Every Problem Lands On Her Desk Because One Client Only Contacts Her, But Finding Quick Answers Is A Struggle
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Imagine working for a company that has multiple divisions. You only know a little bit about what the other division does, and you work in completely different time zones.
Now, imagine having a big client who is in another time zone and who contacts you about every single issue they have in both your division and the other division in the other time zone.
Would you be happy to field all of their questions, or would you want someone in that other division to be responsible for helping them?
In this story, one tech support worker is in this situation, and she finds it very frustrating. Eventually, she sends her manager an angry email, and that’s the beginning of change.
Keep reading to see how the story plays out.
Angriest Email I ever wrote to any manager
This was almost 15 years when I worked for a Fortune 500 company I will call Conglomerate. I had been selected (go me!) to support our division’s biggest and most complex client.
Our division was split into two halves. My division, which I’ll call Boons was by far the bigger and more complex side. Within it I supported 15 or so products.
The smaller side, which I’ll call Doggle, had about 4-5 products.
Even though they were different, many people still got them confused.
Both divisions appeared to an outside observer to be remarkably similar.
End users got them mixed up all the time. So did our clients.
It was like filing a lawsuit in federal or state court. It may look the same, and it often is the same, but there are lots of things that will trip you up if you’re not familiar with them.
OP only knew a little bit about Doggle.
I was very experienced in Boons. In some cases I was our local expert.
By sheer necessity I also understand a fair amount of the Doggle’s environment, legalities, terms, processes, etc. But I had zero understanding of their applications. I had never used them or even seen them.
I had approached my manager about cross training, but it was something we never got around to. I had plenty to keep me busy, and besides I never interacted with the Doggle’s clients anyway, at least not in terms of their products.
Clients knew to approach the appropriate representatives most of the time, and would typically understand if they were gently redirected.
Two big things happened at roughly the same time.
Then I got the big new client.
By chance their enrollment with us happened at roughly the same time that Conglomerate rolled out this new idea that we would all work together. We would work as one seamless entity. Every division, and every group within the same division too.
I will go to my grave not understanding this edict.
It was employed relentlessly in our marketing materials and in our internal cheerleading. For years.
But it was nothing more than hype.
Aside from that, nothing else was ever done. At least not at a level where I could see it.
It was like a coach showing up before each game to make a passionate speech about “trying harder,” and then leaving immediately to cruise the streets with the top down.
So we all kept on as before, sometimes working well together congenially, sometimes not.
This is annoying.
I once had a division tell our mutual client that an issue wasn’t their problem, and they should “call Conglomerate.”
Uh no, you are Conglomerate.
I don’t care that Conglomerate bought your company just a scant three years ago. You are now Conglomerate, just like me.
Back to the big new client…
But big new client took this to heart.
This “you can contact any of us about any issue at any time” made a big impression on them. It’s one of the reasons why they picked Conglomerate as a provider.
So they started contacting me about anything. And I mean, anything.
I once chased an opaque line item on one of their invoices for weeks.
Eventually, the client realized the truth.
Since their time zone was about 3-5 hours behind mine (depending upon the office), I would often come to my desk to find a bunch of new tickets waiting for me, filled with head scratchers and wild goose chases.
Normally this contacting me about stuff I knew nothing about was a minor nuisance. I grew comfortable flipping them over to the right person.
They also learned pretty quickly that it was all a myth (which infuriated them, but they had already signed the contracts and migrated all the infrastructure, so what could they do?), so the pile waiting for me shrunk over time.
Except for one particular issue.
The time difference between offices made things tricky.
Since they thought of our division as one big product suite, why shouldn’t I help them with Doggle’s products? It’s the same thing isn’t it?
This caused a lot of problems since Doggle questions could be time sensitive, where they needed to make decisions that day, so they wanted a response same day.
Since they were hours behind me, They didn’t get to their desks often until it was around noon my time.
The Doggle staff was on the East Coast, hours ahead of me. And they normally left the office a little before 5 PM their time.
And it doesn’t sound like they were very helpful.
This left me about a 1-3 hour window to call Doggle and get them on the phone so they could provide the expertise the client needed.
If they called after 5 PM Eastern, I would have to go through the on-call sheet for Doggle.
Going through this exercise was maddening.
Their representatives would routinely not answer the on-call phone, tell me that I should help the client, refer me to other coworkers, say they don’t have their laptop, say they’ve only been on the desk for a few months and don’t feel like they can help, etc etc etc. Any and every excuse you can possibly think of I heard.
Only one person was reliable when OP needed help.
It often took 3-4 hours for me to find someone who was willing to help them.
This was particularly frustrating when our operations center would call my on-call phone, just so I could contact Doggle’s on-call staff to help the client.
That at times would mean I was playing phone tag for hours, from my house, in between trying to look after my kids.
There was one person who would actually respond if she was on call, who I will call Taneesha. She too had kids and often took these calls while trying to juggle family life and helping big client. Often she ended up being the person who was finally tapped to help even when she was not listed as the on-call resource.
OP had an epiphany.
This situation went on for almost a year while I routinely whined to my manager, occasionally commiserated with Taneesha, and also tried to speak with Doggle’s support manager.
It only took that long for me to realize why the client kept calling me.
It was simple. I was answering my phone. Except for Taneesha, no one else was. It was that simple. That was the reason.
That epiphany prompted me to send the angriest email I ever sent to any boss. Particularly one I otherwise liked and respected.
Here’s the email…
It began with 72 point font in red capital letters saying “CAN WE TALK ABOUT THIS PLEASE? DO I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION? I SAID DO I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION?”
And then a long stream of consciousness rant about how Doggle sucks! The manager of their staff should be fired! Taneesha is the only one there worth anything! They should double her pay and fire everyone else!
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There are no repercussions for Doggle staff blowing off me! Blowing off our client! Why the hell is Operations calling me and not Doggle regarding Doggle products! Which can only truly be supported by Doggle staff!
Can you riddle me that? Can you?
It got better and worse.
The email to my manager got a one sentence response. He would look into it.
Shortly thereafter the responsiveness from Doggle support improved.
However, karma also struck in that Taneesha quit. She told me the main reason was because it seemed like she was doing all the work for their team.
Which she was. Which pushed her to find a better job.
Finally, a positive change.
So, Believe it or not, Big Client once again went back to reaching out to me, and telling operations to reach out to me, because the Doggle on call staff were worthless.
Couldn’t they talk to Taneesha? No, you can’t.
So Conglomerate hired someone new, in my time zone, specifically to help support clients further west. Someone who sat next to me at work, knew his stuff, and had a decent work ethic.
Yahoo!! After that, they stopped calling me.
The manager sounds decent.
So my manager eventually came through.
I had come to respect him and I’m certain he was spitting fire just like I was, behind the scenes though.
On the other hand, shortly after all this happened, the manager of Doggle support was promoted.
There is no justice.
How frustrating! I’m glad it eventually worked out okay in the end. And good for Taneesha.
Let’s see how Reddit responded.
This person remembered a stressful work experience.
This is a good point.
One person thinks assertiveness is the key.
This person shares how he got a nickname.
I’m glad the manager finally did something about the situation. Having an expert in the other division sitting right next to OP sounds like a brilliant way to handle it.
That had to be just as frustrating for the client too.
What’s good for the client is good for the company.
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