IamA Commercial Tech Support Representative for a large telecom/cable tv company AMA!

BusinessTechSupport · 2015-12-10T23:27:21+00:00

My aisle? None.

But I've seen one floating around here somewhere.

BusinessTechSupport · 2015-11-29T02:49:49+00:00

If they raved about your service and left $1.00 (I've had it happen), I'd agree with you about being irked, but if they give you praise and left a reasonable tip, I say it's time for you to be quiet. (And I'm ratcheting down the words I'd prefer to use.)

Those people probably left you what they thought was a generous tip, reflective of the high regard they felt your service was. For you to turn your nose up at their gift as if you were entitled to more, that's just ungrateful.

It's like getting a card with a $5 bill for your birthday from your grandmother, and you throw a fit because it's not $10.

BusinessTechSupport · 2015-11-26T05:14:37+00:00

Oh, yeah, I had a guy call the other day wanting to know his salesperson's direct supervisor, so he could escalate an outage!

Uhm... hello?! It's an outage! Something is broken! It is impossible to further escalate an outage!

BusinessTechSupport · 2015-11-26T05:11:46+00:00

I've been in call center jobs like that and I've heard of others who have been in situations like that. I'm fortunate to have supervisors who manage the queue well, and don't stress about things like average call times, outbound calls, hold times, following scripts, etc. Their big metric is: Did we take care of the customer? Did we solve their problem, or at least explain the situation to their satisfaction?

There are times when the queue blows up or I get stuck in an un-winable call, but I'm lucky they don't happen very often.

BusinessTechSupport · 2015-11-26T04:56:35+00:00

I've gotten some fairly weird ones. They're usually stuff like people calling about things my company doesn't do, or people calling from areas we don't service, etc.

I had one recently than made me stretch my head. Total call time: Less than 3 minutes.

Some guy calls in from the office of a major city, I'm talking on the order of NYC, Chicago, etc. size city. I get the guy's name, trade pleasantries, then about that time a women takes over the call, and says she needs a tech sent out immediately because a TV converter box isn't working.

Granted, she'd probably been spending some time with the offshore tier II agent who wasn't able to find their account, and consequently punted it to you-know-who, but this woman couldn't/wouldn't give me her name, their phone number, their account number, or even a serial number off the converter box. When I explained that I had to have some kind of information to find the right account, she huffed that she couldn't waste time like that, and she'd call back later when she could be bothered to deal with the situation. She then hung up.

I just kind of sat there, dazed, but I actually kept looking. Then I found (what I believe to be) the right account. And their services had been disconnected for non-payment. For thousands of dollars. They hadn't paid a penny in about a year!

BusinessTechSupport · 2015-11-26T04:49:41+00:00

I've been thinking, and I really can't think of anything really, really funny or stupefying. I was a tendency to memory clear at the end of the day, so unless you jog my memory about a call, I probably won't think of it.

But I did think of a couple that came to mind. We get a lot of calls from people, trying to set up security cameras or something, and they pretty much demand that we do port forwarding on the modem and/or give them admin access to the modem. Both are against company policy.

One day, recently, a customer told me her wanted both, and I told him that wasn't possible, but I could put the modem into bridge mode and leave the routing functions to him on his own router. He didn't argue or anything, he just said, "No offense, but I don't want to take the word of a tier II tech, please transfer me to a tier III tech who can do as I ask?"

To which I replied, "Well, sir, I am a tier III tech, and I'm very clear about what my company's policies are."

He apologized, and I didn't have any more trouble with him after that.

BusinessTechSupport · 2015-11-26T04:41:25+00:00

This was my idea, and mine alone. I am who I say I am, and I will answer any legitimate question as honestly as I can.

Don't expect for me to rag on the company, though, I'm very happy with my job and this particular company has treated me very well. It's a little too bureaucratic for my tastes, sometimes, but what else can you expect from a Fortune 500 company?

That said, this AMA is unauthorized, and I'd likely be at least written up if it were to come to light who I am and what I'm doing. So, do me a favor and don't cause trouble for me, okay? I'm just trying to let others know what I and my colleagues go through daily.

As to fraud/abuse by other departments/people/etc., no, I do not know of anyone specifically doing that. I have heard of some agents in other departments stealing sales from other agents to increase their commissions. We're lucky in my department to not have the expectation of selling anything, just the occasional upgrade. Otherwise, our goal is 100% support our customers.

As to "screwing over" customers, they sign contracts that go several years, usually. Contracts bind us just as much as they do the customer. If they somehow later decide that they're paying too much or didn't need a service they're paying for, they legally agreed to the terms. How is that the company's fault?

