Users don’t have to know that the Service Desk can’t fix a problem

Dear Bob …

Today I received the following e-mail from one of our local users:

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We need help getting access to the Frumpschmidt directory on the Hollyhocks ftp site.

It will not accept the UserName and Login below.

We need it this morning in order to get data sent out for quoting and ordering.

Please advise.

Thanks

Now, knowing our FTP sites are maintained by another group that reports directly to my boss, which is located in another state, I replied to the user and included that group and my boss in my reply:

This is ticket #123456.

[User Name], I am forwarding this to [Responsible Group and Boss] because we do not handle ftp issues here.

This is what I got back from my boss: “Have you lost your mind? Why are you sending e-mails like this to the users?”

I have not replied to him because I cannot think of any reply where I don’t sound like his enemy. Any advice on how to reply to this or handle this if he calls me?

– Put Upon

Dear Put Upon …

Well, there’s always the Sarcastics Anonymous approach:

You’ve asked me two questions: (1) Am I out of my mind? and, (2) Why am I sending e-mails like this to our users?

The answer to (1) is, according to my psychiatrist I’m as sane as anyone in this profession. The answer to (2) is, because it explains to them how we handle ftp requests.

Now that we both have that out of our systems, let’s try to come up with something less likely to antagonize. The general rule for this sort of situation is to assume the underlying concern is legitimate while ignoring how badly the concern was expressed.

How about this?

I understand you have some concerns over how I handled this ticket. I need some guidance as to how you’d prefer I handle this sort of issue in the future.

What I thought I was doing was forwarding the incident to the person with the authority and responsibility for resolving it, and communicating to the user how it was being handled.

Given your concerns, I’m guessing you would have preferred that I let them know the ticket had been assigned to the proper technical resources, and that I’d let them know when it was resolved, instead of letting them know who specifically was going to handle it.

But I’m just guessing. I’d appreciate your giving me clear guidance.

Thanks.

Never let your boss know your assessment of how badly he handled the complaint. If he was the sort of individual who would be interested in it, he wouldn’t have handled it this way in the first place.

– Bob