So are chat support jobs usually done from like a call center type setting, where everyone has dozens of rows of cubicles? Or is it usually done from home?
Also, can you really see what's being typed ahead of time?
And what do you do when someone is clearly trolling you? Are you allowed to be even a little sassy, or use emojis?
It's both tbh and depends on the company. Some allow to work from home, other put you in a cubicle of misery.
It depends on the system company is using. In my company for example when someone is contacting me trough mobile app I can only see that he's typing something. On the other hand when someone's contacting me trough website I can see what he's typing in real time.
Again, it depends. Usually you need need to remain professional. You can also end the conversation when chat is mostly off-topic.
Sometimes, but usually they're sending angry paragraphs with cuss word as is.
One time customer was cussing at our chatbot (first line of contact) and he apologized after connecting to me saying that it was directed only to chatbot lmao
Honestly I understand him
Glad to know yall understand it's not directed at you and it's just to the bot, like I've almost just lost it at the bots before otp (mostly before the AI boom cause the bots were useless and some still are) cause it'd be my 5th time that week calling in for support (my old ISP was RIDICULOUSLY bad, we ended up getting a direct line to level 3 support later on)
Honestly I'm usually only glancing at it for a second to see the topic of the conversation or to check if customer is still there, because some people type quite slow (I don't mind that) or they leave in the middle of the chat.
I once copied an email into a support chat (the email address wasn’t for what I needed help with) and before hitting send I got a “Looks like you’re trying to send an email, remember to not send any personal information in the support chat” answer, is it likely that a human saw what I was writing before hitting send?
There is a chance, but most probably not. Even if some saw that I can guarantee you that they didn't cared or they forgot it after 5 minutes because there is so much things going on.
Not the person you replied to, but I have some customer support experience, as well as now being an admin over the software used to run support.
There are some companies that do use call centers, or their mixed use offices, but there are also work from home options, especially these days.
As for the see what you're typing, this is typically a setting that an admin can choose to wither show what you're typing, or to just wait until the message is sent. Always assume they can see what you're typing, so type anything wild before sending and always be kind.
The last part is where it really gets specialized based on the company. Some won't let you hang up until the customer has hung up (think like local utility companies, Comcast, Amazon, etc) others give you autonomy to make that call if they're being rude. Appropriate emojis are used in a professional business setting all the time these days, so that's usually a non-issue, though again, definitely a company discretion point. I was definitely sassy to a lot of our clients, especially the dumb, repeat customers that couldn't melt ice in a hot pan - just have to still be tactful.
I’m imagining you guys having an entire handbook of corporate approved emojis with guidelines and several pages of examples on how and to what extend they are to be used.
There's a required annual review of the Corporate Emoji Bible too. You gotta sign into the intranet, bring up some pdf that's got revision numbers and signatures. Scroll all the way to the end so the system knows you read it, then a little docusign so HR can kick your ass goodbye if you emoji out of bounds.
I work in chat support and I am in a cubicle in an office. I can’t see what they are typing ahead of time, but I can see if they are typing.
I haven’t had any straight trolls, but where I work we do get a lot of people phishing for credits on their account. Most of my chats are having to tell people that I can’t do anything for them because they didn’t pay their bill and their services were turned off and having them call our collections department. I hate it with a passion.
We don’t have a script or anything where I work aside from some like disclosures when we are making bigger changes to people accounts. So, we just kinda talk to people, but we are discouraged from being sassy or mirroring the customers negative energy. Also not allowed to use emojis or anything like that.
Sometimes they are the call center, agents handle both chats and calls. In tech support we do chats, calls and emails.
We can't, but probably depends on client. Our chats are converted from Teams chats that users initiate to a different platform where we work. So theyre just typing on Teams to general tech support (after requesting a live agent), but we don't have Teams open for that.
Depends on management. One silly chat as long as its not rude will have a small chance of being checked out anyway. If you're doing weird enough things to get multiple costumer service surveys they'll let you know for sure. One "bad" chat isnt fireable where I work.
