Just starting as a TSR(Tech Support)

Hallucinogen

I'm going to be starting a tech support job for a cable company(internet/tv/digital phone) and I'm looking for a heads-up on what are going to be the most common issues/questions, and what will be causing me to face-palm? I've only ever had to deal with myself and other technically-inclined people as far as resolving technical issues, so I'm probably in for some fun ones.

Edit: Whoops, somehow clicked on the wrong forum. This should be in H&A. Could a mod kindly bump it over?

Psychotic One

I work as a TSR for a company so best advise I can give is this.

~Never take anything personal. People will get upset over anything. Even if its their fault they didn't pay their bill. It's your fault cause you're on the phone

~I do DSL but the bulk of your calls will be installs and service interruptions and probably Wireless depending on your hardware.

~Familarize your self with what ever Outage software they use. It will tell you if the customers problem is known and save you from long calls that you don't need to do

~Find simulators for what ever OS's your not familar with. Majority will be XP, Vista, and Mac OS 10.4.x and higher

~Learn your scope of support and hold to it. Even if you know how to fix something. If the rest of the call center doesn't support it dont fix it. It just creates problems and friction.

~Keep things simple. Analogies and metaphors are your best friends. Like say the problem is an Auth issue but not signal. Tell the customer its like their modem is in the parking lot but can't find the car. We just got to help it find the car and your back online. So much easier than explaining PPPoE or what have you to a novice.

Hallucinogen

Thanks for the info, man.

I'm definitely guilty of your fifth point. I always go way beyond what I should be doing for people. So far it hasn't bit me in the ass, but I can see how it might.

Thankfully number one has never been an issue for me. People's emotional outbursts don't really register with me, unless they're justified.

I like the analogies idea. I should try and figure some out ahead of time. I'm used to just using technical jargon. I notice a lot of my non-technical friends' eyes glaze over when I try to tell them what they need to do to fix/set something up.

tech_hunter

Not sure how your company will do it but when I was with verizon fios every tech handled everything phone internet and video. On the phone side its mostly peoples shitty phones and even shittier inside wiring causing the problem. For the TV they never have the tv on the correct input, and with internet its usually malware. But you will also get those out of the blue calls that you will never be able to figure out, especially if they are speaking Vietnamese.

Sheep

I'm the tech coordinator for a company that does VOIP, IPTV, and internet to home via fiber. I basically make sure everyone is answering questions correctly and have whatever material they need.

Best thing to tell you is get a grip on the flow of calls, familiarize yourself with the general type of calls you will take and how to trouble shoot, use the ticketing system, and as mentioned, don't take anything personally.

I was ragged for 20 minutes because a Katrina victim's PC didn't work after pulling it out of a pool. So...

Hallucinogen

The call flow shouldn't be an issue, as I did some tech support for AT&T wireless briefly(usually I was strictly CSR)before they got eaten by Cingular.

I think I can guess at it, but how does the ticketing system work? I remember is vaguely from ATT.

I hear you on the Katrina bit. I've had my fair share of nuts. My friend who worked with me at the time had a man call in, expecting a female rep, and asked what kind of underwear my friend was wearing. So he said loudly in a deep, cookie monster-esque voice, "PANTIESSS!" and the guy hung up in a hurry. Luckily his TL had a sense of humor and didn't mind.

I, on the other hand, always got the old ladies that never wanted to let you go, or sob stories of people who roamed or went way over their minutes. One chick ran her bill up to $3,000 in one month. I felt bad for her, but man... you're an adult. Read the contract. I hate wireless companies and, particularly in Canada, they're money-grabbing bastards but people need to read the fine print when they sign 2-3 yr agreements.

Aridhol

Hallucinogen wrote: »

The call flow shouldn't be an issue, as I did some tech support for AT&T wireless briefly(usually I was strictly CSR)before they got eaten by Cingular.

I think I can guess at it, but how does the ticketing system work? I remember is vaguely from ATT.

I hear you on the Katrina bit. I've had my fair share of nuts. My friend who worked with me at the time had a man call in, expecting a female rep, and asked what kind of underwear my friend was wearing. So he said loudly in a deep, cookie monster-esque voice, "PANTIESSS!" and the guy hung up in a hurry. Luckily his TL had a sense of humor and didn't mind.

