13 Things I Wish My Customers Knew

I currently work for an accounting software which caters to small and medium-scale businesses. I used to work with home users in DSL accounts and this is the first time that I’ve handle this type of customer. At first I thought they’ve be more advance that the home users since they handle businesses. Well, after 4 months of taking calls, I can say that they are no different from home users. A lot of them lack basic computer skills and it’s actually a blessing-in-disguise. We have numerous call centers here in the country to cater so customers who lacks basic computer skills.

However, sometimes I can’t help but wish that my customers know the following things before calling us. We only have 30 minutes average handling time (AHT) and this is not enough to educate customers on basic computer skills.

I remember the first time I use my Windows XP computer. I really took the time to finish the Windows XP Tour. Now I feel that most of my customers don’t know that such tutorial exists (or don’t want to take it). If they could master that tutorial, I’m sure a lot of technical support agents like me would be very thankful.

Without further ado, here are the 13 things I wish my customers knew before calling us:

1. The operating system installed on their computer – This is one of the most basic questions we ask our customers. Surprisingly, we got a lot of reply saying “How would I know that?”
2. Location of the Address Bar – “It’s the longest bar on your Internet Explorer that usually has a blue “e” and www or http near the left and right arrow”. It’s really best to describe this bar in the most detailed way possible.
3. How to download a file and save it on their desktop – “Please click on Save and if it ask you where to save it, click the Desktop”.
4. How to access the Control Panel – Try not to use the Run command. It would double your AHT.
5. How to go to specific websites – I wish giving instructions would be as easy as “Please go to Microsoft.com”. We often took the longer path: “Please double-click your Internet Explorer. The blue “e” on your desktop. Then erase everything on you address bar.” You get the picture.
6. The difference between the slash (/) and backslash (\) – It would help to add the phrase “it’s below the Question Mark” if you’re pertaining to the slash.
7. How to distinguish a Search Bar (Bing, Google, Yahoo, etc.) – Most customers often use this to go straight to a website. When we hear customers say: “I see a bunch of things”. We know exactly that they’re using the Search Bar.
8. How to uninstall a program (using Add/Remove Programs)
9. Right-click anywhere on the desktop (to create a new folder) – Yup, there are customers who have difficulties creating a new folder.
10. Copy and Paste a file from one window to another (or from flash drive to desktop) – This is one of the most basic computer skills that I wish my customers knew. I often give the instruction “Please copy and paste that file on your desktop” but I usually end up giving the more detailed instruction: “Please right-click on the file and select Copy. Then right-click on the other window and select Paste”. Sometimes I educate customers that there is no such thing as Left-Click. When we say Click it is supposed to be Left-Click.
11. Use a download manager – The installer file that our customers usually download is more than 400 MB. Although most of them have businesses, there are still customers who have very slow Internet connection. Surprisingly, they don’t know how to use a download manager.
12. How to do a search for a file (specially using the * symbol) – You’re a bit lucky if customer has Windows 7. At least it gives an automatic result whenever you type on the Search Box.
13. How to open a downloaded file – After a file is downloaded, customers often ask me: “Where did it go?” I would reply “Please look in your Downloads folder”. I knew exactly what the follow-up question would be: “Where would I find that?”

Again, these are just some of the things I wish my customers knew before calling us to reduce my AHT. Of course, it’s not a Perfect World and we are being paid to guide customers on these issues. Sometimes it’s frustrating to think that a lot of customers don’t know these basic things but we just have to remember that we have jobs here in the Philippines because of this.

Let’s be thankful that there are a lot of customers who doesn’t read manuals and doesn’t take the Tutorial Tours.

BuzzNet Tags: Call Center Life,13 Things I Wish My Customers Knew