead of just throwing a voice on the phone and trying more to "schmooz" the caller than to be effective/efficient and solve the issue at hand.

SOLUTION: ***TRAINING***. TECHNICAL TRAINING AND ***PEOPLE HANDLING*** SKILLS. THESE WILL CREATE A SMOOTHE RUNNING AND EFFICIENT CALL CENTER.

So less time will be wasted telling the customer how "sorry" you are.

This response is so very well put and said. I've worked in Technical Support for some 10+ yrs now and this 'buttering up' of the customer is for the birds... If you truly want to help the customer, cut to the chase; find the problem; Find/give theresolution; have a nice day... More often than not, you'll find that the customer appreciates that approach much more than the buttering up... Buttering up and not resolving the issue, or taking days upon end to resolve the issue surely does not help, but makes the customer just that more irate...

I agree with moej that management needs to do more training of their help desk staff.

I've long been of the opinion that a very effective way to train the help desk staff is to rotate them through deskside support for a few hours each week. Perhaps they could tag along with a star technician, to learn from a "master".

Not only would the training be interesting and effective, but this would provide variety and a "break" from being stuck at the helpdesk.

It would also make deskside support to be more understanding of the help desk.

I have worked on desktop support and/or helpdesks for several fortune 500 companies. I agree that technical competency is a crucial ingredient to a successful helpdesk. Also, I believe that knowing your client/end-user is a key to success. I have found that some of the more irate-sounding clients will become calmer if you refer to them by their first name when speaking with them. It immediately tells them you care about them as a person, not just another trouble ticket. Sir and ma'am are really no longer required business ethics in today's work-world. Professionals like to be called by their first name, all the way up to the CIO's, CFO's, and even CEO's.

I recently made a call to a corporate help desk and became abusive to the technician.

My reason for this was that I had returned a defective item to the manufacturer. They had repaired it and returned it to me. When they returned it, the itemwas incomplete. At the resuest of the service department, I had shipped a battery with the item and now the battery was missing. I called the service department and informed them that they had kept the battery, and that I wanted it returned, sincethe batteries for the item cost $19.95 each.

The service desk tech informed me that they didn't return the battery because I didn't ship it to them.

Since the tech was in essence calling me a "liar" I transformed from "the man in need of help" to "the itate customer". Compounding the issue, the technician spoke broken English and began raising his voice when I suggested that his statement was false.

The combination of broken English and increased volume, made him unintelligible,only adding to my ire. I then proceeded to made it clear to him that I was not happy, in exceedingly strong terms.

Lesson to be learned...train help desk people to be careful not to insult the customers by telling them what they "did" or "did not" do, when the technician has no idea of what the customer "has" or "has not" done.

If they do insult the customer, they may run into a customer like me who not only takes corrective action at the help desk level, but also has a tendency to e-mail the help desk supervisor and write letters to the corporate CEO, to inform them of the quality (or lack of quality) of their service.

I feel problems such as this go back to being created by management.

The HelpDesk Professional NEEDS to be empowered to SUPPLY SOLUTIONS.

When a calltaker finds themselves into a situation where their hands are tied, they are not providing solutions for the caller. They are giving "fluff".

As far as recieving grief to a customer, I myself have never "taken" it. As I said in my previous post, I take control of the call, and extract the information necessary to solve the issue.

I hate to think that I am unusual, but it seems that maybe that initiative is akin to "thinking outside the box" when it should just be normal everyday procedure for EVERYONE.

In the situation you speak of, I would have quickly had a supervisor or manager conferenced into the call that I am forced into NOT being able to solve by policy set by management. Let the policy maker face the rath of the customer. My job would be to provide solutions. If I am forced into not being able to provide the solution, then perhaps someone higher up the ladder would have the cloute to change the rules to better serve the customer.

Just my 2 cents.

first I don't agree with most of your comments due to the fact that help desk must be extremely flexible due to type of callers.

The training stuff yes but to be that rigid no. Taking control yes but determining by the type of caller.

As for fixing sorry I don't believe you have the answers for every call every fix over the phone every day. You are giving fluff there in my opinion. Our field is too vast for us on a phone to have all the answers and all the fixes. Unless you have all admin rights for every network in your company no way you are fixing a cisco router problem affecting all your users. You will be passing work to second and third levels.

My way is around 98% of my users (County government with 4500 employees)is it depends on who I am talking to that a friendly way works with their name or maam/sir and being flexible (sensitive to) the type of caller and what their initial problem is. Usually I get a laugh in 30 to 50 seconds into the call (98%). Why...simple laughter is a natural stress buster and I take it to the NTH level to get a connection to the caller under the 1st minute after that I can get a positive answer to any question for them or get them to try something that works. Yes I get a high first rate closure (I strive for 1st call closure) and confidence that the fixes work.

