The right service attitude

I recently got an office provided Blackberry device that is from Vodafone. I had difficulty in the dial pad. I can make calls from a number that is already typed in (from an SMS or address book), but I can not dial a new number except for 0. This surprised me and intuitively sounded like some setting problem. I searched in the net for a quick result, but did not find the right answer immediately. Then I thought let me call the customer service of Vodafone specially for BB customers. Following is the discussion between the customer service representative and me.

CR: Good morning, this is ABCD, how can I help you?

Me: Good morning... I am XYZ from ABC. I got BB from you and for some reason, I am not able to dial numbers, but I can make a call from an existing number in the address book.

CR: Sorry, I did not understand your question. Can you repeat?

Me: I repeated.

CR: If you are not able to dial the number, then it is a handset problem.

Me: May not be, since I am able to make a call from the address book. Can you try to find if there is some setting that I can change?

CR: No sir...its a problem with your handset, try changing the SIM Card? (I was thinking to myself why the heck changing SIM will help if its a handset problem?)

Me: I will try, but are you sure that this is not a setting problem?

CR: Yes.

Knowing that he cant solve my problem, I thanked him and kept the phone down. I searched on the net a bit more and found the solution in BB support forum.

http://supportforums.blackberry.com/t5/BlackBerry-Storm-Series/Dial-Pad-can-t-dial-extensions-after-cal-is-placed/m-p/397550

The issue is with different language settings and once I changed the language it got alright.

The point is, what sort of mindset should customer service representatives have?

- After the call I have a feeling that CR does not know anything.

- He does not even try to solve my problem.

- He does not care to ask few more questions to isolate the problem.

- He does not even bother to really check what the problem is or even later give me a call if replacing SIM solved my problem.

Perhaps from CR's point of view, his thinking of customer (me) may be...

- What a non-sense guy, cant he understand if he is not able to type a number, it means its a problem with the handset?

- Why does not he try changing the handset?

- Why is not trying to listen to the solution that an expert (CR himself) is giving?

In my opinion no customer support team comes to work to say, today I will not help my customers. For few known/unknown reasons there is a gap between what is expected from customer and what is being delivered. It is quite essential to realize this gap from both points of view and try to reduce it.

For example, if we consider the above case, the mindset of the CR should be to really to "help" and check (by probably calling back the customer) if the problem is solved or not. For the customer, it is essential that he explores alternate channels and have a realistic expectation on what customer support can really solve.