Answer: Technical support is a grinding thankless job. The turnover rate is usually high. I have three strategies for motivating technical support staff (a.k.a. customer service reps: CSRs) members for better performance.
First, I hire the right people. In my experience, the best way to motivate a person is to tap in to something that they already want to do, and then empower them to do it. Technical support is full of two distinct needs: helping people and figuring out technical problems. So I always start with hiring people for technical support who are internally motivated to either help people or solve problems. I like to have a mix of these two qualities on the team. I vary the mix according to how much need there is for figuring out new problems.
I search for this internal motivation during the screening and interviewing process. I ask prospects to provide their Meyers-Briggs personality types. I don't exclude people based upon their reported type, but it is one data point towards them being the type of person I want.
These 6 M-B personality types excel at customer service:
ISFJ (or here)
INFJ (or here)
INFP (or here)
ESTJ (or here)
ESFJ (or here)
ENFJ (or here)
These 3 M-B personality types excel at problem-solving:
ISTP (or here)
ENTP (or here)
INTJ (or here)
I also specifically look for this internal motivation in my interview questions. There are several questions that give the person an opportunity to demonstrate their desire to solve problems or help people:
- If you won a hundred million dollars, what would you do with your time?
- Tell me about the last time you helped someone else with no expectation of receiving anything in return.
- What is the most interesting problem you ever solved?
My experience with these types of people is that they demonstrate a very high level of dedication to solving problems and helping customers.
Second, I engage my CSRs to get their ideas on how to improve the team's performance. I set the strategic direction and challenge the team to work out the tactics required to achieve the goal. I have found that when they come up with the improvement ideas they are strongly motivated to see the improvements work. I make a point of giving credit when the plans succeed. I never lay blame when the plans don't work out.
On many occasions my CSRs have come up with ideas there were both better than my ideas and required more from them than my ideas. And these ideas have almost always worked better than expected. My CSRs changed their triage process, and made it work twice as fast. They changed their case-closing process several times, each time bringing measurable improvements in customer satisfaction. A few of the case-closing changes were tedious and difficult, but they took emotional ownership of the changes and did the hard work to make the changes stick.
Third, I work to find opportunities for growth and possible promotion for my CSRs. Technical support is often viewed as a dead-end job. I actively work to make it not so.
I talk with each CSR and we identify a next step for their career. I do not mince words in explaining to them that I will help them achieve their next step in proportion to their dedication to achieving my goals.
I had to deliver on my promises a few times before my reputation was cemented. I found side-projects that my staff members could do that would demonstrate progress towards their career goals--real experience and resume stuffing.
I even sent one CSR to a week-long crash-course on programming in order to help him make progress towards his goal of becoming a developer. When he returned I began leaning on him for little tools, and giving him time to work on writing bug fixes.
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