I, on the other hand, always got the old ladies that never wanted to let you go, or sob stories of people who roamed or went way over their minutes. One chick ran her bill up to $3,000 in one month. I felt bad for her, but man... you're an adult. Read the contract. I hate wireless companies and, particularly in Canada, they're money-grabbing bastards but people need to read the fine print when they sign 2-3 yr agreements.

Which cable company if you don't mind me asking ?

Hallucinogen

Shaw.

Tomanta

I spent a year doing that exact same job, and still do almost the same (see below)

• Learn troubleshooting shortcuts and try to anticipate both the customer's problem and the solution. This will only come with experience, but can be invaluable. I can generally determine what the calls resolution will be within the first thirty seconds of hearing a problem. I still run through my troubleshooting steps because sometimes I am wrong (and if I am right I still need to gather certain information).
• As mentioned above, find simulators of common OSes and programs. modemhelp.net has ok ones. If possible you always want to see what the customer is seeing.
• Never underestimate the customer's ability to throw you a curveball. While these can often be the most frustrating calls they also break up the monotony (I once fielded a call from a lady screaming at me that an installer nearly killed her kid because he put the digital cable box on top of the TV and the kid pulled it down).
• Do not get stressed out over customer issues. Be pleasant and help them as best you can, even if they are being assholes (note: sometimes you can't do anything to help them. strike a balance between helpful and firm). Quite often even if a customer starts off the call yelling at you, if you are pleasant and helpful they will be happy when their problem is solved.
• Make the customer check everything. "Are there lights on on the front of your cable modem? Check the connection on both ends...". Even if they SAY that they checked it but you suspect that is the problem, walk them through checking it. Ask them to read / describe what they see so you know.
• In my experience, here are the calls you will get most often:
  • Email setup
  • Internet not working (modem offline or customer equipment issue. If I had a dollar for every time I fixed the problem simply by powercycling a router....)
  • Digital cable box issues. These are either TV on wrong input, a remote issue, something wrong with the TV (Yes, you will get spanish audio on some stations if you have SAP turned on. Yes, a black box will be on the middle of the screen if your captioning is set to 'text').
  • Phone: No dial tone and voicemail.
• Try to get out of the Tier 1 position as fast as possible and move to a more specialized department (or even Tier 2, it all depends on the company. I am soooo much happier in our business support department than I was at residential)

Hallucinogen

Amen to getting out of tier 1. That's first on my agenda. Hopefully, if I get the ball rolling now, by the time I'm pulling my hair out I'll be moving on. When I was interviewed I was advised it would be at least 6 months depending on performance.

Sheep

Worst thing is when a husband/wife dies and their SO finds out they were cheating on them and beg us for access to their eMail.

Chanus

Definitely the Number One thing to remember, when dealing with customers, is they will get pissed off at you over things that make absolutely no sense, and are often not even related. Grin and bear it.

Also, be honest when you don't know an answer or aren't sure. Don't try to fudge it.

And, don't assume they're idiots... but at the same time, explain things like you're trying to teach your grandmother how to build a rocketship... you wouldn't patronize your grandmother, but there are some concepts you just know you need to explain clearly, and possibly slowly.

Solandra

I do system support (mostly software and security, but more and more hardware calls are coming to our Help Desk). My own pet peeve is when I have to ask the caller to power-cycle a device, check a setting, restart a program, etc., and they get snotty because they've "already done that." I find that being relentlessly cheerful about the whole thing gets us past that bump in the road, explain that "there's a process I have to follow in a particular order, yes it is a pain to redo all of that - hey great, I'm glad it's working again!"

My favorite catch-phrase: User Competency Challenge.

Chanus

A line I like to use is: "If I tell you something you already know, it's not that I'm assuming you don't know. I'd rather tell you something you already know than not tell you something you need to know".

Erandus

Do not let yourself get sucked in to long phonecalls that are really outside your scope of support or completely irrelevant.

Most call center environments are extremely numbers-driven. They want to see you take a shitload of calls in a small amount of time. Be concise and efficient. If you're getting sucked off topic into an argument, get a supervisor. If you're finding yourself playing sad social contact to a 97 year old shut-in, get off the phone.

