Back to the Basics of Customer Service

Part III

Written by Robert W. Vaillancourt, CBTE
SBE Chapter 36 Vice Chairman

Have you ever purchased an item from a store or catalog and upon opening the package you find a nice shiny object just waiting to be put together? After looking a little further, you find the package of screws, nuts and that little piece of punched metal they call a wrench. Digging down deeper in the box oh my, there it is, the booklet on how to put this item together. Do you hear the theme from Psycho yet in the back of your mind? I'm sure it's happened to all of us which brings me to Item #9 from our master list of the ten most common statements we must deal with on a very regular basis:

Remember #9?: "Geez I don't get it! The problem you think your having is on page 196 of the manual."

O.K., you were smart enough to figure out that piece A fit into piece F which mounted on item G after you had assembled items K,L, and J with the Hasslebomb clip. Yep, you did not need the manual, which would have told you if you assembled the Hasslebomb clip first you wouldn't have had to perform the circus act on the remaining assembly. We're probably all guilty of this due to the convoluted writing that goes along with many of the items we purchase these days. In some cases such as software, you may be lucky having a manual accompany the item you purchased. Manuals are many times imbedded in the software as a read.me file. What's worse is many of the manuals that accompany these products require you to go out and purchase another book of sorts that compares to the yellow pages in just paper weight alone.

Many of us do not have time as do the operators at stations to sit down and thoroughly read an in-depth manual on the items we broadcast engineers take for granted. In most cases, an intimidation factor as simple as the use of terminology can stifle a user from picking up a manual. While preparing to write this article, I talked with a technical writer at a major computer manufacturing company. She stated that if a reader cannot become somewhat proficient with the product at hand within the first two chapters of the manual, then the technical support department will be swamped with calls. Sound familiar? Let us think about this a bit. You install a piece of equipment and place the operators manual at the board ops position hoping they will review all 2000 pages which were typed in 8 point courier type style. I will guarantee, you will be receiving your first trouble calls within the first hour and the worse thing we can do is tell the person on the phone "Geez I don't get it, the problem you think your having is on page 196 of the manual".

Try to understand where they are coming from. Agreed, you read the entire manual, (sure!) but they may not have the same initiative and/or knowledge as to where to begin with this new piece of equipment unless you help them. This should be part of your standard operating procedure whenever new equipment is installed at a facility. How about that new operator who just showed up at your facility with 15 years of broadcast experience. O.K. enough with the jokes here. You get my point, I'm sure. Take the time to write up a small instruction sheet and place this abridged instruction sheet with the product you just installed and with each of the operators. Be ready to assist them with questions. Questions will arise which may or may not be systems related. Be patient! Some people need a little more assistance and they will gain much more respect for you when they know you are there. Remember, 100 percent of all repairs are made satisfactorily when 50 percent of the repair is made to the equipment and the other 50 percent are made with the operator.

Next month we will explore item #8. "Hey, I told them once how to get around this problem, don't call again." (Don't ya just love it?)

Until next time, take care of yourself, and may you and your family have a very joyous and prosperous New Year.

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Web site contents ©1998 Society of Broadcast Engineers Chapter 36 San Diego. For more information, to become a member or a sponsor, or to make suggestions or comments, e-mail sbe36@broadcast.net. Write to P.O. Box 710702, San Diego, California 92171-0702.  

Edited by Gary Stigall. Updated 05-Jan-99.