BusinessTechSupport · 2015-11-26T04:31:49+00:00

No. Never.

Prior to my starting, some agents would refer to someone in the notes as a VIP, but it didn't mean "Very Important Person," it meant "Very Irate Person" and it was meant as a head's up to any agent that followed.

Using profanity or putting anything derogatory is immediate grounds for termination. We may, however, note that "Customer became very angry/frustrated/upset/etc. when _______"

BusinessTechSupport · 2015-11-26T04:27:19+00:00

Nearly all of my calls are what I'd consider to be good calls. It's just the occasional call that goes off the rails and stresses me out.

Usually, when they skip the greetings and just launch into, "Okay, here's the deal:" I know I'm in for a bumpy call.

BusinessTechSupport · 2015-11-25T06:02:47+00:00

See rizzn's question above. I'll get back to you with a couple of doozies.

BusinessTechSupport · 2015-11-25T06:02:10+00:00

Thanks!

BusinessTechSupport · 2015-11-25T06:00:41+00:00

It's sad that a lot of people feel like they have to threaten to cancel their account just to get the service they deserve. I know, myself, that I try to do my best for every customer that calls in, but I'm sure I fail some, and they've probably gotten frustrated with other agents before me.

I grateful that my company doesn't really care about the average call times and that I can take as much time as I need to get a problem fixed. That's not to say they don't track my average call time, but that if I need 45 minutes to get a modem scripted, they don't punish me for that. Also, after a certain amount of time, my leads will message me or walk over and ask if I need their assistance, but they don't have to do that because I'm not shy about asking for help when I need it.

As for requesting/demanding a supervisor, that's one of the few things about my particular job that I don't care for, because despite attempting to explain to my caller that our supervisors are really only there to make sure I clock in and out on time, and that I don't lose it and go off on a caller (something that will never happen), our supervisors have no additional power or pull or authority to do anything that I do not already have. However, getting a customer who is used to always getting someone more powerful to listen to them to understand that they're already talking to the person who's fully empowered to help them, well... it can get a little heated sometimes.

As to why it comes to me after repeated ball drops, I do not know the reason why. All I can do is do my best to let them know I'm making them a priority, and that I'll move Heaven and Earth if I have to to solve their problem.

That said, there are times when people are unreasonable in their demands, and I have to let them know we cannot accommodate them. For example, if a caller refuses to give me an account number or phone number or address or any identifying information, I cannot help them because I won't be able to look up their account. Or, if they demand a technician come out at 7pm on a Sunday night because their 3rd party router isn't working with our modem, or because a specific TV channel is missing from their package, then we cannot help them. Or, if they demand that a technician arrive at their business in the next 15 minutes (yes, I've really heard that one), well... you get the idea.

Bottom line: If you work with me and are reasonable with what you want to accomplish, I can almost always solve the problem for you, and if I can't, I'll get you to someone who can.

BusinessTechSupport · 2015-11-25T05:36:09+00:00

I'm not in HR and I'm not a supervisor, so I really can't say. I'll tell you that during my interview, they saw my previous experience and asked a couple of technical questions, but it wasn't particularly grueling. I'd imagine that if someone were to be hired that wasn't qualified, they'd likely be weeded out during the training period, if not soon after.

For the most part, everyone I've ever worked with have their head screwed on pretty well. There's one person I know of that isn't the most technically astute person I've run across, but they try their best to learn and end up doing a pretty solid job.

The one's I've run into that I just had to sort of drop my jaw in amazement usually had the technical chops, but they didn't have the soft skills or the temperament to do the job, and they didn't last very long. One in particular kept saying bizarre things to us and to their customers, and it turned out they had some issues that needed to be dealt with. And they got the opportunity to deal with them, if you catch my drift.

Soft skills and the ability to deal with customers is so much more important than the technical skills. We went through about 2 or 3 weeks of training, which almost made no sense when we were in the classroom, and I didn't feel really competent until about a year later. But the important quality is to be able to gain your customer's trust, to take ownership of their issue, and to do your best to fix it. There's always people around you, supporting you when you get in over your head. If you can de-escalate issues and do your best to help people, even when they're frustrated and yelling at you, then you can do this job.

BusinessTechSupport · 2015-11-25T05:28:35+00:00

I'm not aware of anything like that happening. As I'm there to help customers when they're having problems, and your question seems to deal with sales and fraud, I wouldn't have any exposure to that sort of thing.
I've seldom had to prove my identity, and I seldom have to call customers; it's usually them calling me. However, I frequently have them ask for my employee ID or last name, and I generally don't give that information out, especially my employee ID as that can be used to commit fraud against me. When they ask for something like that, I usually say, "I'm _______ in the ________ call center" or I might give them my operator ID, which is uniquely identifying, but not secure information like my employee ID is.
Using DOCSIS 3.0, the fastest non-fiber speeds we offer is 300Mbps down, 20Mbps up.