If not I do not give fluff but will check and call them back. 95% are shocked I call back when I say I will. Why...less than 20% of any service industry actually does follow up. That is the key follow up as most census by customers have it as number two problem, number one is courteous customer service. Yes I know most of the callers don't like to have to call us but my return customer response calls (we actually have them return our 'how did you like our service either by phone or visit') is 100%. And they were shocked at the closure of the ticket I included a message of 'have a great day' in their response to closure email. They have called back and were extremely pleased that one; I cared to actually wish that on them, two never received that before and three (the biggie) besides all that I fix their problem too.

What this all is, is creating a raging fan. Customer service normally is not pleasant for the customer but going a little extra really has worked for me and I will not go back to the cut and dried old way of a techie dealing with the customer again.

With a tech that is calling you a liar, the only answer is to ask for his manager. Explain the situation calmly again. If that doesn't work, keep going up the ladder. Ultimately, you may need to write a letter to the CEO, but as long as you know you're right, there's no reason to accept being called a liar, nor is there any reason to argue with somebody who doesn't have all the facts.

The same works the other way. If I don't have all the facts, it's time to figure out who does (or who has the authority to decide if the facts are really more important than a satisfied customer).

and then the battery turned up, down the side of the sofa!

There's a difference between abuse and legitimate complaining. Your complaining about them not returning your battery was not abuse, but rather legitimate complaining.

I like what moej said, that he would conference in his supervisor. I might not have solved it like that, but the point is, he dealt with the problem. The phone tech is not empowered to resolve something like a missing battery, but he could have done something, like take your name and phone number, and promise a call back after researching the matter.

(Of course in the case of your battery, maybe management's policy was to stall you and put you off. I've worked in companies like that before.)

The problem is that most people don't have the idea that they can do whatever it takes to solve the problem. We need to rather be of the mindset that we should do our best to say "Yes" to the customer.

Example: I went into McDonalds one day, and I wanted to order something not listed on the menu. The clerk told me"No, we can't do that". I asked for the manager, who then quoted me a price to do what I asked. The manager truly served the customer.

So being irate and (a help desk professional) gives you reason for being abusive back. Well be careful because if this call was recorded you could be served for abuse and a reply that maybe the battery was not sent or sent by you but gives you no right to be abusive back no matter what the service rep says or does not say. Most calls a recorded (maybe without your knowledge) and sure you might get a reply but you proved you were more an idiot than the person you abused. You are in the field and took advantage instead of taking the kinder way out. I watch my wife get this all the time, a little sugar in her questions after finding out the person on the phone is wrong or not knowing she finds out who is, gets it resolved and usually receives a warm apology along with other bonuses.

I am a network engineer, desktop repair (level 3), and service (help desk) for three years. Had a network problem with my cable company. A night owl by trade called their help desk and received a jerk on the other end. I did get authoritative but not a jerk or abuse (I know because after I hung up I called back). Received another tech on line told of the problem and gave the jerks name to her, she gave me the appropriate people to call and also said I did well as she so happened to be monitoring calls at that time. I got service restored appropriate return call by the manager, adjusted bill for outage time lost and action was taken against their problem child.

You want to be a jerk, go ahead it works both ways.

Help desk agents who put them on hold for more than a few seconds, promise to get back to them and forget, close trouble tickets that are too tough, email callers on holidays and close tickets because they didn't get a response, and require the client fill in forms with information that was requested in the first call so that the request can be sent to 2nd level support...

Not that that's what happened to me over the weekend...

Callers should not get angry; but what human never gets angry? It's all in how that anger is channeled...

The reason users get upset and aggrivated is because half of the time, the people at the HD are just starting out in IT, and don't have a firm grasp on technology yet. Trust me, I worked at an HD for over a year, and saw it constantly.

HD managers don't focus enough on the technical ability to help people, they're mostly worried about taking the calls and keeping the queue empty.

Train your HD staff, get the HD call resolution percentages up, and you'll have a MUCH happier user population. We did that at my old job, and we got amazing reviews from the users. It does work.

Oh yeah...I don't work at a Help Desk anymore.

I don't know about the previous article, but seriously if a "Help Desk PRO" can't diffuse an abusive call, then they do deserve the abuse. And, it's a Help Desk, they're supposed to help no matter what, unless they start adding a "No Abuse" clause to EULA's. Company's want to make money, they want to get their product out there and they sure as hell don't want to go through the pain of giving every customer a personality check. Seriously, what the hell do you care? In the end, it's the caller's problem, not yours. You still get paid. You really want me to feel sorry for you because the anonymous caller made you feel sad? Grow up, people are not cute and cuddly.

Check out www.virtualhold.com.

I think a Help Desk that solves problems is the exception now more often than the rule. The management that sets the policies and the 50 hoops to jump through to talk to a real person who has no knowledge has made me irate enough times that I rarely call.

