CR4 Tool

The internet has become a go-to place for technical answers, especially if it has anything to do with computers, programming, or many other bits of technological wizardry. It does have some definite limitations when dealing with humans; with all the languages, expressions, idioms, and personalities. I don't think this is simply a language barrier issue, but that will obviously be part of it.

So if I understand you correctly, you are working as part of a technical support group that is telephone based. If it ismore than just you that is trying to improve the system and customer experience, then this problem will be easier to solve, as you will be able to embrace more.

As you might note by reading some of the above links, the solutions lie in becoming more holistic and aware of what your customers are experiencing when they deal with you. Perhaps they are "wanting to choke you through the phone" because you have not put yourself in their shoes. You have not identified whether your customers are internal or external to your organization.

My own approach is the Golden Rule. That is, Do Unto Others As You Would Have Them Do Unto You. You must put yourself in their shoes, and redesign the experience until they (you) find satisfaction with the process. This is an analytical process that embeds awareness of their frustrations in your mind, and focuses your improvement strategies on the issues raised.

Even the fact that you are asking this question in this forum tells me that you are grasping at straws for solutions, and not thinking about your customer experience. The seeds of the solutions are readily available to you. Talk to your customers and ask them how to improve, and then do what they say. Show them you are listening, and recording their input, and involving them in your improvement.

"How can we (I) improve our (my) service to you? Please be specific."

This may well sting... but you have to do it. It is the way forward. If you don't listen to your customers, it is only a matter of time before you go wrong again, even if you do manage to patch it up today.

To address language issues, you and company may well be guided by your customers to take language courses in order to improve your language comprehension, and thereby accomplish the service more quickly. It is not enough to know the technical aspects of the business alone. Communication is equally important if not more so.

Not only should you do the things that i have suggested, but the entire improvement process shoudl be written down and checked off when each step is completed. The technical information should be organized for the fastest possible access and retrieval. Use of databases, binary decision trees, images, peer systems, etc can all be organized and employed to improve the deployment of knowledgebases.

However, I suspect that your issues lie in the realm of Diagnosis. Most people, when contacting technical support, want to know what is wrong, and how to fix it... fast. If you are a professional in your industry then this diagnostic methodology should be reasonably well laid out. I would spend more time developing diagnostic trees that can get to the answers faster, by simple Question & Answer methods. Perhaps you can also publish diagnostic matrices and other methods that will help customers from calling in the first place... which is really the ideal.

As with all Quality Improvement systems, the ideal is to prevent the error or problem from happening again. If technical support systems did this, then their business would dry up and go away.. Presumeably you are attached to a parent organization that has a higher motivation in operating a tech support system. I suggest that a thorough study of Lean Solutions and Lean Thinking by James Womack / Daniel Jones.

Chris