If you find yourself involved in a complicated issue that you know you have to fix but you also know is going to take a long time, get some kind of FYI email or alert to your supervisor letting them know that your call is going to take a while but that you're making progress.

Chanus wrote: »

A line I like to use is: "If I tell you something you already know, it's not that I'm assuming you don't know. I'd rather tell you something you already know than not tell you something you need to know".

Man, that makes my head hurt trying to figure out with the luxury of re-reading it several times. I'd try something like "I apologize if we're going over ground you've already covered, I just need to make sure we're on the same page with your issue."

Chanus

Erandus wrote: »

Chanus wrote: »

A line I like to use is: "If I tell you something you already know, it's not that I'm assuming you don't know. I'd rather tell you something you already know than not tell you something you need to know".

Man, that makes my head hurt trying to figure out with the luxury of re-reading it several times. I'd try something like "I apologize if we're going over ground you've already covered, I just need to make sure we're on the same page with your issue."

Hmm... yeah... it looks a lot more confusing written out. I've never had a problem before, though.

Solandra

Chanus wrote: »

Erandus wrote: »

Chanus wrote: »

A line I like to use is: "If I tell you something you already know, it's not that I'm assuming you don't know. I'd rather tell you something you already know than not tell you something you need to know".

Man, that makes my head hurt trying to figure out with the luxury of re-reading it several times. I'd try something like "I apologize if we're going over ground you've already covered, I just need to make sure we're on the same page with your issue."

Hmm... yeah... it looks a lot more confusing written out. I've never had a problem before, though.

"Let's review from the top - 'cause I don't know about you, but I'd rather be told something twice than not at all."

urahonky

Ah TSR. It can be rough. Are you going to be in a call center? So basically sitting all day? Wear something comfortable and always bring something to drink. Worst thing in the world is to be in the middle of a conversation and run out of spit.

Also TEST YOUR MUTE BUTTON BEFORE YOU SAY ANYTHING BAD!! Please remember this.

Jobastion

urahonky wrote: »

Ah TSR. It can be rough. Are you going to be in a call center? So basically sitting all day? Wear something comfortable and always bring something to drink. Worst thing in the world is to be in the middle of a conversation and run out of spit.

Also TEST YOUR MUTE BUTTON BEFORE YOU SAY ANYTHING BAD!! Please remember this.

Because if your mute button doesn't work... DOOOMMM!!
As an alternate approach, try not to use the mute button at all.
During my times as a frontliner, I eventually got to the point where the only thing I'd ever mute for were sneezes during cold season. I just didn't feel the need to make commentary on the calls I was taking. If you are a slightly more ambitious person than I, you can also use that time to SELL SELL SELL! Assuming Shaw has you doing that as well.

Psychotic One

Jobastion wrote: »

urahonky wrote: »

Ah TSR. It can be rough. Are you going to be in a call center? So basically sitting all day? Wear something comfortable and always bring something to drink. Worst thing in the world is to be in the middle of a conversation and run out of spit.

Also TEST YOUR MUTE BUTTON BEFORE YOU SAY ANYTHING BAD!! Please remember this.

Because if your mute button doesn't work... DOOOMMM!!
As an alternate approach, try not to use the mute button at all.
During my times as a frontliner, I eventually got to the point where the only thing I'd ever mute for were sneezes during cold season. I just didn't feel the need to make commentary on the calls I was taking. If you are a slightly more ambitious person than I, you can also use that time to SELL SELL SELL! Assuming Shaw has you doing that as well.

I've seen people walked out of the building because "They thought it was muted" Heck...I've seen people walked for what they said even because it was muted. Just cause your customer can't hear you doesn't mean other peoples phones wont hear you.

YodaTuna

Just don't say anything bad? I think that's better. But still use your mute button when talking to someone besides your caller. There was a guy here who would never mute and just talk to me and confuse the crap out of whoever he was talking too.

Don't worry too much about the facepalm calls. They are usually shorter calls because they are easy to solve and that helps your numbers. You'll grow numb to stupid questions very quickly!

Muncie

Working in a call center breeds a strange of exceedingly negative person. You'll likely have more than a few coworkers that are always negative, always saying nasty things about customers. Don't associate with those people. Don't go to lunch with people who only bitch bitch bitch all the goddamn time.

