Over the past week, I have spent more than 15 hours on the phone with technical support for Apple, Time Warner Cable and Microsoft. I've spoken to about 30 different people in the U.S., India and the Philippines, and I have lost my mind on several occasions. I started out with one "simple" issue, which grew to about seven interrelated problems and my original problem and several others still remain unresolved.
I'd like to be able to say that I maintained my usual good nature throughout this experience. The fact is that I became a nasty and angry person who had no right to be so unkind to the innocent people who were trying to help me. I am not proud of that fact, and continue to take a good look at myself and my behavior to find a way to behave better in the future.
In an effort to gain some value from this experience, I decided to open up a discussion about this problem that I am certainly not alone in. Here are some questions I have. I am sure you have other ones. If you work for any of these companies, or other companies that have technical support departments, maybe you could do us the favor of passing the link to this article and reader responses along to your management team.
- Why is it necessary that every time one technical support person transfers a call to another one, the caller has to repeat their name, phone number, and other information? Why can't the information be captured and forwarded as well?
OK, it's your turn. Do you have any other questions you would like to add? Do you have any answers that would make the experience more tolerable for the customer?
Again, I am not proud of how I behaved this past week. I wish I was the kind of person who didn't get so frustrated and angry under these circumstances. Believe me, I tried meditating on hold, talking myself down off my anger, and lots of other techniques. Unfortunately, I'm not there yet. I do offer my sincere apologies to all those technical support people with whom I was less than delightful. And, I forgive myself for judging myself for being so darn human. Now, if we could only fix customer support services!
I welcome your comments.
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