Throughout my years of doing tech support, I learned a few things about doing the job, without driving myself (or the customer) crazy. Here are a few action plans:
- Always stay calm.
- Be helpful to customers. Ninety-nine percent of the time, customers are nicer when they are given options to solve their problems.
- Document the issues in an electronic log (such as customer service knowledge base) that are search-able, for future reference.
- Stay up-to-date with the company’s products.
- Stay current with technology advances and industry standards.
- Get along with the other tech support peers. Hang out with them, share your stories, and vent some frustration with each other. Group therapy is good therapy. Most importantly, laugh it up together.
- Don’t stay at Level 1 tech support too long. Make it a goal to move up, and handle more challenging questions to keep the job more interesting.
Finally, keep a sense of humor. At the end of the day, it’s only a job, and life goes on.
