Support Position - getting in trouble

computer800

I've been working in a support position for a few months so far. Employees keep getting blamed at for doing minor mistakes whenever customers complain. There is a lot of pointing fingers happening when things go wrong and it comes back to you. The thing is that it demotives me in the job and I lose more confidence whenever this happen.

Is this what support jobs is all about?

vCole

Not at all. Unfortunately, sounds like poor management.

I suggest finding out what the common issues the users complain about, figure out a way to resolve them. That means less finger pointing, and less stress. Plus, you'll look good.

Ryan82

Happens where I work too. When a customer complains, mudslinging ensues. But FadeToBright pretty much hit it exactly, find the root of the problem and correct it before it becomes an ever bigger problem affecting the customer and the employees.

computer800

Ryan82 wrote: »

Happens where I work too. When a customer complains, mudslinging ensues. But FadeToBright pretty much hit it exactly, find the root of the problem and correct it before it becomes an ever bigger problem affecting the customer and the employees.

It ranges from all types of issues.
Ex) coworker told customer that we don't support these stuff and recommend them to contact the manufacture. then it comes back to haunt him

Ex) customer asks for simple stuff that isn't enough to open a ticket. recommendation was given to them but no ticket created. it comes back as to why a ticket wasn't created

Ex) Customer wants an update to see how long it takes to solve it. we don't have an estimated time...and even this can cause problems....

Ex) My cowoker last week spoke to a customer and he wasn't able to solve the problem on the spot...customer destroyed him...everything is recorded and it issue comes back.

There's alot more. They make small issues into big stuff. then it goes up the chain and back down to the employee itself...it's very de-motivating to work harder when we get blamed every couple of weeks. i don't mind if they give hints to the entire team to be more careful next time....but the problem is that they talk to 1-1 to tell you your mistake.

jmasterj206

I worked in a job like that previously and eventually had to get out. It will wear on you after a while. The best thing I can say is keep doing your job to the best of you ability and try not to sweat the small stuff, it will drive you insane. It does sound like poor management to me, but no matter what work is done you should always create a ticket. That way you have something to fall back on. As far as calling the manufacturer, that may be the case but it would help to give the customer the contact info or anything the would help to ease the situation (depending on your policies).

The biggest thing with customer service help desk stuff is to make the caller feel comfortable with you and even though you may not know the answer right away they have the confidence that you can figure it out. Most people calling help desk are already in a panic and more of the job is defusing the situation and understanding what really is going on. It may be just saying "I understand your frustration and I will do everything to get this resolved ASAP".

As far as them sitting down and telling you one on one about your mistakes you should use it as a learning process and don't dwell on the negative. I'm sure all of us have made mistakes in our IT careers and have learned from them and moved on.

it_consultant

This sounds like an ill-fated customer service style that I noticed about 5 years ago. There was a big push in IT for "ownership" of issues which boiled down to "take the blame". The idea was sound, that as a customer support professional you would "own" the issue until resolution, even if that resolution was in another department. What happened most of the time is that the first line guy took the blame because department heads of the other responsible orgs (Net Engineers, Exchange, website, development, etc) would run interference. It is easier to replace the front line techs than it is to replace the more skilled IT guys.

Many companies are going away from this and are re-instituting "demarcation" points. In other words, you can only be held accountable for things that you can actually control.

Paul Boz

Cover your ass by fully documenting everything you do on your time sheet and in trouble tickets. Like you said, you may get cases where the issue doesn't require a ticket, but those tickets are used as metrics to validate your job. I hate opening tickets for simple things as well but if there's anything I learned in my tech support job, its that the quality of work doesn't matter - the number of tickets do. Further, the more detailed you are in your tickets and time clock, the harder it is to make an argument that you aren't working hard enough or aren't doing your job right.

If you identify problems with the way things are done, like issues with certain procedures, document the current procedure then provide an improvement. You'd be amazed at how much process management benefits you.