Lect 09 - Customer Service and Troubleshooting Skills

Technical Support Fundamentals (ITP 4107)
Lecture 9
Customer Service Skills for User

Support Agents
Customer Service Skills for User Support Agents

©VTC 2012 Topic 10,p.1
Lesson Intended Learning Outcomes

On completion of the lesson, students are expected to
•apply primary user support and customer services
skills to provide possible solutions to relevant
problems

Overview
• The importance of communication skills and
customer service relationships
• How to build and communicate understanding
• Important aspects of effective responding in a
support interaction
• Strategies for handling difficult clients
• Other components of excellent customer service
• The troubleshooting process
• Problem-solving Strategies
Communication and interpersonal skills

are important to learn and use
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills
are often more challenging for new user support
workers to learn and use than technical skills!
(It needs practice.)
• All successful support staff must be able to listen,
understand, communicate with, and work
effectively with users to solve end-user problems
• User support is mainly a customer service
business, aiming to build client satisfaction

Satisfied versus
Dissatisfied Customers
• Satisfied customers are likely to be repeat customers
• Dissatisfied customer incidents usually take more
support resources to handle by generating:
• Lengthy incidents
• Repeated help desk contacts
• Complaints and ill-will shared with potential clients
• Resulting in a poor business image and lost sales
• Incidents that need to be rerouted (e.g. to support manager)
• Product returns and refunds
Communication Skills
for Customer Service
• Three essential communication skills
• Listen carefully
• Build understanding
• Respond effectively
• These three skills are the foundations of the

communication process between a support agent
and a user
Listen Carefully
• Problem description to understand it thoroughly
• Interrupting a caller will indicate not listening carefully
• In written communication, read all of the text and try to fully
understand the problem before initiating a response
• Language the user uses to describe the problem
• Tone of voice (e.g. angry, frustrated)
• Use of technical terms (e.g. struggling, fluently)
• Provides clues to the user’s experience/skill level
• Strategies: Look for a communication skill course which often
place equal weight on listening and speaking skills; practice
analyzing emails to look for clues about how the sender feels
Build Understanding
• Develop empathy with a client
• Empathy: An understanding of and identification
with a client’s situation, thoughts, and feelings
• Understand the problem or question from the user’s
point of view
• Examples:
• Why the problem is important to the user?
• Why the user needs a piece of information?
• Why the user is frustrated or angry?
Build Understanding (continued)

• Try to express the problem in your own words, and
check whether the user agrees with your expression
• Communicate to a user that you view him or her
as a person rather than as a support incident
• Techniques:
• Visualize the user as someone in your own experience
• Use inclusive language: We, rather than I and You
• Example: “Clearly, we need to get this program running
again so you can create the report you need.”
Respond Effectively: Sincere Greeting

• Four important aspects:
• your greeting, how you use scripts, your tone and style, and
your nonverbal behaviors
• Recognize the importance of a sincere greeting
• Icebreaker
• Forming the first impression
• Setting the tone for the remainder of the incident
• Channeling an incident in a fruitful direction
• Tip: Practice using a sincere greeting with a tone that
communicates interest and enthusiasm
©VTC 2012 Topic 10,p.10
Respond Effectively: Use Scripts

Appropriately
Script
• A prepared sequence of questions and statements used to
handle routine aspects of an incident
• May include decision points and branches to handle different
situations
• Recognize when you should deviate from the script
• Can be useful to get an interaction back on track and make sure
that the incident is handled according to policies
• E.g. when the incident evolves into an argument
• Tip: Don’t read lengthy scripts or responses to questions;
restate the responses in your own words if possible
©VTC 2012 Topic 10,p.11
Respond effectively: Use Tone and

Style Effectively
• Use clear, succinct ( 簡潔的 ) speech
• Speak slowly but not so slowly as to sound
condescending ( 屈就的 )
• Use shorter sentences and words to ease the user to follow
• Avoid a rising inflection ( 變音 ) at the end of sentences,
which sounds like you are unsure
• Avoid empty phrases, learn to be comfortable with pauses
(e.g. I think I’ve seen that problem before…)
• Phrase communications with clients positively
(e.g. don’t put the blame on the client)
©VTC 2012 Topic 10,p.12
Strategies for Difficult

Clients and Incidents
• Difficult client is one who requires special handling strategies
because the user is angry, not communicative, rude or abusive
• Focus on: (you’ll never be able to change a user’s personality! )
• the specific problem
• getting the needed information to the client
• providing excellent customer service in a respectful manner
• moving to the next incident

©VTC 2012 Topic 10,p.13
Users Who Complain

• Give ample ( 足夠 ) opportunity for the user to voice
complaints or concerns
• Most complaints are not personal, so learn not to be
defensive about them
• Tip: Remember that complaints can be a valuable source of
feedback and suggestions
• Use empathy
• “I understand why someone who has experienced this problem
would be upset …”

