Coal miners, in the old days, took caged canaries with them when they went to work.  The canaries served as an early warning system.  If the miners saw the canaries were dead or dying, they would know the air in the mines was becoming poisoned and would leave immediately.

Your customers, when they complain about your systems, are a similar type of warning system.  Their comments might be more than just isolated frustration.  They could indicate a more pervasive issue, which, if left unchecked, could unnecessarily burden a help desk.  Recognizing and handling this situation promptly is therefore critical.

Last week, I called an ex co-worker, who now works at a major pharmaceutical company.  Their phone system has a voice activated employee directory, but when I said the name, the system was unable to recognize it.  No matter what name I said, all the system would do was tell me that I was communicating with a voice activated system.

Eventually, I was successful in getting the system to recognize the name I spoke by calling a different telephone number for the company.  Though I was tempted to call the company to tell them about the problem, I instead let the matter drop.  I sometimes wonder, though, what they would have done if I had been able to reach a live operator and told him or her about the problem.  Most likely, that operator would have simply put me through manually.

Customers, when they have problems with your systems and complain about them to you, are like canaries.  Sure, it’s good that you apologize and handle the problem.  However, did you ever stop to think that their complaint could be symptomatic of a larger issue?  If that one caller has trouble doing something with the system, chances are others will, too.  Multiply that one caller and problem by a thousand or more, and you have an overloaded help desk.  

So, if you can, listen to the customer issue.  Do more than just solve the immediate issue.  Ask yourself, and your supervisor, if there’s a larger issue that has to be addressed.  Finding that larger issue may save you and your customers considerable trouble and time.