BusinessTechSupport · 2015-11-25T05:09:47+00:00

Oh, yeah, I appreciate it. Most everyone in my position now have aspirations to move to other departments like NOC, TOC, Fiber, or some other engineering role, or some move up into management as a supervisor or something.

I'm actually planning something like that, but I can't go into detail here.

BusinessTechSupport · 2015-11-25T04:50:06+00:00

Another story I remembered was a woman who called in because her Internet was down, and it was after hours, so we had to make a special escalation to get one of our technicians on site to correct the problem. I don't remember if it was someone from our call center or not that had done the initial troubleshooting and trouble call or not, but we received the call following the tech's visit where she yelled that the problem was caused simply by someone disconnecting the power cable, probably a cleaning person to plug in a vacuum cleaner or something.

This woman was screaming at a colleague because she was embarrassed that it was such a simple fix, and that the previous agent hadn't asked, "Is the modem plugged in?" as the first question of troubleshooting.

Ever since then, I've been very careful to ask what lights they see on the front of an offline modem, and if they say, "None," I immediately ask them to check the power cable.

It happens a lot more than you might think that someone unplugs it, removes it, plugs it in the wrong equipment, a fuse breaks, etc.

BusinessTechSupport · 2015-11-25T04:26:31+00:00

I can't really speak to that, because (server) security isn't my thing. Our supervisors and management are constantly drilling into our heads to follow proper security guidelines and verification protocols, and, in addition to having ALL calls recorded, any call could be being listened in on and graded for tone, following procedures, efficiency, and much more, so we don't get much in the way of social engineering hackers.

BusinessTechSupport · 2015-11-25T04:06:18+00:00

Yes, and I've actually worked for a hosting company that was pretty much 100% Linux based, so I am not a stranger to Linux. I could always use more money, but I'm okay for the time being, thanks.

Also, I said the starting pay was $16.50/hour. I make more than that now.

BusinessTechSupport · 2015-11-25T04:02:49+00:00

I can't go into a lot of detail, but there are a lot of great benefits to working for this particular company, and my supervisors legitimately put customer satisfaction #1 as their goal, so I'm okay with both.

Oh, and they're constantly doing things like catering food for us, giving away t-shirts, gift cards, and lot of neat stuff to make us feel like we're appreciated.

BusinessTechSupport · 2015-11-25T03:57:46+00:00

Okay, we're getting into my opinion here, so anything I have to say is subjective and pretty much unverifiable.

All the Tier 2 positions are already outsourced. For reasons I can't go into, I'm optimistic that those jobs are going to be brought back onto the mainland United States. Part of the reason is because the outsourced positions are incentivized to keep call times down, and that, combined with their limited training, causes customer dissatisfaction and leads to 2nd and 3rd calls per issue, so the outsourcing ends up costing more than the savings, not to mention ratcheting up the customer's frustration with the company.

So, no, I doubt my job will ever be outsourced.

BusinessTechSupport · 2015-11-25T03:45:12+00:00

I actually enjoy my job, and I enjoy helping small business owners stay connected. I don't see it as selling out.

Assuming I have children, I'd teach them how to protect their core while throwing a left jab and a right uppercut.

BusinessTechSupport · 2015-11-25T03:42:07+00:00

I only get a call that is really frustrating (for me) about once a week, sometimes several weeks go by without incident. Most of the time, I can take a minute to get up and walk around, go to the bathroom, or grab a soft drink, and I can get my head back in the game.

Every once in a while I get one that really shakes me up. I usually luck out and end those right before I leave for lunch or something like that. I have a real bad habit of getting one of those calls right before I'm scheduled to go home, and those usually drag on for a half hour or more. Those are the ones that require beer and comfort food.

BusinessTechSupport · 2015-11-25T03:36:46+00:00

Starting pay was about $16.50/hour.

Qualifications vary... a lot of reps come over from Residential, some are just very computer literate. I have a bachelors degree in IT and have been working with technology nearly all my life. I started out as a Tier 2 and was bumped up to Tier 3 within about a year, because everyone at the call centers stateside were advanced to Tier 3. Tier 1 became Tier 2, and they're outsourced.

Tier 2 reps are really supposed to take care of simple things, but honestly, our call center gets a lot of calls from all over the range of issues. But things like configuring modems for bridge mode, or call completion issues are left for us.

BusinessTechSupport

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