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Comment by philsnow | Hacker News Reader

> You need to develop a polite but curt tone of voice for customer support

If this makes you uneasy, it can be easier if you sign initial support replies under another name.

  Hey, this is John, I'll be happy to help you with that.
  
  <Blah blah blah.>
  
  Let me know if that helps.
  --John

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I worked at a tiny startup with a single customer support plus sales person—she had an array of fake names that she'd use for different purposes (billing, sales, tech support, etc) to try to simulate a larger org. She actually kept them all straight and apparently it worked.

   - Hey, this is John, I'll be happy to help you with that.
   + Hello Xxx,

No need to fake being happy (or sorry). Just provide an actual answer.

Is this very specific to the culture? In many cultures, there are standard written greetings that always appear at the start of a letter or even email response.

Recently, I canceled a subscription for a newspaper, they make you go through chat to cancel. The agent was so nice that it was annoying.

I don’t mind waiting in silence, but when they keep asking about weather, vacation plans, etc, I find it hard to not respond. This might part retention technique though.

Outsourced call centers obsessing over dumb metrics like "dead air" and "hold time". They think you are gratified by obsequious groveling and fawning reassurance. There is always some guy in management who gives pep talks about improving outcomes by avoiding words like "can't" or "impossible". He demands improvement to an already satisfactory situation, and so they scramble to out-customer-service themselves.

It’s not necessarily fake. I do like helping people.

Or in some cases, be "Ed Chambers" from Silicon Valley.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=y-CA2EW4Z_U

"I'm escalating you to tier seven..."

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