And another thing...

Another World.

I have to say, that since moving to the dark side (tech support) I am much happier.

Being a Tech Router was a nightmare. You had to know every single product and were treated like an idiot when you didn't know that some obscure programming language was still used and every intricate detail of that language. The actual work was interesting but since it is 80% technical and your managers are 0% technical, you never got credit for the fact that you even heard of that obscure programming language. In short, you rocked on the phone, but on paper (the managers opinion) you sucked because your call time was 2 seconds off the norm.

Over on the 'other side', you have two people grading you. One grading you on customer service and an actual tenured technician grading you on the tech support aspects. Makes sense, don't it?

Just to give you a feel of how different the atmosphere is over on the 'other' side. If a customer has a good experience and wants to give you Kudos, they have an email address they can use and they often do. When someone says something nice about how you helped them, the managers send it out in an email for ALL TO SEE.

Imagine if you will, the atmosphere that sort of thing generates. Just think about it for a minute. You rock, your customers think you rock and tell your manager that you rock. Then they send out an email letting everyone know that you rock.

How fucking cool is that??? I get 2 or three emails from customers a day. Recently I got a really long email from a man I helped restore his computer, while he was miles from home in Brazil. I won't bore you with the whole thing, but just to give you an idea, I will post a couple excerpts.

...Within minutes I was connected to one of the most interesting persons I have ever had the privilege to speak with, Mrs./Ms. "Evel"...

For the novice user it was frightening to say the least, however; with the professional assurance and guidance of "Evel" the day was saved.

While everyone else was probably enjoying a happy holiday meal or a lazy day at the beach "Evel" was hard at work in a remote bastion of the Undisclosed Computer Software Company™. After completing all of "Evel's" instructions I am happy to say you have recruited another happy Undisclosed Computer Software Company™ product user, for life...

If it were in my power, I would surely promote this young lady to some sort of a management position, at the very least a pay raise. I would send as many other Undisclosed Computer Software Company™ employees to Nova Scotia to receive tutelage from this very outstanding Undisclosed Computer Software Company™ employee, as the training budget would permit of course. "Evel" is the Undisclosed Computer Software Company™...

He goes on and on, but you see the difference? On this side of the pond, you are made to feel important and valued. It is the craziest thing, because you can see where you came from (there are no walls in cubic hell) but it is a completely different world.