Keep your associations clean. You will be judged by them. Work hard, don't complain, don't verbalize to anyone for any reason that you dislike the customers. Seriously, it is very easy to fall into a negative mood and then work is going to suck. Be positive. Don't take the customers' anger personally. Don't go home and bitch about it.

Take the opportunity to learn new skills. Be inquisitive. From the day you walk in that door start looking upward. Tier 1 support is very difficult because you are dealing with a broad number of problems and are only allowed a very shallow, very slow type of support. Add to this the negative Nancy tier 1 lifers and you being the front line of defense when the company screws up.

You'll do fine, though, it's not terribly difficult and I've seen call centers open up some real opportunities for people who stick it out for a little while. Remember that the customers aren't the enemy and something that is very obvious to you might not be to them.

Oh yeah, I would also recommend not reading "tech support comedy" sites. That shit will make your mood vile when you've gotta be on the phones for 7 more hours.

Good luck!

Tamin

Whenever someone yells at me and then apologizes, I come back with 'Hey, it's no problem. I'm cannon fodder".

So, yeah, stay positive.
Treat each person as if they are a new customer - because they are; it's really easy to get stuck in the belief that because you've already explained how to press two buttons in sequence to 5 people today, the 6th should magically know how to do that.
Use the mute button sparingly; I am guilty of not doing this, and it's going to land me in trouble one day.
Make jokes, if you can. Nothing eases a call better than making the customer laugh.
At my call center, we need an average call time of ~15 minutes. If the customer has an issue outside of scope of support, say something like, "That's not inside our scope of support, but I'll be happy to try and resolve it for you, but if we're not done within 12 or so minutes? I'm going to have to send you elsewhere". Set expectations. Most of the time they'll be happy you tried.

Lastly, my call center is part of one of the bigger TelCo companies with IPTV/Fiber/Phone packages. We have this survey that gets sent out asking the customer to grade your specific performance; if you have something similar, let them know each and every time. It gets old, I know. But it's incredibly useful as a tool to calm them down - unhappy with the service? Well, let me remind you about our survey. You can give us feedback on that IVR or that issue.

Thank you for reading this post, I value you as a reader. If there are no more questions...

Erandus

Tamin wrote: »

"I'll be happy to try and resolve it for you, but if we're not done within 12 or so minutes? I'm going to have to send you elsewhere".

I don't know about anyone else, but if someone I called for support told me that up front, I would be kinda pissed off.

Everywhereasign

Make sure your company familiarizes you with the hardware the callers are using. Be it with a mock setup, or pictures. Having 4 or 5 different modems, it's nice to have a picture of what the back of the modem looks like. That way you can describe it in great detail to the person on the other end.

A friend is a TSR and tells the following story. They have a system that lets them pull up a diagram of the back of the modem by entering in the model number. He did this and explained that the first cable on the right went to the router, the second one went to the phone. The women insisted that the cables wouldn't fit in those places. He had her twisting them around and upside down. Turns out she was bending over the top of the modem, not turning it around. Her right was his left. Now he asks which side the power plug is on before describing which plug goes where.

darkmayo

Hallucinogen wrote: »

Shaw.

you poor bastard.

You in Calgary? If so stick around at shaw for maybe a year, then get the fuck out. I have known so many people that have worked for Shaw and maybe 3 of them (out of proabbly 50 people ) have actually made a career out of being there. (Ie moved up the food chain to a non bullshit position) the rest left and got jobs with other companies learning stuff that actually matters and can be applied in other jobs.

Evil_Reaver

TSR... oh man. I did my time with a major cable company back in the fall of 2005. I lasted 5 months before I called shenanigans and quit on a one day notice. However, here's what I found to be invaluable while I worked there.

- You'll probably go through a 4-6 week training program since you'll be supporting phone/TV/internet. It'll most likely be a classroom situation where the training supervisor lectures at you for 8 hours a day about all of the systems that you will support. There will also probably be an exam or two in there that you will have to pass in order to keep your job. Pay as much attention as you can during this phase because this is all the training you're going to get. The day after they release you from class, you're going to be on the phones with no actual "real" experience.

- Your company will probably have an intranet that hosts all kinds of tools to help you do your job. Mine had simulators for every OS you would come across while dealing with internet problems, pictures of modems and cable boxes, all kinds of stuff. Find out where these tools are and use them religiously.

