In help desk environments, technology expertise always has to balance with people skills. Customers will usually tell you that knowledge comes first but that doesn't mean that their satisfaction isn't marred by poor telephone etiquette, good listening, reassuring voice inflection, the ability to adapt to different personality types, etc. Support is always about technical expertise and customers want to reach the technical expert. But the reason a lot of people stay as a help desk agent is because they are natural helpers.

Help desk management hires a person with a certain level of technical skills but they know that technology can be taught (if the person has a penchant to learn it). People skills can be taught, also, but teaching people skills versus technical skills is much harder. Help desk management does not want someone who can fix anything but ends up losing the customer due to poor social skills.

Customer interaction and retention is always an issue for any type of call center. The same customer interaction skills apply in any application and they are taught just the same way as in every other center - through the development and implementation of a complete performance management infrastructure.

RDC can help you design each component of your performance management infrastructure. Contact us for more information.