I have worked in healthcare for 18 years most of that on the phones. I moved over to the help desk last year. And before I came to the helpdesk I was the one that got the people that others couldn't deal with. I have found that alot of the problems that people have with their customers are that how they dealing with people. In all the time I have been dealing with people I find that I don't have alot of them that are rude or abusive to me. Most of the time these are people who have had a bad experience with others in my group.

I am polite, helpful, pleasant and professional. Alot of people have said that they take charge. Just make sure that you are not being bossy. Watch the tone of your voice, it has alot to do with how peopledeal with you.

If you are getting alot of people irate with you, then you might want to look at how you are coming across to them. What you might think is professional might be coming across as short. Keep the conversation on a level that yourclient can understand. Don't get any more technical then you have to. Make sure that if someone is "asking you the time, you aren't telling them how to build a watch."

The one thing that I keep in mind is that you can't control anyone except yourself. If I can stay cool, calm and collected, I win. But this doesn't mean that I have to take abuse either. I may be strange, but I enjoy helping people and I think that comes across when I talk to them. So if you can?t enjoy what you are doingmaybe you should be doing something else.

I've always had a standard type reply to angry callers, something along the lines of 'I know its annoying, computers can be. Trust me I've been around them for years and they can annoy me. Let's see how we can get this sorted out so you can get on.'

You've established that you know how they feel, are on their side and also that you are the person who knows what to do.

I never use titles such as Sir/Ma'am etc or names. There's no point and it avoids any problems.

A cheerful fix plus leaving a little computer literacy with the client will keep folks happy as well as possibly eliminating a duplicate future call....An experience database and/or a simple on-site troubleshooting guide might help some folks in figuring out the fix themselves...

I am sorry, but I don't see the necessity for anyone to swear at anyone. I also do not feel it should be tolerated, and most helpdesks have a policy regarding customers who call and swear at the helpdesk personnel as being un-acceptable.
We are alladults (I hope!!!) and what we need more of in this country today is HIGH MORAL VALUES. If someone feels the need to swear to get their point across, then they should go home and swear at their dog!!!

Animals Have Rights Too!!

You'll piss PETA off!

>If someone feels the need to swear to get their point across, then they should go home and swear at their dog!!!

I would NEVER treat my dog that way. My dog is my faithful friend, always loyal, even when life is falling apart around me, and everyone else has run for cover.

wtf? Since when does swearing have anything to do with moral values? In case you havn't noticed we're in the US and this is 2003, swearing doesn't mean anything anymore! It's just a word, and words are just labels assigned to variables that are assiged to objects for a descriptive purpose.
In any case, he said "Swearing" and although you to said "Swearing" in your post, you MEANT "Insulting" whereas this gentleman meant "swearing" in general, and I think I know what he means cause it's happened to me before. Being a new yorker, I have no idea when I curse, it's just natural, and I've had Help Desk people get pissed off at me just for usuing an explative in an everyday situations (not as an insult). That's what he's talking about.And what's with this swearing at the dog stuff? You're just a friggin monkey! Why don't I come to your house and beat up the over-evolved monkey, eh? You wouldn't like that now, would you?

You also need to factor in the "GOD" factor if you're supporting a company that's 70% college/university professors attempting to work in the real world. Here I've seen the following situations:
1 - Decided they didn't need to call the Help Deskand go directly to someone they "assume" could help them.
2 - Think the Help Desk/IT should fix their home computers as well as their laptops provided by the company.

I'd go on...but I think you get the point... In support we do this job because we like our job, however people need to be professional in both directions/sides of the phone. If someone IS using language that is unprofessional...I'm sorry, but I don't have to take it and I calmly tell them that. That's my right as a human and professional.

I've been on both ends of a call, and well the techies have right and responsibilities, so do the callers. I know that when I am pissed off at something, the first words out of my mouth (when the call gets picked up) fall along the lines of "Hi xxxxxx, I'm not mad at you, it's not your fault, but you get the brunt of it. Don't take it personally please.". I've found that once that happens, I get better service.

As for the techies, there is never a reason why they should have to take toomuch abuse from the customers. If the customer swears at them, then they should ask them to stop. If the customer just swears in general (like I do), but it is not directed at the techie, then it should be ignored. Personally, I prefer they startout calling me sir, and if I feel that something more informal is ok, I'll tell them.

And if you want high stress, go work at a customer service desk at a ski hill (been there, done that). You try dealing with irate parents who have lost their 5yr old child on a 3100+ acre hill. I'll take on a pissed off computer client any day.

Thank god I graduated from help desk long ago! I hope the same for all of you currently doing that job. Most end users are their own worst enemies. Between loading everything on their pc's, to their kids games. They don't understand everything worksabout 90% of the time. Nothing works 100% all the time.