- Don't get frustrated when people are already pissed when they call. You're the front line, the voice of the company, and you're not going to be able to help the customer if you lose your cool. Likewise, don't get frustrated when you get stuck on a call with someone who just doesn't seem to be able to follow your instructions.

- Use your Tier 2 technicians and managers. Don't go beyond the scope of your job, even if you know how to fix the problem. I was constantly praised by my manager for transferring calls to the next tier; it wasn't my job to do the more advanced stuff (even though I knew how to).

The most common calls and solutions you will deal with:

- Internet doesn't work - power cycle the modem & computer
- Hooking up the cable box
- Fuzzy or snowy picture - this is usually always a signal issue that you will have to dispatch a field tech to fix.
- No picture - TV is off or on the wrong input

As someone said earlier, call centers are number driven. Your numbers will be higher the more calls you take during your shift. You can only take more calls if you keep them short, so don't repeatedly get stuck on 20 minute calls.

Also, you will probably have performance reviews where your manager will record 1 or 2 of your calls and he will "grade" you on how well you handled the call. You won't know when you're being recorded, so don't needlessly put people on hold, use the mute button, or ever not do your job.

Erandus

Oh, do not browse the internet at work. At least until you have a very firm grasp on the lay of the land and how much is/is not tolerated. If you do, for the love of god stay off the WoW websites, like 90% of the rest of the call floor is browsing.

Tomanta

Erandus wrote: »

Oh, do not browse the internet at work. At least until you have a very firm grasp on the lay of the land and how much is/is not tolerated. If you do, for the love of god stay off the WoW websites, like 90% of the rest of the call floor is browsing.

This, definitely. I didn't touch the internet for most of my first year in residential support, even towards the end of my time there I only browsed during lunch/break. Call volume was generally high enough that I didn't really have time, anyway.

Of course, I have a lot of free time in commercial support so I read these forums and watch Hulu for about half my day .

Hallucinogen

Yeah, I learned that at my ATT job. At first we had virtually unrestricted access but then, apparently, some idiot(s) decided it would be a great idea to browse some porn sites. After that it was limited to only sites that were specifically necessary to do our job.

So anyone care to elaborate on the trouble ticket system? I'm sure they'll tell me in the training, but I'm curious.

@darkmayo: I don't intend to be there more than a year if I don't move up. I just want money and maybe some extra benefits on top of what I already make/have, it's not a career move. I've already got a career I'm building up.

Erandus

Hallucinogen wrote: »

So anyone care to elaborate on the trouble ticket system? I'm sure they'll tell me in the training, but I'm curious.

You'll more likely work with a call queue than a trouble ticket system.

darkmayo

Hallucinogen wrote: »

Yeah, I learned that at my ATT job. At first we had virtually unrestricted access but then, apparently, some idiot(s) decided it would be a great idea to browse some porn sites. After that it was limited to only sites that were specifically necessary to do our job.

So anyone care to elaborate on the trouble ticket system? I'm sure they'll tell me in the training, but I'm curious.

@darkmayo: I don't intend to be there more than a year if I don't move up. I just want money and maybe some extra benefits on top of what I already make/have, it's not a career move. I've already got a career I'm building up.

Good very good. So are you in Calgary or another city (my experience with shaw has just been with the calgary sites.) They have a decent christmas party and a stampede party as well.

Evil_Reaver

Erandus wrote: »

Hallucinogen wrote: »

So anyone care to elaborate on the trouble ticket system? I'm sure they'll tell me in the training, but I'm curious.

You'll more likely work with a call queue than a trouble ticket system.

There will most likely be an LCD counter on the wall telling you how many calls are in the queue. It will never be at 0. Get used to it.

Since it's a cable company, you'll make notes directly on the customer's account when they call rather than open individual support tickets for every call.

Hallucinogen

Evil_Reaver wrote: »

There will most likely be an LCD counter on the wall telling you how many calls are in the queue. It will never be at 0. Get used to it.

Yeah, I know what you mean. Only a couple times did it ever happen at my old support job, and all but one of those occurrences were due to technical reasons.

@darkmayo: Yep, I'm at the Calgary one.