How I became an empathetic and proactive Technical Support Engineer while managing my human emotions?
Tags: mentalhealth, beginners, productivity
Published: 2022-12-08 20:17:01



My first of many posts!

I remember when MySpace was at its best, and I would spend hours building my profile and using JavaScript to make a falling objects effect occur when someone navigates to my page. For those of you who used Myspace, remember how cool it was to have a responsive profile with music. Well, it was for me. 

<img width="100%" style="width:100%" src="https://media.giphy.com/media/Wxc9iA6vBWMP9jbMjn/giphy.gif">

It took a while to figure out how I do this since coding was so new for me at the time. However, the ability to create something that was mine to share was fascinating. I continued to seek more ways to express myself. 

I knew others who struggled to implement new technologies into their daily life (like I did and still do from time to time) and needed someone to help them. It was the driving force that sparked my desire to become technically savvy and empathetic to others who needed help achieving their goals. 

<img width="100%" style="width:100%" src="https://media.giphy.com/media/gVoBC0SuaHStq/giphy.gif">

Okay, Okay - I will give the theatrical dramatics a rest. Have I captured your heart and soul yet? Good. Let's fast forward to where I am now today, and I'll share things I've learned throughout my journey. 

To be an empathetic and proactive Support Engineer (in my opinion), take a deep breath and remove your emotion from the situation. For example, a customer calls in regarding a severe incident and has expressed frustration about it. Or it could be a new customer needing help implementing the product you are supporting. Everyone is busy, anxiety kicks in, and imposter syndrome decides to say hello.

One final Giphy, I promise. It's addicting. It's out of my system now.
<img width="100%" style="width:100%" src="https://media.giphy.com/media/KcbXFenYh6CEGPl1yQ/giphy.gif">

The ball was in my court in figuring out how to handle the situation. We will use the new implementation for this example. 

After taking a breath, I thought about being in the customer position and asked myself the following questions: 
- What kind of person would you want to support you? 

- How can I bring value and build rapport with this individual I am meeting for the first time?

- What are ways to help increase the customer's adoption of the product they purchased? 

- [**Brain goes into cray cray mode**] Am I good enough? Are they going to judge me? Are people listening to me speak on my call? Why am I here today?

Reeling it back to reality, I am sure the last set of questions slips into your thinking process during moments like this, but remember you got hired for a reason, and you are capable of doing this. 

Once you are back and ready to take the call, say hello and get them excited about talking to you. After introductions, invite them to talk about their workflow, any pain points, who will be utilizing the product, and what goals they hope to achieve using the product. 

Making this a collaborative effort (e.g asking questions about their needs) will help you feel more confident in your suggestions and show you care about their success. I cannot begin to tell you how many failed attempts I have accumulated. I'd rush through conversations and miss opportunities to enrich a customer's experience. All because I didn't feel engaged in the conversation. 

Making this a collaborative effort will help you feel more confident in your product suggestions and show you care about their success. I cannot begin to tell you how many times I've failed with this. I'd rush through conversations and miss opportunities to enrich a customer's experience. All because I didn't know to think about it from their perspective so I was less engaged in the conversation. 

To get good at this skill, I started my own side business doing implementation consulting for small businesses. It required me to create a plan of action and template questions to help me stay focused and proactive.I understand how this may not apply to other personality types, but if you are planning on being the best you and happen to want to be a Technical Support Engineer with soft skills. Maybe this will help. It certainly helped me. 

More to come on Mental Health as a Techie soon!