Five Critical IT Customer Service Mistakes

Customer service work can be a tough job, whether you’re supporting computer users or retail customers. Some common mistakes can undermine the customer service experience. Fortunately, they’re easy to avoid once you’re aware of them.

Customer Service Mistakes

Here are five common mistakes guaranteed to ruin customer service experiences and kill good customer service:

1. We seem like we don’t care. Support situations can fail when you don’t sound or act as if you care, are concerned, or appreciate the other person’s situation, whether they’re a customer or a coworker. Maybe you actually do care, but in order to convey that, you’ve got to choose compassionate and empathetic words and phrases that show you care. No one can read another’s mind. Try saying things like “I know this is very frustrating.” “I’m sure I would feel the same way if I were you.” “I am so very sorry.” Try an honest expression of sympathy, saying something like, “I’m so sorry that happened to you.” It’s amazing how much of a calming effect that can have. Of course, use your own language to express your sympathy and empathy to avoid sounding scripted and phony.

2. We don’t listen. Too often we try to jump in with solutions and don’t allow the other person to finish describing their problems or venting their feelings. We talk over the customer or finish sentences for them. You need to show the other person that you’re listening by what you say, and how you say it. Sometimes, it helps to understand that obnoxious users and customers are often embarrassed because they made a mistake and want to blame it on someone, perhaps us. Showing that you’re interested in what they have to say often helps establish rapport with the other person. Active listening techniques, including asking to make sure you understand what they have said can go a long way toward fostering a good situation. By saying, “Let me make sure I understand what you said.” you are reaching out to the other person, showing that you care, and showing that you actually are listening.

3. We let the user upset us. It is easy to allow the other person’s attitude to irritate or annoy you. Your customers pick up on this through your tone of voice and use of language, or your silence, and this can fan the fire. Try making it a personal challenge to see how many upset customers you can turn around. Don’t take an upset person’s ranting and raving personally. (Admittedly, that can be easier said than done, but it’s critical for success in emotionally-charged customer service situations.) Don’t get emotionally hooked. When you let other people “push your buttons”, you lose. When you respond emotionally-with anger, sarcasm, or blame, you can’t respond rationally. When things heat up, cool off by saying that you need to research the situation and possible solutions and ask if you can get back at a later time.

4. We use the wrong words. Some trigger words cause users and customers to become more difficult. Some of these are “can’t”, “you’ll have to”, “Our policy is…”, or a flippant “sorry about that”. Be sure to offer users and customers an alternative. Choices provide users and customers with some say in how they want to proceed. “You’ll have to…” or “I need you to…” can come across as bossy. “Our policy is…” is just a cop-out for when you (or your company) don’t want to do something. Your customer could well respond by saying, “My policy is not to do business with you anymore.” Instead of saying “I don’t know,” try “Let me get you an answer,” or “Let me find out for you.” Be careful about using tentative language such as “I think” when answering customer questions. Customers don’t want to hear speculation about answers to their questions. They want straight answers or an assurance that you’ll get them an accurate and complete answer.

5. We focus on ourselves instead of seeing it from the customer’s or user’s point of view. I was leading a customer service training session when one of the participants commented that his customers needed the training more than he did. Another complained that a customer didn’t provide him with enough information to complete a task. In both cases, the IT people were focusing on themselves and not their customers. If you work for (or own) a managed service provider, for example, your customer depends on you to make the right decisions on their behalf, all the time. If you work for or manage an internal IT department, it’s the same thing. Your users depend on you to make the right decisions on their behalf. It’s your responsibility to ask the right questions to get sufficient information to complete the required tasks. It’s not the customer’s responsibility to anticipate your needs.

It’s also not the customer’s responsibility to treat you the way you want to be treated. That’s certainly not meant to excuse bad behavior by customers. It’s just that the reality of customer service, whether in IT or any other field, is that you must learn to tolerate bad behavior (up to a certain level) by customers in order to keep them as customers. Of course, everyone has their limits and you should never allow yourself to be put in dangerous or unethical situations, but the more you’re willing to put up with tough customers and the better you are at managing them, the more successful you’ll probably be. In customer service, the name says it all: Serve the customer. Try to see the situation through their eyes.

Tech Support Done Right

It seems like I run into these five problem areas regularly. It’s really not that hard. When you act as though you care, when you give the other person the benefit of truly listening, when you maintain your composure, even in the face of angry, demanding, or rude customers, when you choose your words carefully, striving for helpful and positive language, and when you try to see the situation from the other person’s perspective, you can avoid these five customer service killers.

Next Level IT Customer Service Training

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