How do you get better at your job when you have been told you suck?

Forsaken_GA

I haven't read all of the responses in this thread, but enough to know that I'm probably going to be a dissenting opinion.

First off, if the person did not tell you what specifically was wrong, go ask. And then ask for another employee who they'd consider the standard. For ticketing responses, go look at that persons tickets and see how they're wording things, and how they're interacting with the customer. Then go compare that to your own ticket responses. You'll see some difference, and you should be able to figure out how you can modify your approach.

As far as phone skills go... I personally avoid using peoples names. It makes me uncomfortable, and when I'm uncomfortable, I feel that comes across on the call. All the other little tricks that folks may come up with just pisses me off when I run into them as a consumer. I don't feel like being manipulated. The #1 way to make the customer on the other end of the line happy is to focus on their problem. They don't want to call you anymore than you want to take their call. They want to get off the phone as soon as possible. They want you to just fix the problem. So you're already starting behind in the game, in an antagonistic position. If you make the customer feel like their issue is the most important thing you have to deal with, it goes a *long* way towards offsetting the initial hostility buildup. If you actually manage to solve their problem, especially in a timely manner, you'll have a fan. My phone style is that I always give the customer my complete attention. I ask intelligent questions so that the customer understands that I understand their problem (and because they usually don't give me near enough, so I need to ask those questions... but knowing which questions to ask shows that you're good at your job). If I ever have to spend long periods of time researching or tinkering with something, that would result in long periods of silence in the line, I explain to the customer that I need to do some research, and ask them if it would be ok if I called them back in 15 minutes. Most of the time, they were ecstatic at that idea, because it meant they weren't bound to a phone cord while I was busy doing my job (every once in awhile I'd get one guy who refused to get off the line because he was paranoid about having to wait in the phone queue again). Now, if you promise someone a call back, you absolutely positively have to follow through and actually call back, or you've blown any good will you may have generated.

But yeah, when it comes down to it, just make the customer feel like their problem matters to you, and actually fix their problem, and you'll do just fine on a helpdesk.

alxx

Or you could be one of those(us) not suited for customer service and who do better on technical/development side.

You still do need people skills but you don't need to deal with customers as much.

Armymanis

I am suited for a customer service environment alxx i just need to work on my skills. Don't dare tell me I am not suited for something where I know I can succeed in. Your suppose to give me advice on how i can fix the issue not what i should do or not do with my life.

Forsaken_GA

Armymanis wrote: »

I am suited for a customer service environment alxx i just need to work on my skills. Don't dare tell me I am not suited for something where I know I can succeed in. Your suppose to give me advice on how i can fix the issue not what i should do or not do with my life.

Hey, calm down man. I don't think alxx was being mean, just being frank. The simple fact is that some people aren't cut out for a customer facing role, and the best place for them is down in the trenches of operations, far away from answering phones.

You obviously feel that you are, but I'm sure you know someone who at some point in their life bragged about being really good at something, and they had convinced themselves it was true, but it was painfully obvious to you that it wasn't.

I think all alxx is doing is saying to check yourself and make sure you're not that guy. Sometimes you need to hear it from the outside to be able to admit it to yourself. And if you really aren't that guy, no harm, no foul.

Don't ask for advice and opinions, and then get upset at folks when they offer them, even if it's something you don't want to hear. That's the kind of thing that will earn you dead silence when you ask a question in the future.

Armymanis

I already earned a lot of dead silence on forums so its kinda sad. Hopefully this will not be the same case here.

Akaricloud

Armymanis wrote: »

I am suited for a customer service environment alxx i just need to work on my skills. Don't dare tell me I am not suited for something where I know I can succeed in. Your suppose to give me advice on how i can fix the issue not what i should do or not do with my life.

Posting this was completely unnecessary and unprofessional. This makes me question how you interact with your customers if you can't even interact with others online in a civil fashion.

I'm not trying to be a dick but this kind of attitude won't get you far and could be your issue.

Essendon

Akaricloud wrote: »

Posting this was completely unnecessary and unprofessional. This makes me question how you interact with your customers if you can't even interact with others online in a civil fashion.

I'm not trying to be a dick but this kind of attitude won't get you far and could be your issue.

+1. Going by your recent posts/threads, I'm not surprised your manager told you off. A ton of good advice in the thread already, but you do need to introspect.

SteveLord

Essendon wrote: »

+1. Going by your recent posts/threads, I'm not surprised your manager told you off. A ton of good advice in the thread already, but you do need to introspect.

I was remembering some previous posts too...and thought the same thing.

alxx

I wasn't having a go , just putting up a different opinion to most others.

Sometimes people that think they are good at something or suited for it but don't necessarily see that
it doesn't suit them or they aren't as good as they think.

Relax a bit, step back, and learn to self evaluate/assess yourself.
Maybe be a bit more humble.

Me, I've been a backroom guy so far. Originally an Aircraft Maintenance Engineer Avionics . Currently embedded systems development (microcontrollers,sensor systems,embedded linux, network programming , fpgas).
Do some contract work occasionally.
Have done a lot of tutoring(TA) and a bit of lecturing.

vCole

Essendon wrote: »

+1. Going by your recent posts/threads, I'm not surprised your manager told you off. A ton of good advice in the thread already, but you do need to introspect.

