Gentle suggestions for those providing customer support.

And by gentle I do not mean as such.

Image © Julie R. Neidlinger. All rights reserved.

During his tenure, Gov. Doug Burgum seems to have disbanded most state offices and sent many people to work from home. The employees might love it, but the number of times I’ve had bad phone connections or home background noise when trying to get assistance for something from a state agency has reminded me that working from home doesn’t always work for the customer.

As a freelancer who works from home, I understand the desire to do so. But as a freelancer who works from home, I also know that sometimes you have to be in person with clients to move the needle.

So I guess, considering the title of this blog post suggesting gentle improvements to customer support, that was suggestion number one: rethinking the work-from-home policy when it comes to customer relations.

For all that introductory tangent, though, that crucial point has nothing to do with the story I am about to tell you.