The Good Kind Of Technological Advancement

Me: “Hi, this is [My Name], and you’ve gotten through to the tech support team. How can I help today?”

Customer: “I hope you can. You see… my phone, it’s stopped ringing. I don’t know what’s happened.”

Me: “I’m sorry to hear that. I’ll do my best to help you get it going again. Now, we’ll start with the easy stuff and go down the list, okay?”

Customer: “Oh, I hope it’s not something stupid…”

Me: *Encouraging* “Let’s test first to make sure the phone is making sounds at all. Let’s open the settings and run the ringer test.

The phone fails this test.

Me: “It’s okay, that tells me that we should be able to use that to test if any of our changes work! The first thing I’d like you to check is for a switch on the side. Do you see a switch on any of the edges?”

Customer: *Quiet for a moment* “Yes, I do, it’s just above the volume buttons.”

Me: “That’d be it! Is it showing any orange, or the same colour as the rest of your phone?”

Customer: “It’s showing orange.”

Me: “That’s a good sign. Okay, if you switch it, does it hide the orange?”

Customer: “Yes!”

Me: “Perfect. I’d love for you to test the ringer now through the settings like we did a moment ago.”

I hear the ringer as she does this, and the customer practically bursts into tears.

Customer: “Oh, no, it was so simple! You must think I’m an absolute idiot!”

Me: “No! No, you’re not an idiot! There are tons of buttons and switches on everything. You didn’t know what that one did, and now you do! I know that’s why I’m here! I’m glad I was able to find the ‘fix’ so quickly! So, this switch the silent mode for your phone. Now that you know it, you should be able to see a little icon on the screen. Go ahead! Try it with me now!”

The customer settles some and starts getting the giggles as she deliberately turns the silencer on and off.

Customer: “Oh, yes, I think I see it now.”

Me: *Practically beaming as I hear that tone* “That’s it! Now you’ll know if you’ve ever done it on purpose, and you know where that switch is for next time. For now, though, can I help with anything else?”

Customer: “No. That was perfect, thank you.”

I had a stupid smile on my day for the rest of the shift. I live for calls like that. I don’t care if you’re asking me where the power button is; I like making people feel in control of their tech!