Failure to communicate

[fixthecopier]

I had a call on Friday for 2 HP designjet 500 plotters. Based on how difficult it is to get to them I was asking the customer to check a few things before I arrived, like the dates on printheads. He seemed confused. When I went to the call yesterday, I saw why that was. He had called in for 2 HP 500, M575 mfp's. My girl at the shop heard 500 and assumed plotter. My bag of plotter tools was no help.

I must remember to ask more questions. Last week I was given a ticket for a secured HQ on base. The location was wrong. The correct location was not secured at all. I did not know this and went to the secured location...gained access and wound up in a secured area of the secured building, with a lap top and a phone, in violation of a lot of laws. Once I realized my mistake I made a hasty exit before I got arrested. Ah, good times, good times.

[TheBlueOrleans]

Re: Failure to communicate

Sweet merciful crap!

And I thought OUR dispatchers had problems.
It seems to be at least thrice weekly that I'll get a "service" call and the notes will say "cust req toner cart"
REALLY?! We have a queue specifically for toner calls, how did this get pushed through to me?
I'm highly inexperienced in SAP and even I can determine which workcenter to page a call to!

I think they hire rookies monthly to recover from the attrition.

[subaro]

Re: Failure to communicate

Dispatch needs people who can multitask and can take a bit of pressure. The calls can come in plenty at times and to dispatch, the quickest thing that comes to mind is sent to the tech." he'll figure it out when he gets there". It will never stop untill the one who is trained to do that job stays and likes the fast pace enviroment. Also, a dispatch in this field of work should have a bit of knowledge of machine repair IMO. We have the girls who take the initial calls and for basic things they handle, like toner supply ect, then the calls get bumped to our service dispatch guy who gives the call a description to the tech. Of course in smaller operation this might not be practical, but a good dispatch can save time and money.

[TheBlueOrleans]

Re: Failure to communicate

I believe the company (KM) has implemented the "level 2 triage" program, but I haven't heard about it since they said they were going to. Field technicians were to train on the phone program usage as well as SAP, utilizing their experience and knowledge as well as manuals (as needed) to assist end users over the phone in troubleshooting their issue, if the user opted to use level 2 triage (meaning they want to try to figure out how to fix it without having a tech come out). Most of the time a technician still had to be dispatched, but sometimes we would get an easy one (lines on copies but not prints, clean the slit glass, fixed.) and the user would really appreciate the time and money saved.

I trained on InContact and SAP, but I did not have enough relevant experience (or ability to talk to people over the phone) to progress in the program to the permanent level. All I know is it was a damn good idea and I hope the program is in use. It's basically the "SSD" for end users, since the real SSD is for technicians.

That would be really helpful if the initial dispatcher (level 1) could not determine the exact nature of the issue, but the end user expressed interest in speaking to a more technical-minded person (level 2) before just sending a page to a technician (level 3).



I've noticed I speak in (parentheses) quite often. Odd.

[subaro]

Re: Failure to communicate

I believe the company (KM) has implemented the "level 2 triage" program, but I haven't heard about it since they said they were going to. Field technicians were to train on the phone program usage as well as SAP, utilizing their experience and knowledge as well as manuals (as needed) to assist end users over the phone in troubleshooting their issue, if the user opted to use level 2 triage (meaning they want to try to figure out how to fix it without having a tech come out). Most of the time a technician still had to be dispatched, but sometimes we would get an easy one (lines on copies but not prints, clean the slit glass, fixed.) and the user would really appreciate the time and money saved.

I trained on InContact and SAP, but I did not have enough relevant experience (or ability to talk to people over the phone) to progress in the program to the permanent level. All I know is it was a damn good idea and I hope the program is in use. It's basically the "SSD" for end users, since the real SSD is for technicians.

That would be really helpful if the initial dispatcher (level 1) could not determine the exact nature of the issue, but the end user expressed interest in speaking to a more technical-minded person (level 2) before just sending a page to a technician (level 3).



I've noticed I speak in (parentheses) quite often. Odd.

In theory that will save some time and general work around for everybody, but all it takes is someone on the other side of the line to find it frustrating to understand your simple instructions and it escalates to people who thinks you don't want to come out. The persons may sound like they are trying to understand and go along with the instructions, only to your dismay, you get a feedback that you were not helpful. that sucks.l

[fixthecopier]

Re: Failure to communicate

One time I was looking for a building by its number. The base buildings have numbers like 2-3845 or 1-2305. I spent 30 minutes looking for a building that didn't exist. Somehow the last 5 digits of the customer's phone number got in the space for location. I called the shop and ask them to recheck the address because for me to go where that building number was taking me would involve scaling a fence and maybe getting shot.

[KenB]

Re: Failure to communicate

Many moons ago, Canon had the nasty habit of continually reusing numbers in different models.

F'rinstance, if you said "Canon 200", you could be referring to a(n):

CLC 200

NP 200

GP 200

Fax BJ 200

And just how did our illustrious dispatch system keep track?

You guessed it, "Canon 200".

[subaro]

Re: Failure to communicate

What i disliked most is seeing the word on the call that just says " Jamming ". jamming where, finisher, adf, duplex, fuser, yade ya ya. Before google maps, and you had to use hard copy maps, you would look up an address by town,city ect, and if you did not pay attention to east or west, you could end up long, long way out. So i learned to use the postal code as, two postal code are not alike and would point directly to the location within a block.

[KenB]

Re: Failure to communicate

My favorite was always "Toner on copies".

Isn't that the entire point?

[blackcat4866]

Re: Failure to communicate

I remember the issue with Canon model #'s. You never would know which it would be.

When I worked at the Canon dealership it was not uncommon to get two or three techs all assigned to same call. It was before the days of cellphones, so you could get one of several results:

You could show up 1/2 hour after the other tech arrived: Why are you here? It's already fixed.
You could meet the other tech who was on the way out the door: Ha, ha, ha. What a bunch of goofs in dispatch.
You could arrive at the same time: We're both here. Why not?
You could arrive at the exact same time at two other techs: What is this? A convention?

Then you call dispatch: Do we really need three techs on this call?
Dispatcher: Why did you go there?
Me: Oh, I don't know ... maybe because you sent me? =^..^=

[jonhiker]

Re: Failure to communicate

Being a dispatcher is very challenging, and , yes, few people stick to it....

Our new call routing system makes me want to back to the days of getting one call from the dispatcher, closing it, then get your next call.....

[fixthecopier]

Re: Failure to communicate

I remember the issue with Canon model #'s. You never would know which it would be.

When I worked at the Canon dealership it was not uncommon to get two or three techs all assigned to same call. It was before the days of cellphones, so you could get one of several results:

You could show up 1/2 hour after the other tech arrived: Why are you here? It's already fixed.
You could meet the other tech who was on the way out the door: Ha, ha, ha. What a bunch of goofs in dispatch.
You could arrive at the same time: We're both here. Why not?
You could arrive at the exact same time at two other techs: What is this? A convention?

Then you call dispatch: Do we really need three techs on this call?
Dispatcher: Why did you go there?


Me: Oh, I don't know ... maybe because you sent me? =^..^=

I have driven to another town and looked out the window from my call and see another one of my companies trucks parked across the road.