Yesterday, the cable Internet connection was not functioning correctly for a couple of hours. All I wanted to know was if the company was aware of the problem.
I call up the toll-free support number and go through the multiple menus to get to tech support. The response I get is, “No, we aren’t aware of any problems.” That was exactly what I expected, but not what I wanted to hear.
At this point, support has two options: 1) go find out if this is a widespread problem, or 2) assume the problem is with my connection and go through the scripted steps to try to resolve it.
Of course the support side has no idea that I used to be a professional in the network and PC security business and I don’t call support unless I’ve exhausted the obvious and not-so-obvious solutions and workarounds. I don’t call unless I’m pretty certain the problem is not with my end of things. (After all, I hate wasting my time with support – and their time too…) But support opts for option two, when I would much rather have them go with option one and call me back. Even an, “I don’t know. We’ll look into it,” would be more welcome than patronizing the support rep and pretend to go through the useless steps.
Yesterday’s example is with the network connection, but I’ve also experienced similar things time and again with other pieces of hardware and software. The assumption is that if I am experiencing a problem, then the problem must likely be with me.
On the other hand, with less experienced and knowledgeable customers, it probably is helpful to look for some obvious failure points: Is the cable connected and secure? What are the status indicators? Did you make any changes recently? Does the Cable TV work?
In my ideal world, when someone calls tech support, the support person would already know the background and experience of the customer and can begin at an appropriate level. They would have already seen me going through troubleshooting procedures so they won’t ask me to repeat them. But it isn’t an ideal world and customers and tech support don’t have an ongoing relationship (well, I hope they don’t…) where that base of knowledge is learned.
I write this because it seems like there are some applications from this experience and these thoughts that might carry over to the arena of church and spiritual communities and life. And that will be left as an exercise for the reader, because I don’t have answers and some of the ideas I have, I haven’t fully thought through yet.
No comments:
Post a Comment