When I returned from my holiday a couple of weeks ago my computer refused to turn on. Coax it as I did - it wasn’t having any of it - no action whatsoever. A little investigation led me to believe that the problem may be with the motherboard. I’d built this computer myself 6 months ago, so I decided the part needed to be sent back to the reseller. Time to give them a call…

Me: “I need to return my motherboard, it’s broken”
Them: “Certainly sir, you just need to fill out a returns form on the website”
Me: “Ah…but my computer’s broken, I can’t get on the Internet”
Them: “Yes sir, you need to fill out the returns form on the website”
Me: “Fine…how can I put this another way. I can’t get on the internet, because my computer’s broken.”

This went on for a while…and I got very frustrated.

I once set-up a support desk for a call centre. Whenever one of the support technicians got collared walking through the call centre by someone saying “My phones broken” they would reply “ring the support desk.". It was the support teams’ little joke: They couldn’t ring, see – their phone was broken….geddit?

Anyway - the support team was joking, this guy wasn’t. As a customer I was stuck with a problem. I expect a CSR to helpful, to offer a different solution. I don’t think this is a skill you can create in someone - I think it’s a skill that people have. Whenever I see someone in trouble I have to help - for me it’s human nature. So why isn’t everyone like that?

I honestly believe that we’ve all got this helpful streak when we’re born and in some it gets drained out of them. I think this is what happened in the call centre that I called. Not only had they failed to train well, they’d actually trained-outthe human instinct to help another human.

Moral of the story? Next time you’re recruiting and you’re looking for experience, consider if you want someone else’s maid.

I managed to fill in the form on my mobile phone in the end, and I got the item posted off. What happened next is a story that I’ll leave for another day.

Regards,
DB

ps. Why do I have this feeling that after mentioning a broken PC John’s going to post a comment about Macs?!