Wednesday, November 09, 2005

Female Support

For the small percentage of my readers who are male, don't worry, the following entry has nothing to do with shopping for undergarments. You may proceed safely...

Among the many tasks I have set before me on a daily basis at my new place of employment, member support is probably the one that takes the most time. It isn't all that different from teaching if you look at it from a different angle. When I did software training, I spent a lot of class time explaining things many times over, in many different ways. The key in my classes was to always make sure the student didn't feel dumb for asking a question (even if they asked it several times already) and to be very patient.

When people feel "dumb", their reaction is to place the blame on someone else rather than themselves. Nobody likes to think that they are unintelligent, so it is easier to believe that whatever it is they don't understand is severely flawed. And if you are the person associated with said flawed system, then you come under attack as well.

While I have had some irate people at times, I find that I have a slight advantage over the average support person. That is of course making the assumption that the "average" support person is male. My advantage then, as you may have guessed, is that I am female.

How exactly does this give me an advantage, you ask? (you don't really, but it makes me feel good to pretend you are interested)

I am not in anyway saying that as a female I am more intelligent, or that I am automatically more socially adept than a male, and therefore better equipped to handle more difficult people. In my experience of being the one supported, I would have to say that I often received more coherent and amiable support from males than females. So it wouldn't make sense for me to argue that just the mere fact that I am female is an automatic trump card in the world of support. Being female is merely a tool, that when used correctly, allows me to deal with situations in a way that I could not imagine working quite the same for a male.

For example, a member has a question to which I don't have an answer. I need time to obtain the answer, but this member is not going to take being on hold very well. Solution?

"Wow. You would ask me that question, wouldn't you? (--> insert charming laugh here) Well, tell you what, give me just a sec before I answer that, because I want to be sure I give you the correct information, k? (while digging up answer, engage in talk about the weather, or something that may interest the member, based on the little bit of information you have about them)"

Why do I think the above response needs a woman's delivery to be successful? Well, let's look at a comparison. Charming laugh from man to man does not usually go over too well. Charming laugh from man to woman comes off creepy, with the potential of being stalkeresque.** Charming laugh from woman to man has a proven succes rate of 97%*. Charming laugh from woman to woman comes off friendly. Winner? I think you all know.

But seriously, the support part of my job seems to be going well. It can be frustrating at times, but even the frustrating moments are often tempered with humor. And I do have to admit, I enjoy helping people (back to the why I enjoyed teaching...), so there is a pleasant feeling of accomplishment when someone thanks you, even if it took a long time to get them to that point.

So that's one aspect of the new job that, so far, is going well.

*may or may not be based on actual data
**may or may not be a real word


Listening to: Paper Doll by Rachael Yamagata
Current Mood: ...supportive?...
Currently Reading: Oh, c'mon...the same thing I was reading 10 minutes ago!

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