True, that. Maybe my brain is on the fritz again. I do know how to troubleshoot a PC, so I myself am not sure why I turned her down. What actually happened: she said that she wasn't able to use her WiFi, I said that nothing immediately sprang to mind, then she hung up. So I really didn't turn her down, I think what happened was more a failure of my selling skills than anything else. I'm autistic, as you all know, so my salesmanship and interpersonal communications skills are not the best. This is how most of my calls go: I say something that they don't like, like the $20 pickup/delivery fee I was offering, they balk and say they will call somebody else, instead of trying to resell my skills or something similar, I say "ok", they hang up. I know that during the phone call is my one chance to sell them on what I have to offer, and I nearly ALWAYS blow it. Maybe I need to learn the finer points of sales.
Well every call is definitely a learning experience. Please don't take it the wrong way, but I would like to offer you a piece of advice in regards to those kind of calls. It is something I learned to do that can be beneficial to you and your business.
From the sounds of it, it seems like you try to resolve or determine the root issue on the initial call from the customer. You do NOT want to do this for a number of reasons, but before I explain the benefits, let me explain what you should try to do.
Customer calls in and says X is broken, lets go with the Wifi example. As soon as the customer tells you that, just ask them for some information. You can say something like:
"I would be more then happy to help you with that, what is the EXACT problem you are having?"
Let them explain the issue, take a couple of notes, and just acknowledge what they are saying. Do not try troubleshooting it at this point. What you want to do instead is listen and determine (in your head) if it is something you are capable of troubleshooting. In your scenario, the thought would have been, yes you can. Once you come to the conclusion you know how to troubleshoot the issue, respond to the customer by offering your service. Again, do not troubleshoot it, simply try to set an appointment for you to go out on. End the call there.
Once your off the phone, go ahead and do any research or refresh your memory on fixing the issue. Maybe they gave you a specific model number or a specific software they are having trouble with. Do whatever it is you normally do to prep yourself for the call out, then go out to the job.
Now in your scenario, if you would have done that, you probably would not have lost the call. You would have simply set an appointment, gone on-site, and had a new customer. Since you said you are familiar with troubleshooting the issue, I am sure you would have easily resolved the issue once you were in front of the computer and the pressure is much less.
Now in regards to WHY you want to do this. The first reason you do not want to attempt to resolve the issue over the phone is because you are going to rip yourself off. Imagine that you did start troubleshooting it over the phone. Think about the time you would have spent, that you would not be getting paid for. You would have spent 30 minutes going through various steps, either resolving it or not resolving it, and not making $1 off of it. That is not good for business!
Secondly, you do not want to set a false expectation for your customer. If you did resolve the issue over the phone, they are going to walk away thinking 1) you provide free phone support 2) anytime they have an issue, they can call you, you will resolve it over the phone, and they don't have to pay. Again, not something that is beneficial for your business.
Last, you are not always going to have the answer for every issue. There is going to be that time where you need to do your homework before you start troubleshooting. You do not want to give the customer the impression that you have the ability to fix it, when you don't. If it is so far out of your scope, you simply tell them that. If it is something you pretty confident you can fix after some research, you just schedule an appointment and do your research before going on site.
To recap: When a customer calls in, collect as much information as you can, determine if it is in your scope, and set an appointment. Do NOT troubleshoot on the initial call.
P.S. - Of course the exception is if you offer remote support or phone support as a service.
I hope that helps you a bit, and again don't take it the wrong way. Just a bit of advice that I learned through the course of being in the business.
