Tech Support

I worked in tech support for about a year. It was a very specific software and required lots of training. I was a good rep and knew quite a bit, but still didn't know nearly everything when it came to the program. When I spoke with customers who had used it for years, I could see how little I knew compared to them at first.

But, eventually I knew a lot more, and I got very frustrated when I would hear co-workers saying to customers that something couldn't be done, when I knew it could. It made me realize that the dis-information being spread by trained staff was insane and I thought, "If this is what it's like here, at a world-class call-center, then it must be brutal in other places."

As a general rule, the managers listening in on our calls knew less about the software and more about managing, so they couldn't tell if we were out and out lying to customers on certain things.

So here I am, about to buy an upgrade for some software and I've had some problems with it in the past... They charge for tech support and I have a very specific problem that I know I'll have to pay $75 bucks to find out that they don't know the answer to it.

All these call centers are hiring hundreds of people, they "train" them, then the employees spend the first 3-6 months learning how to really support the customers. Most of the time they don't know, or don't care, and have to spend 15 minutes to an hour researching something that a seasoner rep could answer in 2 minutes. But by the time the get there, the software changes and there's a whole new batch of issues that no one is aware of until so many customers call about it that everyone gets some emergency training about it, and then about 20% of those trained "get it" enough to actual help anybody. Not to mention the language barrier...

And when I say language barrier, I don't mean a person from the US to India. I mean someone from Kentucky to Canada. I could barely understand anyone from the deep south. More on that in a later blog I'm sure.

Anyway, my main point is, I've lost faith in any kind of tech support person knowing anything more than I can find online in 5 minutes. Most of the training is how to diffuse angry customers.