Tech Phone Support Confessions
Kyle Killen reveals
the inside scoop on phone tech support training in a Salon article [free access req. viewing a short Flash commercial]
Beyond a cursory overview of the computers we were in charge of healing, the closest thing to a troubleshooting tool we were taught was The Mantra. When class ended, which varied wildly depending on Chad's interest and mental status, we were all encouraged to say The Mantra out loud. We repeated it over and over, the words seating themselves deep in the folds of our brains until the breakup of class began to feel more and more like the end of a cult meeting.
The Mantra is simply, "We don't support that." On the face of it, it's completely logical. We're here to help with problems related to your computer hardware, but we don't pretend to know anything about your digital camera, or how to get the most out of Adobe Photoshop. Without The Mantra we'd waste precious time trying to answer questions beyond the scope of our expertise. Never mind that the scope of our expertise was largely limited to reciting The Mantra and logging calls. The important thing was that we understood our mission was to answer questions that fell within the limited margins outlined in the computer's warranty. Beyond that we didn't have to do anything.
These revelations probably aren't surprising to anyone who has dealt much with phone tech support. I occasionally get very good tech support--Apple's, in general, has been extremely helpful over the past few years--but for the most part it's clear I'm talking to untrained drones reading responses from a decision matrix or tree diagram.
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Posted by johndan at February 23, 2004 10:57 AM
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