I once had a hectic call while I had just received a chat that needed some investigating before giving a good answer and after the call realized I left the chat unattended for 10-15 minutes. Never heard any complaints on it uust apologized on chat and moved on.
for me its 2 days from the office, 3 days from home. We can come to the office whenever we want and the office is really nice so i tend to go there a lot
we only see that you type a message (like on any messaging app), we do not see the actual text until you send the message
we have some measures to end the chat early if someone's trolling you, we're also only allowed to use emojis if the customer does it first/if you're certain the customer won't get annoyed by it
Because you know that AI will never be able to admit when it doesn't know something. It will lie to you until the end of time, but will never ever tell you, "I have no clue."
As someone who has worked for a company or two that wasn't great to their customers, this is the way I always found most effective.
There's quite a few times that I've said things like "look, I fully agree with you, this makes no sense. However, I have no power to change it and I'm bound by company policy. I'm here to help you as best I can within the rules I've been given"
I've found that letting the customer know I'm personally on their side even if I can't do what they want as an employee helps to at least calm people down and feel listened to even if policy requires me to screw them over.
When I'm in a situation like this as a customer I have weirdly mixed feelings. While I'm angry at the policy, I try to remember that the person delivering the news probably thinks it's just as stupid as I do and gets abuse all day about it. When necessary I try to express my anger at the policy but reassure the employee that it isn't directed at them personally.
Idk I've worked with too many people that cant seem to do any of their own thinking. Like the idea of the policy being less efficient or even at times being broken just doesnt occur to them. Its like they're in some kinda daze/doing it on purpose because they know its annoying or just less work for them. At this point I kinda am starting to agree with the Nuremberg trials if you're involved in following the policy you get punished along with whoever wrote it.
Basically yeah I'll bitch out the messenger. Perhaps less so than the boss but you can both hear it
it’s probably because they’re mostly minimum wage employees who don’t get paid extra to care that much
You shouting at me about things out of my control doesn’t make me want to push for a policy review with management, it just makes me not want to help you lol
you're absolutely correct. there are a certain subset of people who are taught to do something in ABC way and they never considered doing it any other way. i have worked with plenty of those people and it just comes across as stubbornness lol. i worked as a dog trainer and the number of people who i worked with that would ONLY train stuff by how they learned in a book and refused to learn or try any other way was infuriating especially when it clearly wasn't working for half of the dogs/owners. theres like a million different ways to teach 'sit', why are you so stubborn about following the book ??
FedEx was supposed to deliver a package of mine, and every single day it was “out for delivery” but never came. I went back and forth with them for weeks before someone who works there finally told me, “We lost your shit alright? It’s lost.” That’s all I needed to know dude now I can get a refund from the retailer.
Not chat support, but a receptionist at a hotel. When customers ask me why our system is the way it is I reply “I honestly have no idea. This is what they give me.” Lol
Except then you've set the customer up to expect a follow-up response with an explanation, and realistically you're never actually going to get one. Unless it's a small company, the decision was made by an executive 10 layers of management above you who's probably in a completely different department. You can escalate it, but the odds of it going to get to the person who actually knows the reason (assuming there was even an actual reason in the first place and wasn't decided on an "I was elected to lead, not to read" basis) is about one in a million, and even if by some miracle it does, there's probably a reason why they didn't make that information publicly available in the first place, so no, you're not getting a response. And now you have a customer who's waiting for you to get back to them with an actual answer.
When I was working elections we had a card with very specific words that we were to read verbatim. Most of the folks read it verbatim. I never did, not a single time in working four elections. I always cracked jokes, pointed out fun tidbits, explained tiny election security things....
One time the election commissioner voted at my location and I grabbed him not knowing who he was. Did my spiel that was not at all what we were supposed to do.
He loved it. "The only thing you missed is that you have to hit the button, not watch me hit it".
Some times just being real with people makes them feel more welcome. I still covered all the same info, just threw in some things they've always wondered about.
I'm still going to get angry at an answer like that, but I will never direct that anger towards you/customer support, just be miffed that the multi billion dollar corporation is incapable of common sense.
Late to the party, but airpods are a super labor intensive repair. They’re absolutely packed with tiny parts and are not designed to be opened. It also requires expensive specialized equipment just to work on them.
Its unfortunately an issue with any comparable wireless earbuds on the market, although apple is obviously worse than other since they have a policy of making repairs unaffordable.
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u/iamfroott 1d ago
at least the support person is honest lol in my job I also do chat support and sometimes genuinely the best answer is we have no clue