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Mass High Tech - Technical support reps learn to relate to customers
Mass High Tech
By Jeff Miller
Monday, September 24
Technical support.
Two words that can cause even the most steely-eyed executives to grow faint of heart.
The problem? For the less-than-technically savvy, tech talk is often a foreign language. And for those who know what they’re doing, tech support reps sometimes come off as condescending.
Of course, the poor tech support rep on the other end of the line doesn't necessarily know the caller's level of expertise. So what's a rep to do?
Go to training, says Genuity Inc.
On Wednesday last week, for instance, 15 network and systems analysts gathered in a conference room adjacent to the cafeteria at Genuity's Burlington office. Jeans and sandals, a goatee here and there, not a tie in the room. The group wasn't exactly surly, but they didn't look particularly chipper on this gray September morning.
John Barrett, the silver-haired instructor from training company Loyalty Factor, asked each student what his or her expectations were for the daylong course. Most said they didn't have any in mind.
"I'm open," said network analyst Scott Lefevre. 'This was dropped on me this morning."
Genuity, however, has some very definite expectations.
"We need to round out their skills in interfacing with technical and non-technical people," said Craig Bailey, vice president of Genuity. "Their peers understand the tech jargon. Business managers may not. They need to understand how to translate and relate."
As part of the day's instruction, Barrett had students take a personality test that categorizes people into one of four communication styles: thinkers, feelers, sensors or intuitors. Reactions to stress, for example, differ widely depending on one's style, Barrett said.
Thinkers want the facts. Feelers are concerned about how the problem affects relationships.
Or so the theory goes.
The analysts in the room seemed to find the rubric useful.
"Oh yeah, this has been helpful," Lefevre said. "Apparently, I'm a thinker. I give cold hard facts whereas a lot of people want to know how you feel about it. Personally, I don't care about that. I just want to get the problem solved. But this gives me some tools to deal with these people."
Halfway through the day, Barrett placed three chairs in two rows back-to-back in the middle of the room. He announced that the class was going to role-play a customer call. Genuity had detected that a customer’s Internet connection was down, and it suspected a bad router on the customer’s end.
He chose three "feelers" to pose as customers. One analyst volunteered to play a Genuity employee making the call; others had to be chosen through what Barrett called "the military version of volunteering."
One person on each side was designated to start the conversation, but others could jump in at any time.
The "customer," when told his network was down, asked if Genuity could wait until 5:30 to do the testing. The "reps" fumbled a bit, and then another "customer" got on the phone.
"This is Rocky’s supervisor," he said. "Rocky's out of a job. Test this immediately."
The room erupted in laughter.
"If you have a person who's very bottom-line oriented and you start getting into the tech, they’re going to turn you off," said Dianne Durkin, president of Loyalty Factor. "Likewise, if you’ve got someone who wants the nitty-gritty and you go right to the bottom line, they’re upset."
"So what we do is give them a test where they understand their style first and how you relate to other styles in this world. We all react slightly differently under pressure."