Customer Service From A Techie?

So, I ranted about Google's customer service once or twice and felt like I needed to learn from their mistakes in order to improve my own performance. I can think of several reasons why this is important to me, my career, and/or my employer.

• Things go smoother if communications lines are open


• People trust you more if they feel you are treating them in a professional manner


• You can prioritize better


• You learn more, know more, and are able to do more

Some of those are a bit strange sounding so let me try to expand on them:
Things Go Smoother With Communication
How many times have you worked your tail off on a project to find out that no cares anymore? Or that the desired end-result has changed? Or that it isn't as important as it once was and you could have put it on the back-burner instead of busting your hump? Communication is important. If you keep people informed, they will keep you informed.

Don't think I'm putting on my "holier-than-thou" face here. I'm just as guilty of going incommunicado as the next tech. Usually, I am in a hurry to get the next task off of my list so I skip out on telling the stakeholders what the resolution was to the last problem. Or I'm trying to finish, so I don't take time to update people on the status. But looking at it from the other side, I think that it is time to force myself to take the time to do this.

Trust

I get the feeling that some people won't let you know that there is a problem because they don't believe you will help them out with it. You know, "Oh that? It hasn't worked for six weeks. I didn't bother telling you because you wouldn't have gotten to it anyway." Maybe they're nicer about it. Maybe not. But the point is this -- they don't trust you to handle their problems.

Communicating status with them helps them to see that you are not ignoring them, that you are not incompetent, that you are not relegating them to outcast status. It lets them know that they are important, but there are higher priorities in the organization. People are remarkably understanding when given the facts. Trust them with the facts and they will trust you with their support issues.

Prioritization

This follows from the last point. If they don't trust you enough to tell you their problems, how are you going to prioritize the problems to resolve them. You may spend a whole day working on trivial problems while someone's computer is completely down. Again, open communications are vital and communication doesn't happen unless you actively participate in it.

Learn More, Know More, Do More

OK, I've discussed how people will open up to you if you take the time to communicate with them. You often are not going to learn about problems unless you are told about them by the people on the "front lines". You won't know how to manage the problems until you know they exist. Therefore, you can't do anything about the problems without open communication with everyone in the organization.

Wrap-Up

This is a posting from my experience, not from any book I've read or expert I'm trying to emulate. Truth is, I would rather quote from some book or expert but I haven't found any. Please comment below if you can recommend anything.

My view right now (subject to change as I think this through some more) is that good customer service begins with good communication between yourself and the stakeholders. This is not only good for your "customers", it's good for you!