AND ANOTHER THING!...Um...what were we talking about?

[gunsage]

Has anyone else ever noticed this? I have a pretty bad memory, but this takes the cake. There have been WAY too many incidents where I show a customer how to do something, go on to do some additional TS steps, then tell the customer to do something, only to have them forget. Example:

Me: "Okay, so right click on your wireless connections."
Cust: "K."
Me: "Now, what do you get when you do that?"
Cust: "Uh...open network connections, blah blah, view available wireless networks."
Me: "Okay, right...we want to view available wireless networks."
Cust: "...left-click?"
Me: "That is correct, sir."

(Later...)

Me: "Okay, let's close out of that and go back to viewing the wireless networks."

(Long pause)

Cust: "Umm...okay, how do I do that?"

I could understand if I gave them an IP address and didn't have them write it down or something...but viewing wireless networks?

1. Right-click your wireless network icon located in system tray.
2. Left-click "View Available Wireless Networks."
3. Bada-bing.

Simple. Granted, if you didn't know how to do it in the first place, that's understandable. But if I JUST showed you...WTF? So, how about it? Is this a common thing or am I the only one who notices this?

[ZenBastard]

No, it's not just you. I can't tell you how many times I've told someone a simple two-step process only to have them ask how to do the exact same thing not 3 minutes later.

[BravoOrig]

Yeah the whole left/right-click question is annoying in itself, but what takes the cake in my world is a customer calling in for a simple fix that their account shows we do every month or more. I'm talking about power cycling their router. You'd think after the 7th time they'd remember to do this.

[gunsage]

Yeah, powercycling's always fun. There are times where I ask a customer if they've done that...

SC: "Of course I have! I ALWAYS do that before I call you guys!"
Me: "But sir...it says on my tool here that it's been up for over 10 days!"
SC: "..."
Me: "HOW exactly did you powercycle?"
SC: "I restarted my computer!"
Me: "..."

There are also WAY too many times where I'll be dealing with an all-in-one (phone/modem combo, AKA MTA) and I tell the customer EXACTLY what to do and that it will disconnect us, but I will call back after it's all up. I'll do a live monitor to see exactly when it goes down and wait until it comes back up.

Sometimes, though, I don't see it go offline for about 5 minutes. I then call the person back and ask them what they're doing...

SC: "Well, I restarted my computer."
Me: "..."
SC: "Was that wrong?"

HELL YES it's wrong. What's the matter with you?! If I say something awkward or vague, I try to rephrase it or at the very least give the customer a chance to relay to me that they don't understand. If you don't get it, you don't get it. That's okay. It's my job to communicate with you effectively what we are to do.

But come on. If I tell you the directions, step-by-step, you don't question, don't comment...DO THE STEPS! Christ!

[BravoOrig]

Or even better, we clearly define what is the modem and what is the router, and they still unplug the wrong thing. Even after they double check on what you asked them to unplug! Of course we love the calls where they can't get a dial tone, so you have them reset their modem and the call drops or goes dead. WTF?

[gunsage]

Yeah, I get that a lot too. However, there's one clear "disadvantage" to working tier 3 if they get disconnected: it's our responsibility to see the call through to the end. What does that mean? If there's a section of troubleshooting that we know will disconnect the customer, we tell them and ask what callback # to use. If SOMEHOW they get disconnected, we must attempt to call them back on any # we have available on their account or otherwise relayed to us from them. Oy.

[BravoOrig]

Its not mandatory for us but better customer service to offer to call them back, espically if there is a queue, and thats when we get the chance to warn them first. Sometimes we were taking payments for past due accounts that would reset the modem to turn on the internet again before we were ready or had completed the proper step to do this very thing. If there's no queue, we usually say to just call back if needing more help.