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A refresher course in empathy

37signals.com

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Re: A refresher course in empathy

#41

Post by hobs »

Udo wrote: post #29

Empathy goes both ways. That customer clearly had none, and furthermore didn't believe the support person when they repeatedly tried to explain things to her. We tend to see things like, say, boxers on their website and we instantly feel a connection to a person where none may be warranted. To unilaterally make that connection with an abusive person is a recipe for unhappiness and disappointment. I feel reminded abou…

There is no thumbs up big enough for this. My first thought after reading the article was "what kind of lapdog are you trying to be, stand up for yourself woman!" I immediately felt bad about that because she is trying to be an empathetic person, but how can you empathize with this? Someone tries to help you, you are an jerk to them. Would you keep helping your parents being an absolute jerk, or would you tell them to knock it off, then help them?

I occasionally work with customers nowadays (but spent years in customer service) and I cant help but think this is a person who is going to be worn out by hordes of inconsiderate jerks because they are empathizing too hard.

Re: A refresher course in empathy

#42

Post by hobs »

krmmalik wrote: post #17

I ran an outsourced IT helpdesk company for many years, as well as online products. We used to get clients like this all the time. Here's how my staff were trained to handle this situation - the support staff would have asked the lady the name of her site, and the background story. Then patiently gotten to the bottom of the issue. After that would then either submit a support ticket on her behalf, or would call the c…

But you were billing someone for it, right? They don't really get to do that in this situation. (if you were)

Re: A refresher course in empathy

#44

Post by gexla »

TLDR

Even if it's not your issue, you now own the problem. The customer has contacted you guys on this issue before and wasn't given a good enough answer. Now the customer is contacting you guys again in hopes of a better answer. If you don't give a good answer, then the customer may continue contacting you guys. You aren't saving time by brushing the customer off.

You could have saved the day by looking up the information in the first place and relaying that to the customer. If and email isn't doing the trick, then place a phone call.

----

I used to do tech support for Microsoft Windows and we gave our best effort to give the customer information to fix dang near anything on their computer. Most people who called in were in our area of support, but sometimes we would get people calling in about other products. People saw us as their last line of support, their only lifeline when nobody else could help them.

I think we were effective in this role because more than any other support desk, we had a great big picture view. A support rep for Intuit might know Quickbooks well, but might know nothing about the rest of the system which Quickbooks sits on. So, in some cases they might say "It's a Windows problem" and pawn the issue on us.

I think just talking to people over the phone really helps as well. When you have someone who is so obviously tech challenged, then it's sometimes just that much more difficult when dealing with yet another tech abstraction over basic communication.

So, customer calls in with something we don't support. In a friendly conversation we would explain that big picture view and tell the customer exactly what they need to know when contacting Quickbooks again. Sometimes the issue was so simple we could just Google the answer. Sure, it's wasting valuable support time, but in the end it could have saved time because the customer wouldn't continue to be bounced back and forth.

Re: A refresher course in empathy

#45

Post by hobs »

lesterbuck wrote: post #32
Domenic_S wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would that customer even know what she's advocating? I bet she'd end up advocating her hosting company, not 37sig. So you go the extra mile, find contact info for her host and give it to you, what's the response? Probably "OH now you're pawning me off on someone else?!" The classic story of customer service is Nordstrom giving a customer a refund on tires (they don't sell tires). But that's an uncomplicated transacti…

>Zappos is great, but I wonder what would happen if I called them for help with my iPhone... ;) You might be surprised, but the expected result of calling Zappos for help with your iPhone is that they would give it their best shot to be helpful and get it working. There are limits, of course, and I hope you don't try it, but that is how they are trained. At least that is the mantra from Tony Hsieh, in several talks I…

And if everyone called Zappos for them to do their dirty work it literally wouldnt work. This is only possible because it is the exception, not the rule.
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