Any tips for building confidence on the phone at an MSP?

NetworkingStudent

Any tips for building confidence on the phone?

I work at a small, but growing MSP. They say I do a great job at closing tickets, but they said customers say I’m not confident in my tech skills. They restricted my phone abilities, and now I can only take incoming calls from guys in the office, or a customer calling my direct extension. I can still make outbound calls. They want me to focus on closing more manage tickets and getting a little more familiar with the managed services. They asked if there is anything they could do to help me, and I just said let me take more calls. It seemed like they didn't like that answer.

I guess it’s just been hard, because this is my first real IT job. A lot times I’m not sure what the fix would be for issues that aren’t managed services. Sometimes I can ask others in the office, but there are some customers that want answers now! Also, some techs that may have the answers are busy at the moment.

Also, when someone calls in for a fix that isn’t something related to a manage service, we typically bill them.

I have ordered this book:

The Compassionate Geek: How Engineers, IT Pros, & Tech Specialists Can Master Customer Service - YouTube

Also, I’m watching this webinar:

Customer Service for IT Pros Webinar | Compassionate Geek w/ Don Crawley - YouTube

Anyone have any tips for building confidence on the phone, while talking to customers?

ratbuddy

Personally, I'd ask to come in on my day off, and spend that time listening to the employee with the best phone skills. Learn from them, they're probably more than happy to teach you. The company clearly wants you to improve, and they went so far as to offer to help you. Books and youtube are great, but learning by watching a pro in action is even better, imho.

NetworkingStudent

Good point!! I work the same days as most of the guys, however I'm going to see if I can listen in on someone who is a pro. I'm going to pitch the idea to my boss.

As part of my training they never let me listen in on phone calls. They just told me what to say when someone calls in, or when I call someone. I want to see what the pros do.

santaowns

Practice with someone, if you need someone I might be able to give you a call. How are you dressed at work? Casual? if so dress in more business attire, I have worked at a lot of places and each time I had to wear a tie I felt more professional and acted more professionally. What kinds of calls are you taking? Are you not familiar with the subject of the calls ie its networking and your not too good with that or is each and every call different? Do you know basic troubleshooting skills now? Let me know if I can assist

colemic

I got a lot better years ago, when I realized that just because I couldn't solve their problem directly, that doesn't mean I can't make them a satisfied customer... work on projecting confidence that you CAN help them, even if you can't fix their problem. If you have to pass it off/escalate the issue, be up front and tell them that you can't fix it right now - but you know someone who can, and that you are sending the ticket to them, and will follow up with them to make sure it is fixed. Be an enabler - project that you have the capacity and are empowered to get the problem taken care of, even if you have to rely on someone else to do the actual work. And like others have said, learning from others on the phone is a great way to pick up valuable knowledge as well. For me the bottom line is just expressing confidence that I can help, even if I couldn't fix it. Hope that helps

the_Grinch

Your answer is the correct one, taking more calls is the only way to get better at making calls. When I first started at the MSP I was at I was terrible on the phone. But we were small, the customers were decent enough, and my company knew everyone started off crappy. I always tell people that in the MSP world you aren't useful until you've been then for four months. The sixth month is when you are a pro. 90% of it is knowing the little details related to your customers.

I always told the new guys to start off with the easy tickets (password resets, account creations, folder mappings, access, etc) because those were things that could be handled quickly giving you the time to work on your phone skills. The biggest thing is to be social, I promise you, if you can hold a conversation your lack of knowledge will never be noticed. Social skills are what make or break you in the MSP world. I'd get people to go off on a tangent about their family, their boss, a movie, or a show...as they talked I'd work.

Here are the best tips for a MSP newbie:

1. Know the customer - learn about the nuances of their environment. Learn the top reasons they call in, most customers have a problem that always occurs so knowing the steps to fixing it will ease your mind.

2. Get them chatting - If you don't talk, the customer will notice your lack of knowledge more so talk. In most cases the person won't be in such a rush that they won't shoot the breeze with you.

3. Give a time table for a resolution - Generally, after getting further details, let them know it will take several minutes to correct the issue and stay on the line (chat them up while you are working on the fix)

4. (Use this with caution) Say you need to do a little more research and ask if you can phone them back in 15 minutes. Some companies don't like this and if you don't call back before or on the dot you will have a very unhappy customer so only do it if you know you will be able to get back to them.

