Making the users happy

healthyboy

What percentage of your job is all about making the user happy?

And what kind of a role are you in ?

Devilry

JOAT/HD3 role, 100% customer/user. No matter what, you always have customers.. whether internal or external. Keep that in mind. Even co-workers should be considered customers/users.

Roguetadhg

Happiness to the extent of your job role is important.

You can not make everyone happy, you can bend over backwards, break your back in several spots and there'll be someone saying "You shouldn't broken more"

Do your best, care about the other person's issues. But as far as taking action on them, not always your place.

N2IT

If you try to make everyone happy the only thing you accomplish is make yourself sad.

Happiness is not measurable it's extremely subjective. Hit your metrics and deliver what is expected of you. Of course display good customer service skills, but making someone happy is not in my job description and never will.

the_Grinch

I always set realistic expectations whenever working with end users. If I think something will take 20 minutes, I tell them an hour. If something isn't support or doesn't have a clear work around, I tell them while I will try this isn't a supported method and if it doesn't work there isn't much I can do. The idea of "making the end user happy" is very general and very subjective. I've had users who are never going to be happy. I could give them a hundred dollar bill every time I go to their desk and they'd still harp on an issue. You learn to grow a thick skin, to vent to fellow IT workers in your office, and develop a high tolerance to alcohol.

Akaricloud

I'd say about 20% of my job is about the users directly. As a Systems Administrator in a small IT department I mostly only deal with users after they've already gone through two tiers of support and are already a bit aggravated. I very, very rarely leave a user unhappy when I'm done. I truly see their problems through to the end(since I'm the end of the support line) and will always make something happen to fix their problem.

What I've found is good communnication skills and confidence can go a long way in diffusing unhappy users. Nobody likes to see the tech who trys to blame the user and appears to not know what they're doing. It takes a while to get used to walking into situations where you know nothing about the hardware/software or what the user is trying to do and be able to confidently say "I can get that fixed for you".

Roguetadhg

I've always been honest with the users.

I tell them I don't know what's going on, but I'll do my darnest to find out. I'll even tell them "I'm not supposed to work on that issue", but with that said, i'll sit there and try to figure out where it goes, to whom. If a problem that I can't work on, can't be fixed with a reboot - then they should've not hired outside contractors to do the work . A real kick in the balls, fixing another contractor's problem and having pay ducted because I spent time troubleshooting the issue... I'm looking at you, Java 7.

I know X will always put tickets in. I know Y hates putting tickets in to some people, but will put tickets in to me easily. I've told X that I thank her for putting tickets in, and I know it's not her responsibility to do all the tickets. I know at work we usually never get any "thanks", especially with dealing with irate people on the phone. It's the nature of the beast.

I thank those that do, I don't shun those that don't.

rsutton

I'm not sure I would use the word "happy", but making sure my team is motivated, efficient and on their game is my top priority.

N2IT

Also making sure your support role/team is working within scope is critical. Cowboys and one off employees can set inaccurate expectations on the service. If employee A going "above" the call of duty he is essentially creating a rift in expectations. Next time the customer calls in they expect service that is not offered nor in scope. So going above the call of duty can be a slippery slope.

McDonald for years has made a killing for this exact module. Each McDonalds operates as a single entity. You go into one the coke, french fries, cheeseburgers taste the same. They spend a lot of money just making sure the water that comes out the soda tap is just perfect. The fries are cut from only a certain brand of russet potatoes.

It's critical to follow the processes and not to deviate. The team is the power in a helpdesk, not some cowboy who can do it all. Know your role and work it accordingly.

With that said personally I believe the desk should be set to work at a high level. Continually punting to level 2 IMO is frowned upon. I'd rather see a high handle time instead of a CSR who punts 45 times a game.

Akaricloud

N2IT, that applies more towards larger companies. Where I work we literally only have one person per tier for support. If the tier 1 helpdesk employee knows how to solve a complex problem then more power to him; limiting him to just password resets and true tier 1 support would only hurt us while denying him experience.

As internal support going above and beyond is what gets you recognized. External support is a whole different ballgame.

N2IT

Smaller shops where you are the only show can be different, but for an operation to be fully optimized it should have processes in place.

If employee A wants help setting up the home router, should you help or not? It depends on the processes in place IMO. I agree smaller shops require more from a tech because of the nature of the dynamics. I speak from an enterprise helpdesk, not a one or two man shop. I still think there should be processes regardless of the size of the support operations. One can not simply support everything it is impossible and not sustainable.

paul78

@healthyboy - I'm curious how you will answer your own questions. What is your own take on it. Why do you ask?

I noticed that some folks equate "happy" customers as a subjective measure. I was interpreting it to mean customer satisfaction which can be quantified through customer surveys and various other statistical means (assuming you have a large enough sample size).

Where I work, customer satisfaction directly impacts a percentage of my compensation and my peers. Specifically, the results of the annual customer satisfaction survey must meet a specific net promoter score threshold. This incentive is intended as an organizational goal. To achieve good customer satisfaction, it needs to be treated more like a team sport where everyone needs to pull their own weight.

The concept of building customer loyalty based on customer satisfaction really gained traction back in early 2000. Some reading for those that are interested:

The Customer Satisfaction Survey Snag - Businessweek
Net Promoter - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia