IT Support: How to Slay These 5 Support Monsters

As a customer service rep, every day is an adventure. You must boldy venture into the unknown, not knowing who … or what … you might encounter.

Most support tickets you encounter will be normal, However, some of them will be … monstrous. When you encounter a snarling beast or a shuffling zombie, you’re gonna be grateful for your monster-slaying toolkit - this is the skills, experiences and team that you have to help you answer customer queries.

Today we have a look at the five most common support tickets monsters, and how you can slay them:

The Supervillain - Too Clever for Their Own Good

Like the Supervillains of your favourite comic books, supervillan tickets are suarve, sophisticated, and thoroughly convinced of their own superiority. These are the customer who many unreasonable demands, who berate you for not knowing something, and constantly try to show you how much more they know about the product then you.

Here’s how you slay a supervillain:

• Point them towards your knowledge base - they may be much happier figuring out a problem for themselves.

• Make them feel smart by congratulating and acknowledging their assessment of an issue.

• If they are getting belligerent, and putting you down to trying to tell you they know more about the product than you, it’s time to hand the call on to a manager or to get off the phone with them. Remember that it’s important not to engage their bad behaviour, but to be polite and firm.

Zombie Tickets - They Just Keep on Coming

Zombie tickets are after your brain. They refuse to die - no matter how many times you give the customer an answer, they just keep getting up for more. By the end of the day, you feel as if a zombie really has been feeding on your brain.

So how do you eliminate a zombie support ticket?

• Point the customer towards your online knowledge base / FAQ documents, so they might be able to work through their own queries.

• Field the call to a more experienced member of the team, who might be able to wrap it up quicker.

• Instead on continuing to go back-and-forth with the customer over email, give them a phone call. This should help you sort their issues out faster.

The Mummy - Stuck in the Past

Mummies are stuck in the old days … in their mind, your company hasn’t changed since 2000BC. Mummies struggle with even the simplest technology - they are the customers who can’t figure out what to do if their screen turns off and don’t understand the meaning of words like “standby” and “browser”. A typical ticket from a Mummy might be needing help with a simplistic technical issue, or answering questions about old promotions or features.

Tips for dealing with Mummy tickets:

• Use macros to address any inquiries about out-of-date software or features.

• Send them some simple tutorials on the basic features of your product.

• Check that all your communications are up-to-date and feature the latest products and add-ons. You may need to update old content like blog posts or social media pages to ensure your customers are receiving the right info.

• Reminiss with them about the "good old days".

The Vampire - Sucking Your Energy with Multiple Requests

No, these vampires don’t sparkle in the sunlight, but they are one of the most time-consuming types of customer tickets to deal with. Vampire support tickets don't suck your blood, but they do suck your will to live.

Vampires are the customers who will send the same inquiry to several different areas of your company. They will message you on Facebook, tweet at you, contact everyone on your website page, and send a support ticket - all to answer one question that isn’t even particularly urgent.

How do you handle a vampire ticket?

• Speak to every department they have contacted. Agree between you who will take responsibility for them and have that person initiate contact.

• Merge all of the vampire’s tickets into one single ticket. When you sign that off, the vampire has been slain!

• Use macros to answer these queries to save time on responses.

The Werewolf -Howling with Rage

It seems that any time is the full moon for a werewolf ticket. Friendly one moment, the werewolf will go wild at the slightest provocation, howling down the phone about how they’ll tear you limb from limb for dare suggesting they might try jiggling the cord in the switch a bit.

The smallest things can set the werewolf off, and they are often provoked by their tickets taking a long time to be answered.

There’s no silver bullet for slaying a werewolf, but here are a few tips:

• Create a global system that allows 24 hour support - that way, tickets arriving at the end of the day don’t have to wait till tomorrow. Learn more about how to create a global support system.

• Pass the werewolf ticket to a more experienced team member, especially if they are a team leader or manager. They are highly trained in difficult client situations and have the authority to call the customer out about their behaviour if necessary.

• Offer public responses to any negative feedback left by werewolves on social media - this helps your company be perceived as transparent and responsive to issues.

What type of customer support ticket monsters have you had to slay? Share your tips in the comments!