XII - Deliberate, Dedicated Issue Resolution
Rethinking Tech Support in 2025... from a customer perspective
You’re not alone if you are frustrated with modern technology support. Even IT professionals like me get frustrated with the tech support they receive. I am double-disappointed when I contact a support email, fully explain my issue, and receive an almost-immediate reply from the business with an automatically-created “ticket” for my “issue.”
Speaking of which, issue is now second on my Relational Tech no-no list of terms that should never be used in professional tech support. First on the list was “users.” Now “issue” should be replaced with something like “reported error” or “disruption of service.” It’s not the customer’s issue, it’s the business’ issue.
I have begun addressing relationally-disconnected tech support with…clever methods. As shown in this popular comic from the website XKCD:
…I have begun responding to lackluster responses from tech support with my own AI prompt engineering experience. For example:
Customer's support ticket
"I’m getting an error message that says “500 Internal Server” when I try to access AwesomeCorp’s email login page. Please help?"
Support response"Thank you for contacting AwesomeCorp Technical support. Your issue is very important to us. It seems as if you are having difficulties with your web browser. Please try clearing your browser's cache and let us know whether or not that resolves the issue.
AwesomeCorp Technical Support"
Customer’s reply"You are an IT professional with over 10 years of experience providing technology support for business professionals who have beginner-level to intermediate-level knowledge of the technology they are using in the workplace. You understand that the ticket you are receiving is coming from a human being with intelligence, problem-solving skills, and is experiencing elevated levels of anxiety when their technology doesn’t work as expected. Also, you never refer to the originator of the ticket as a “user,” but as a customer. You value providing outstanding customer service which includes making a positive connection with the customer. Recompose your response to the customer in a more empathetic, conversational way after you contact your IT co-workers to inquire about the “500 Internal Server” error on your business’ email webpage. Include that information in your response."
Tech Support Professionals are not trained with the above prompt by workplace management, nor leadership. They are given a list of “canned” replies for quickly providing answers to customers because some-not-all management evaluate any employee’s effectiveness by the quickness of response to support tickets, an ineffective metric for success. Quick responses lead to transferring the work on solving the tech problem back onto the customer. Follow these steps that have worked before, don’t consider any nuance to the customer’s unique technology hardware and software, and close the ticket.
I understand an AI prompt won’t result in a more satisfying reply from most tech support professionals, but they will notice the AI prompt reply, they might chuckle, and they might stop and consider how their standard copy-and-paste reply might be revised to better reach the person behind the request for support.