This is the third post about the key characteristics of good managed services engineers. Seek out people with these characteristics, and you’ll be on your way to building a strong service team.
5. They love to learn
In the managed services business, it is impossible for anyone to know everything about everything, even though there are people you will run into that think they know everything. Great service reps do not need to know everything about technology or about how to provide great customer service.
Great service people are able to instill confidence in people that their problems are in good hands and will be resolved even if they have no clue how to fix the problem at that very moment. Even my most senior techs see problems each week that they have never dealt with before.
Using their critical thinking ability and their people skills they are able to provide a great experience to the customer while learning what it takes to address the situation.
I am not saying that they can spend all day tinkering with technology or reading articles to formulate a plan. They are adept at using the team and the resources available to them in order to learn in the most efficient way possible how to resolve the issue.
They must also be able to lean the technology need to do their job while being great service people.
Great service engineers love to learn!
6. They are enjoyable for you and your team to work with
I am not suggesting you ever hire someone because you like them. In fact, if you hire someone based on the fact that you like them they will almost always disappoint you because you have not factored in the other critical components of making the decision.
I am saying that after you know someone has all the characteristics and values you are looking for you should stop and think about how they will mesh with the team. In fact when hiring service engineers weather you like them or not is less important to how the team will enjoy working with them.
One of the biggest determinants of an employee’s longevity at your company is the perception that they have friends amongst their coworkers. If they are not enjoyable for you and your team to work with, they don’t belong on the team no matter how good they are at what they do.
Make sure you find people with all six of these characteristics
Hiring can be time consuming and it is often tempting to settle for the best of what we have seen. Just get someone into the role because we are buried is the mentality I often seen take over when decisions are being made.
You do not have to pick the candidate who is the lesser of the evils. You can run your process again and again until you find the right fit. Even though it will take more time and possible feel like more pain it will save you aggravation and money in the long run.
Josh