©VTC 2012 Topic 10,p.14
Contacts by “Power Users”

• Power users are those technically knowledgeable, or
think they are, or who believe they warrant special
treatment (may be due to personal connections)
• They may try to impress a support agent with jargons to
direct attention away from what they don’t know
• Use inclusive language that makes them feel like a
member of the team, e.g. use the pronoun “we”:
• “I think we can solve this problem if we work on it together …”
• Use an authoritative tone or speaking style, because such
users like to communicate with important,
knowledgeable agents
©VTC 2012 Topic 10,p.15
Incidents that Get off the Track

Incident during which user becomes confused or that
results in lengthy, but unfruitful approaches, then:
• Refocus the process
• Apologize for lack of prompt resolution
• Summarize the basic incident information
• Offer to continue to work toward a solution
• Express confidence that results can be achieved

©VTC 2012 Topic 10,p.16
Users Who Are Upset or Angry

• Let users vent their anger (say little during this period)
• Explanation may sound defensive or like an invitation to argue
• Reassure user that the problem is an important one, and that you are
willing to help resolve it
• Remember that angry users may continue to vent several times
before working through anger
• Avoid defensiveness
• Angry users rarely upset with you personally
• Don’t sound patronizing ( 要人領情的 )
• A polite question can help to refocus the user:
• “What would you like me to do to help at this point?”

©VTC 2012 Topic 10,p.17
Users Who Are Abusive

• Abusive users are rude, use inappropriate language, or make
personal attacks on a support agent
• Goal:
• First transform the incident into one where the user is just angry (no
longer abusive)
• Then work to satisfy the needs of the user
• Follow the support organization’s policies and procedures for
this type of incident
• E.g. “I would like to continue to talk with you about the problem, but
first, I need your commitment to use respectful language.”

©VTC 2012 Topic 10,p.18
Users Who Are

Reluctant to Respond
Users may be confused, or inexperienced, then:
• Use very simple language or questions
• Avoid technical jargons 術語
• Try different kinds of questions, e.g. Yes/No
• Give positive feedback when the user does provide useful
information
• Suggest exchanging information in a different mode
(e-mail, chat session, face to face)

©VTC 2012 Topic 10,p.19
Users Who
Won’t Stop Responding
Some users have a hard time letting go of a problem, then:
• Use behavior that indicates the incident is over, e.g.
summarize the incident and describe the conclusion
• Thank the user for contacting
• Express your belief that the problem is solved
• Use short answers that don’t provide lead-ins to
additional responses
• E.g. “I think that solves the problem you called about.
Thanks for contacting us about this problem.”

©VTC 2012 Topic 10,p.20
Client-friendly Web Sites

• Support Web site is primarily a one-way method of
communication via the Internet
• Cost-effective and popular method of user communication
• Usually used to augment other modes of user support
• Common purposes of the web site:
• Provide product information
• Take sales orders
• Contact technical support
• Provide software updates and downloads
• Communicate with end users (e.g. surveys)

©VTC 2012 Topic 10,p.21
Client-friendly Web Sites

• Web 2.0 is the recent development of Web technologies
that emphasize interactions among communities of users
• E.g. Facebook, Wikipedia
• Vendors can sponsor forums and blogs where users who have
purchased similar products can interact and share info/opinions
• E.g. www.intel.com/learn (Intel-sponsored interactive user support
forum)
• A support Web site is an important extension of an

organization, so customer service concerns and a customer-
service ethic also apply to the design and construction of
support
Customer Web
Service Skills sites
for User Support Agents
©VTC 2012 Topic 10,p.22
What is Troubleshooting?
• Troubleshooting is the process of defining,
diagnosing, and solving computer problems.
• It is partly a scientific process that follows rules
of logic and partly an artistic process that relies
on insight and creativity. I.e. it is not always a
neat, linear, and orderly process.

©VTC 2012 Topic 10,p.23
Troubleshooting
as an Iterative Process
• A repetitious process
• A creative process that requires flexibility
• Involves several paths or approaches to problems
• Steps are repeated in a loop until a fruitful path is
found
• Avoids hit-or-miss, trial-and-error approach to
troubleshooting; i.e. random trying

©VTC 2012 Topic 10,p.24
Tools Troubleshooters Use
Categories of problem-solving tools:

• Communication skills
• Information resources
• Diagnostic and repair tools
• Problem-solving strategies
• Personal characteristics
©VTC 2012 Topic 10,p.25
Problem-solving Strategies
Common logical approaches to problem-solving:
• Look for a simple, obvious fix
• Try to replicate the problem
• Examine the configuration
• View the system as a group of subsystems
• Use a module replacement strategy
• Try a hypothesis-testing approach
• Restore a basic configuration
©VTC 2012 Topic 10,p.26
Problem-solving Strategies
Common logical approaches to problem-solving:
• Look for a simple, obvious fix
• Try to replicate the problem
• Examine the configuration
• View the system as a group of subsystems
• Use a module replacement strategy
• Try a hypothesis-testing approach
• Restore a basic configuration
©VTC 2012 Topic 10,p.27
Look for an Obvious Fix

