Mr. Guy Henault an automation and control specialist at Trident, one of the rare gems I was privileged to meet once wrote to my bosses and supervisors some positive comments about me, and in those comments, he mentioned that I am highly gifted in people’s skill. Deep down, I know those assertions are as a result of my interactions with people over the years and also as a result of my interest in advancing my communication skills.
How do you bring emotional intelligence into providing IT support services?
In every situation I have found myself, I make it a duty to mentally fit myself into the position of the user. During this mind frame matching, I become more receptive to the pains and frustrations of the user and with this mindset, I approach each of the user from the angle of perfect understanding of their situation and the user can sense this through my body language, choice of words, my intonation and the occasional touching of the client as psychology had affirmed that occasional touching of a person especially on the hand in our case releases happiness hormones called dopamine. You should not give your user any form of negative impression. My first interaction with the client might not result in resolving his issues but with this approach, I have given the client hope and bought myself valuable time for troubleshooting and research towards resolving his issues.
Another key point that is worth mentioning is the follow-up even when you have fixed the end-user challenges, I always love to get feedback from the user as friendship and a more elaborate discussion can ensue, this is what I call penetrating the mind, I do not want my user to always come to me with their technical problems, sometimes a listening nonjudgmental ear is sorted for and in this frame of mind and trust the end user can share some personal problems which might be affecting their productivity, in the end, we all want to be happy and not be at the receiving end of a transferred aggression.
My Technical support approach will always be as follows:
- Mind frame matching: Put yourself in the position of the client as this will enable you to develop empathy, patience and understanding.
- Pay undivided attention: Listen attentively to the user, do not interrupt, allow the user the pleasure of expression even when you already know what to do and you are eager to tell them.
- Do not operate on auto-pilot: You have to approach each technical issue as if it’s the first time, having a one approach fits all mindset leads to frustration when you hit upon a new challenge.
- Have fun: Get acquainted with the user, talk about their favorite sports and inquire about their job, give some positive complements and above all have fun while working together
- Follow up and Feedback: Due to access control, you may have to escalate the user’s issue to a high-level support, a follow up on this is very important if you are result oriented.