Your tech skills will come with time and honestly in the MSP world a lot of the problems are the same. Password doesn't work, printer won't print, web page won't load. You'll go through them again and again then it will start to click. The biggest thing is having confidence. On the phone you can hear it when the person is unsure and customers hate hearing it. Time is all you need

ande0255

With incoming calls it's a real pain, fortunately I'm not in an incoming call role at my MSP.

When I trained people at the last call center, I told them first and foremost that taking calls until you build confidence is key for beginners, cause if you sound completely nervous the call goes sour fast. Some people you juwt can't make happy, but generally a little bit of small talk while troubleshooting goes a long way to calm the end user down.

Also in my new position if I see trends in tickets, in my case its ASA VPN issues, I go home and study about them for a bit. This has kind of brought my Cisco studies to a halt, but getting that little boost in confidence on the phone is a glorious feeling.

Youtube is loaded with quick 10-15 minute tutorials you can put on in tye background if your cleaning or something, and just a little bit every day has helped me just tremendously.

Polynomial

A strategy I actually use in more than just phone calls is asking them related (or even unrelated if I know the client better) questions in order to buy me time to think up what I'm going to say next without breaking the flow/feel of the discussion.

Takes a little bit of practice to actually consciously enact that (its real time multitasking) but it works.

stryder144

Here are a couple of tips that helped me immensely:

1. If you haven't taken a public speaking course, do so. If you can't, then pick up a copy of Dale Carnegie's Public Speaking book.

2. Confidence breeds confidence. By that, I mean you need a mind set that projects confidence. All too often, people defeat themselves by a lack of confidence.

3. Success leaves clues...look for them. Listening to those who are the best at phone support will go a long way toward helping you develop your phone skills.

4. Develop a script...internally. Practice, practice, practice your own script, based off of experience and feedback. When you are on the way to work, practice successful phone calls. On the way home, review the calls you took and figure out how you could have been better at giving a response. Then develop your script base off of that.

Good luck!

jibbajabba

Making them talk is great. You can search for the answer while they are chit chatting. The tricky bit is, you still need to somewhat listen so you need to learn to multitask

Take some technical phone interviews lol. That's where you learn to talk while researching something too

Bokeh

I agree with listening in on the calls. It is standard training at the Cloud company I work for. We spend days listening to various people, getting an idea on how they handle everything, then the reverse happens. The pros listen in on you, side by side. Ask questions when you are listening and when being listened to. You can do this!

You can put the customer at ease while working on their issue. Ask more questions if you are not quite sure of the problem - maybe they think its one thing but in all reality it is another. Try not to sound if you are reading off a script, customers can tell that right away. Develop your own style and get the same results - make the customer happy so they keep spending money with your company.

netsysllc

I second Dale Carnegie books, or if you are lucky enough a class.

SteveO86

I know how you feel. I worked for an MSP taking calls for break/fix implementations as well the pre-sales design calls. At first I was not the most confident engineer simply because I was new to whole MSP environment & having to work on multiple networks a day was a little intimidating. Plus it after leaving a position I held for 4+ years so I was very content with my previous job and changing jobs did put me outside of my comfort zone.

After a bit I realized I was doing well from a technical perspective and usually on the mark resolving issues along with pointing out key design issues, at which my confidence started coming naturally. So experience is key and it comes over time. Run through some situations in head and talk them in your head. It also helps to remember in the world of IT you can never know everything and you won't always be right, everyone is wrong every once and a while, don't let it discourage you too much.

As others have mentioned see how your co-workers handle the customers try and listen to some recorded calls.

brentw722

This may sound a little dumb, but I always had issues with answering the phones and thinking I wouldn't be able to solve the problem right off the bat. Lack of confidence in myself was a big issue. Take a deep breath so you do not feel overwhelmed. If you do not know an answer just work with the customer and research while talking to them.

You have co-workers that are hopefully willing to help you, and just keep the customer up to date on what you are seeing/doing. For those customers that want something done right away, just let them know that you are working as hard as possible to solve the issue. Let the customer feel a little at ease with the issue.