• Most computer problems are simple
• Check for disconnected cables (power &
signal)
• Reboot the system (but problem may recur)
• E.g. can workaround memory leakage problems, and
inoperative peripheral devices
• Develop a check list of possible alternatives

• Reduce chance of overlooking a potential source of problem
©VTC 2012 Topic 10,p.28
Try to Replicate the Problem

• Replication is a process of trying to repeat a problem
in the same or a different situation or environment
• Try to replicate the problem:
1. on the user’s computer
2. on another computer
• Examine results:
• If 1. failed, the user may be making a mistake
• If 2. failed, a difference in configuration of the two systems
may account for the problem
• E.g. hardware and OS configuration differences, different software
versions
©VTC 2012 Topic 10,p.29
Examine the Configuration

• Some problems occur because a combination of
hardware and software do not work well together
• Check on hardware and software installation and
configuration requirements, and any possible
incompatibilities. Examples:
• Amount of memory
• Type of processor
• Video card requirements
• Software or hardware has recently been installed that causes
conflicts
• E.g. An up-to-date device driver may not have been
installed and configured to support the device
©VTC 2012 Topic 10,p.30
View a System
as a Group of Subsystems
• Consider the system as a sequence of linked
components, some hardware and some software
• Interrupt the sequence:
– At either end of the chain of subsystems
– In the middle of the chain
• Trace the problem forward or backward
• Used with Module Replacement Strategy (see
next), this strategy can help isolate a problem

©VTC 2012 Topic 10,p.31
Use a
Module Replacement Strategy
• Module Replacement involves replacing a
hardware or software component with one that is
known to work. For example:
• Swap out suspected hardware components
• Reinstall software packages
• Software image on a hard disk becomes corrupted
• Many organizations troubleshoot only to a field
replaceable unit level (to be cost effective)
• E.g. expansion card, motherboard, power supply
©VTC 2012 Topic 10,p.32
Try a
Hypothesis-Testing Approach
• Formulate a hypothesis – a guess or prediction –
about the cause of the problem
• Based on experiences with different problem situations
• Uses critical thinking
• Tip: try brainstorming with other support agents to
develop alternate hypotheses
• Design an experiment (test) to see if the hypothesis
is true or false
©VTC 2012 Topic 10,p.33
Restore a Basic Configuration

• Some problems occur when hardware or software
interacts with other parts of a system (incompatible)
• Eliminate variables or factors that can make a
problem too complex to solve, e.g.:
• Remove hardware or software components to simplify
a configuration
• Disconnect a system from a network to observe its
standalone operation
This approach is suggested last because modifying a configuration
can have unpredictable side effects and cause other problems
©VTC 2012 Topic 10,p.34
Personal Characteristics of
Successful Troubleshooters
• Patience and persistence 堅持
• Enjoy the problem-solving process
• Enjoy working with people
• Enjoy continuous learning (of new products)
• Tip: Subscribe to a trade publication that offers a broad
perspective on trends in the computer industry, e.g.
ComputerWorld
Personal experience, feedback from users, and coaching by other
support staff can affect the effective use of these characteristics.
©VTC 2012 Topic 10,p.35

Lect 09 - Customer Service and Troubleshooting Skills

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Technical Support Fundamentals (ITP 4107)

Customer Service Skills for User

Customer Service Skills for User Support Agents

Lesson Intended Learning Outcomes

Customer Service Skills for User Support Agents

Communication and interpersonal skills

Customer Service Skills for User Support Agents

• These three skills are the foundations of the

Build Understanding (continued)

Respond Effectively: Sincere Greeting

Respond Effectively: Use Scripts

Respond effectively: Use Tone and

Strategies for Difficult

Customer Service Skills for User Support Agents

Users Who Complain

Customer Service Skills for User Support Agents

Contacts by “Power Users”

Incidents that Get off the Track

Customer Service Skills for User Support Agents

Users Who Are Upset or Angry

Customer Service Skills for User Support Agents

Users Who Are Abusive

Customer Service Skills for User Support Agents

Users Who Are

Customer Service Skills for User Support Agents

Customer Service Skills for User Support Agents

Client-friendly Web Sites

Customer Service Skills for User Support Agents

Client-friendly Web Sites

• A support Web site is an important extension of an

Customer Service Skills for User Support Agents

Customer Service Skills for User Support Agents

Tools Troubleshooters Use

Categories of problem-solving tools:

Look for an Obvious Fix

• Develop a check list of possible alternatives

Try to Replicate the Problem

Examine the Configuration

Customer Service Skills for User Support Agents

Restore a Basic Configuration

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