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Sucky Customers are not just for Retail!!!!
Hi! I have worked for many different industries in many different roles over the years. Sucky customers are found in all of them, not just retail (which I have done three or four times).
As a support engineer for my company, I work with telephone company engineers and technicians all the time. Even the best of them have times when you want to reach through the phone and give their heads a "thunk" to get things moving again. Yesterday's final call was a case in point:
(FYI: In the telco world, we use copper wire in pairs, which are generally twisted, in order to transmit signals. We just say "pairs" to mean a twisted pair connection.)
Tech: "So I turned up only the first four pairs and I was getting alarms saying there were short circuits."
Me: "Okay."
Tech: "So what do you think is happening? Why won't it connect?"
Me: (put phone on mute) "Sigh." (take phone off mute, then speak in a voice with no trace of sarcasm or irony) "Probably because there are short circuits on the pairs. Have you tested for them?"
Tech: "No. I wasn't sure that that's what it meant."
Me:
(silently)
When I tell non-technical people that I am a Sales and Support Engineer, I am often asked what is the toughest part of my job. I say, "Telling someone who just did something stupid, that they just did something stupid, without calling them stupid."
As a support engineer for my company, I work with telephone company engineers and technicians all the time. Even the best of them have times when you want to reach through the phone and give their heads a "thunk" to get things moving again. Yesterday's final call was a case in point:
(FYI: In the telco world, we use copper wire in pairs, which are generally twisted, in order to transmit signals. We just say "pairs" to mean a twisted pair connection.)
Tech: "So I turned up only the first four pairs and I was getting alarms saying there were short circuits."
Me: "Okay."
Tech: "So what do you think is happening? Why won't it connect?"
Me: (put phone on mute) "Sigh." (take phone off mute, then speak in a voice with no trace of sarcasm or irony) "Probably because there are short circuits on the pairs. Have you tested for them?"
Tech: "No. I wasn't sure that that's what it meant."
Me:
(silently)When I tell non-technical people that I am a Sales and Support Engineer, I am often asked what is the toughest part of my job. I say, "Telling someone who just did something stupid, that they just did something stupid, without calling them stupid."
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