| Having done direct technical support for many years in my early career, the first unofficial rule of customer support is that the conversation never gets escalated such that emotions are involved. Most competent technical support services do this by never making the customer feel that they are less powerful than they are. Usually, this is done by never making the customer aware that they are less smart (even if they are). For example, if the customer was 'This product is the worst bleep ever'. Even if it is, you acknowledge it. 'Yes, Mr./Ms. we understand that the problem is causing you <x>. We're going to give you a RMA #' (RMA = Return Merchandise Authorization). You de-escalate. You give them a solution. Apple's One-to-One program is legendary for being more of a 'teaching' relationship than a 'support' relationship. It is a little more difficult if the person is asking highly technical questions. In that case, you always acknowledge that you are aware they know what they are doing. And figure out what they don't know that is causing them problems with their current situation. Twilio's developer support (and Amazon's) are notable for what they know and more for admitting what they might not know (e.g. 'We do not know about this particular configuration. However, we will make sure we connect you with an engineer who can help you/research the problem') This whole customer support transcript devolved rather rapidly into an ego-driven, I know more than you do pissing contest. Both sides are to blame. Either side could have de-escalated. What was accomplished? Not much. If I were the technical support rep, I would have sent the first reply and added a question about what exactly the customer was trying to accomplish. Not a straight-up factual-based no - but trying to understand what the real problem was. |