When I ran support centers, I was always intrigued by special support engineers who cranked through cases, got fantastic customer satisfaction ratings, and yet were not particularly outstanding when it came to pure technical knowledge. How did they do it?

They had outstanding support skills: they knew just how to work with customers – and their managers and co-workers too. Here are some of the techniques they used. They work for everyone!

Be prompt
Unlike wine or cheese, customer issues do not age gracefully. A prompt response sets you off on the right foot, even for electronic requests, and even if all you can say is that you need to research the issue.

Shoot for one-touch resolution
Always try to provide a full resolution during the first interaction. This makes for happy customers and also saves you the burden of having to follow up.

Close your loops
If you cannot resolve issues on the first interaction, make a clear commitment on what will happen next and by when, and then make sure you deliver. Failures to meet commitments and failures to make commitments in the first place are the main causes for customer escalations.

Drive – or you will be driven
Be assertive, neither submissive nor aggressive. Take charge of each interaction and don’t let the customer take over.

Reset before every call
As you hurry from one customer to another, it’s easy to let the tension of the previous call spill into the next one. Consciously start fresh with each customer.

Smile
Smiling automatically switches your voice to a higher register, which sounds friendlier to the customer, even if it’s a forced smile. Amazing, huh?

Turn on Miss Manners
“Please” and “thank you” continue to be magic words. Be unfailingly polite and gracious.

Attend to emotions first
If a customer launches into a big emotional diatribe, resist asking for the version of the software they are running, as your script dictates. Instead, listen sympathetically. The customer will let you know when he’s ready to proceed, perhaps with an unsubtle: “So what are you going to do about it?” This is your cue to go back to your script.

Use the blameless apology technique
The customer calls and tells you he was up most of the night with a down system because of a bug in the product. Should you say you’re sorry? After all, you did not personally put that bug in the product… But you can and should use a so-called blameless apology. Tell him how sorry you are that he had to stay up all night. And make sure you say it absolutely sincerely, otherwise he won’t hear it.

Listen
You know the old saw about two ears and one mouth: listen more than you talk. If you rush, you miss important clues and you can antagonize the customer. Repeat key information and ask questions to demonstrate that you understand what the customer is saying.

Flex to the customer’s style
The fastest way to resolve a customer’s issue is to do it their way. You should be able to figure out quickly whether a particular customer likes to chitchat or prefers a businesslike approach, needs a lot of details and time to make decisions or likes a faster pace. Set your preferences aside and take your lead from the customer.

Don’t take it personally
Customers lose it sometimes. They get mad, they get ugly. But it’s not really about you (at least, I hope not!). The customers are mad at the company, at the product, or at the process. Keep your cool and think relaxing thoughts while they, shall we say, unburden themselves.

Say no
There are times when the answer is no, as in “no, this version is no longer supported” or “no, this bug will not be fixed”. Don’t delay and don’t panic. Calmly explain the situation and what you can do to help the customer. It’s a good time to use your blameless apologies, too.

Rehearse difficult calls
Borrow a technique from actors and rehearse touch calls. Calls may not turn out the way you expect them (after all, customers aren’t reading the same script) but you should be able to anticipate likely reactions and prepare good answers for them. Rehearsing also has the wonderful side effect of calming your nerves

Don’t hide behind email – or voicemail
Try this rule of thumb: use email only for sharing technical facts. Anything emotional, including anything that could be construed as bad news, should be communicated by phone. And don’t call after business hours hoping to get voicemail: that’s cheating.

Log everything
Who knows who will need to take over one of your issues? Who knows who will need to dig into the history of a particular request to figure out where things went wrong? So log everything into the tracking system, including incoming customers’ voicemails and the like.

Don’t play “Go get a rock”
“Go get a rock” is the terribly frustrating game in which the customer is ordered to gather rocks until one strikes your fancy, aka ordered to try various remedies without any apparent rhyme or reason. Pretty soon, the frustrated customer will stop cooperating. Always provide a context for requests or suggested solutions.

Keep your feet out of your mouth
Let’s say Engineering has not yet responded to your critical request for an assist with your BigCustomer, who is now berating you for the lack of progress on the issue. Do yourself a favor and refrain from sharing your miserable experience with Engineering. The customer really doesn’t need to know and it won’t make things better. Work out internal problems out of sight of the customer.

Try something new
There’s always a new technique that you can try to perfect your support skills. Try it. It takes a few weeks of practice to successfully develop a new habit, so get going.

About the author
Francoise Tourniaire is the founder and principal of FT Works, a consulting firm that helps technology companies create and grow their support operations. She is the author of “Don’t Play Go Get a Rock – A Complete Guide to Flawless Technical Support Skills”, a practical guide for support reps who want to improve their ability to deliver flawless service. For more information, visit www.ftworks.com or call 650 559 9826.