Online customers have feelings, too.

Just the other day, I was having an online chat with a cloud storage sales representative.  Coming into the conversation, I was already feeling a little insecure about my lack of knowledge on the subject, and uncomfortable with even trying to explain what my issue was.  So it didn’t exactly bolster confidence when the guy gave very short, shotty answers to my questions.  His insights did, however, reveal that the reason I was having problems was because of his company’s malfunctioning site, a conclusion I was able to deduce only from context clues and stringing together a series of his arrogant responses.  I barely even realized it was his company at fault due to the unapologetic way he informed me of their current maintenance issues.  Like many consumers accosting someone tech savvy, before even initiating the conversation, I’d assumed that me, the ignorant customer, had done something wrong to cause the problem I was experiencing.  So the fact that it actually had nothing to do with me and was completely out of my control should have been at least a nice self-affirming moment for me.  But it wasn’t.  I exited the message board feeling frustrated, and there was no one to turn to and exchange a “man, that guy was a jerk” face in customer solidarity. 

But then I felt a little ashamed of that same frustration because I thought to myself “What did he really say to offend you?” Am I just being sensitive? I mean, technically he didn't say anything. It's what he didn't say. But is that fair? To expect the same social graces via messenger as in real life? Maybe this guy was just really new and shy. Maybe I was just filling in my own ideas of the look that was on his face or the tone he was speaking in.  I didn’t think about this too long, though, because I’d thought of yet another question to ask about this whole cloud subscription business.  I opened up a new conversation window, and prayed that it wouldn’t be him helping me this time.

And it wasn’t.  The second person I talked to went above and beyond to make me feel comfortable and welcomed with any question I had.  He was very nice, even though this time the issue I was having was due to a misunderstanding on my end and not the company's malfunctioning site. He was a great communicator.  And he immediately validated for me my dissatisfaction with the previous employee.  If the first employee actually cared about helping me, but couldn't because a lack of experience, he would have told me. There's no way he has any control over what I'm thinking.....

I’d never really experienced these feelings in a company online chat before.  Most of the time, it’s been pretty strait-forward.  And because it is online, and there are so many subtle nuances of human interaction that we can’t directly experience, it felt strange ­to have a very human response to a conversation about computers...over the computer.  But that second employee showed me that there is a difference in good and bad customer service across all media platforms.  It’s the employee’s job to fill conversation gaps with reassurance and communication.  It is the employees job as a customer service representative to adapt to the communication medium that they’re using, even if that means being a little over attentive.  After all, in text messaging, you’ve got a lot to make up for with lack of visual cues.  Customer service may be even more important in these online chat situations, and I have respect for someone who does this job well.  It can be much more complex than you’d think.