The Reassuring Thing I Tell People When Providing Technical Support

Soft Skills to Take Your Support Game to the Next Level

Photo by Marvin Meyer on Unsplash

So much of providing tech support is simply providing reassurance to the customer. They have to feel as if you want to fix the problem. They have to believe that you are able to fix the problem. Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, they have to trust you enough to give you the space you need to fix the problem.

I have faced many challenging situations providing technical support over the phone, virtually, in person, and ultimately to people who were already very upset before they get ahold of me. Regardless of the situation though, I have always been able to calm people down, get them to cooperate with me and even end the conversation on a cheery note — sometimes without even solving their problem during that singular interaction.

For those aspiring to take their tech support to the next level and truly master their craft, here are some of the techniques I use to address both the technical and human side of technical support issues:

1. Restate the problem in terms of how it must make your customer feel. This can be awkward because your hypothetical feelings about a problem often do not match the actual feelings of your customer. However, the more customers you practice this skill with, the better you will get at judging how it makes them feel. Furthermore, most customers will give you credit simply for trying or, even better, they will feel empowered to tell you how it actually makes them feel, allowing you to empathize and connect with them.
2. Stay calm and be positive. When you are calm, positive and polite, your customer is naturally going to de-escalate and begin to display the same behaviors. Part of this effect is due to the mirror neurons in their brains, which cause them to mimick your behavior, and much of the rest is due to the aura of confidence you will begin to project. Ultimately, this will create a positive environment in which you can begin to address both the technical and human issues your customer is facing.
3. Be open and transparent. Being upfront about your approach to the problem, honest about what you hope to accomplish and realistic about what it may accomplish, your customer will feel reassured that you have dealt with similar problems before. When certain details of the predicted outcome “play out” they will believe you have the experience and knowledge to solve their problem.
4. Make your interaction a safe space. Make sure your customer doesn’t feel judged. One thing that many support agents miss is that customers are conditioned to feel judged until they are actively provided some indication that are not being judged… One reassuring (and true) thing I tell people when providing technical support: The only reason I am able to provide the level of support I am is I have already made all the same mistakes as everybody else.
5. Mind your tone and body language. This is probably one of my most effective and unrecognized methods. When dealing with men, I tend to use a more masculine tone to my voice and mirror their posture/stance. With women I use a softer tone and am very careful with my body language — I mind personal space if I am at their desk, I kneel if they are sitting down (to keep them from feeling vulnerable) and, if I break eye contact for a moment, I NEVER lower my eyes, which makes them feel self conscious if you can imagine why.

This list is far from exhaustive but if you can master these soft skills, you will quickly become substantially more effective at providing support. Afterall, technical support isn’t just about fixing the technical issue, it is also about fixing the customer.

Read about an interesting response to a real-life technical support issue with a twist in Check the Power Strip.