+1 as well.

I'm not much older than you Armymanis (I'm 25) - but at 22 I was in IT for over a year, working on my Bachelors, and studying for certs to put things in perspective. I worked in customer service for 5+ years prior to IT as well. You need to take a step back and evaluate why you're in this position, no one here put you in this position - only you did.

it_consultant

alxx wrote: »

Or you could be one of those(us) not suited for customer service and who do better on technical/development side.

You still do need people skills but you don't need to deal with customers as much.

I am sure this was not meant to be offensive, but I can see why OP took exception to it. Some people are not naturally suited to work primarily with customers, but that doesn't mean they can't learn the necessary skills and compensate.

I take exception to the idea that one should only do what is naturally suited to them, I think it is a cop-out attitude which is why there are so many english majors out there who can't get a job.

My suggestion is that, since we tend to be frank and honest on these boards, that you attempt a nuanced approach to a topic when you say something that could be construed as an ad-hominem statement.

SteveLord

Not sure what else needs to be said. You've been made aware that you need to improve. This is something that should be expected for someone so young or new to a position (2 to 6 months is still new, don't care how cocky you are.) Great advice has been given. Usual life stories thrown in on top of that. Take in it, make a plan and move on.

Forsaken_GA

it_consultant wrote: »

I am sure this was not meant to be offensive, but I can see why OP took exception to it. Some people are not naturally suited to work primarily with customers, but that doesn't mean they can't learn the necessary skills and compensate.

I take exception to the idea that one should only do what is naturally suited to them, I think it is a cop-out attitude which is why there are so many english majors out there who can't get a job.

My suggestion is that, since we tend to be frank and honest on these boards, that you attempt a nuanced approach to a topic when you say something that could be construed as an ad-hominem statement.

I can see how it might be construed as an attack, but I didn't find alxx's word choice to be indicative of that. To me, it came across as an idea being posited, not an assertion being made. The defining point for me is that he included a reference to himself, with no indication that he was dogging himself. That, combined with the fact that the OP did solicit opinions, and I think it'd be fair to give alxx the benefit of the doubt.

Now, with that said, I whole heartedly agree with you about not just sticking to what your good at. The idea that folks should know their place does not sit well with me. It's an attitude I highly encourage among my competitors, and actively try to stamp out among my peers. I'm another one who's much better at the technical and operational aspects of things, and if I never had to talk to another customer, I wouldn't shed a single shiny tear. However, despite the fact that it's not my strength, I have excellent people skills. I simply don't always have good judgement on when to apply those people skills!

duckduckduck

It's tough to tell what's really going on from a forum post. Myself, I've had so many rough experiences with red-ink management styles (they only feel they are doing their job if they can search out and expose flaws in whatever you're doing) and bosses with bullying tendencies that I always want to take the employees' side in a case like this. Especially as the topic creator thought they were doing a good job previously.

As I said I have no way of knowing the more complete story here but I do know there is no faster way to completely lose your self confidence than having an abusive boss.

Armymanis

Ended up taking my managers advise and now i say names in tickets and then i say names in phone conversations. Its been a pretty enjoyable week at work. I know I have a lot to grow on as far as taking advice from others. Being in the retail environment did not really help for any advice giving since none was given. You just were expected to do your job and that was it. Now being in an actual work environment you get professional experience, which I like. I need to learn to take it with a grain of salt.

drkat

Armymanis wrote: »

Ended up taking my managers advise and now i say names in tickets and then i say names in phone conversations. Its been a pretty enjoyable week at work. I know I have a lot to grow on as far as taking advice from others. Being in the retail environment did not really help for any advice giving since none was given. You just were expected to do your job and that was it. Now being in an actual work environment you get professional experience, which I like. I need to learn to take it with a grain of salt.

A Grain? you're gonna have to learn to take it with spoonfuls. I had a pretty bad attitude (still do sometimes ) when i first started out and you can and will lose your job over "performance" issues - even if you're awesome at solving problems. Companies want techs who answer the phone, work the ticket and give the customer (user) warm fuzzies and all the while keep your metrics up. If you're good at fixing stuff but none of the others? well they can find a warm body who is only half as good but keep the customer satisfaction ratings up (which is all his management is looking at anyway as helpdesk is a number games)

Some friendly words of advice.

pham0329

drkat wrote: »

Companies want techs who answer the phone, work the ticket and give the customer (user) warm fuzzies and all the while keep your metrics up. If you're good at fixing stuff but none of the others? well they can find a warm body who is only half as good but keep the customer satisfaction ratings up (which is all his management is looking at anyway as helpdesk is a number games)

I don't blame them for doing so, especially if it's a customer facing position like a service desk/help desk. You have your tier 2/3 guys doing most of the complex troubleshooting, the service desk guys/gals are mainly there to provide customer service to your clients/users. It would be great if they can troubleshoot, but not at the cost of customer satisfaction.

To the OP, I don't have much more to say that hasn't already been said, but just because you change how you addressed your users doesn't necessarily make you better at CS. If you were addressing them as "user" before, chance are, you probably have other flaws in your daily communication to your end users/customers. Also, I wouldn't go overboard by addressing them by their names. I remember when I was working in retail, and customers would come up and started chatting with me using my name...it was the weirdest feeling ever.