I have had a lot of dogs in my lifetime, and two cats. All of our animals have been females except one. (my wife prefers animals that don’t hike their legs on furniture). Several Great Danes, a Rottweiler, Vizsla’, Afghan, Poodle, German Shepherd, Beagle, Shar-pei, Chihuhua, and a Long Haired Daschund, you name it, it seems we’ve had it. There may have been more, but these come to mind. Currently my two daughters each have a Chihuhua , that visit us quite often for weekend sleep-overs, and my wife has a tan Chihuhua. While I would have never selected the breed, a boy friend bought one daughter a tea cup Chihuhua , not to be outdone, the other boyfriend bought the other a mini, then the kids bought the wife one and before you know it…..
Customer Service is King
Recently I inherited the Long Haired Daschund named “Ace” from a friend whose daughter owned it. She got pregnant, the husband said either she or the dog has to go, so the Daschund was “visiting”at my friends house while they found him a good home. Growing up we had a Great Dane and a Daschund, thus I was familiar with the breed. While they look different they are great family dogs. But Ace was a male. While visiting, he would not give me the time of day, but crawled up into my Wife’s lap and would not move. Thus she caved in to taking Ace home. As soon as we got home, Ace became “my” dog, and has not left my side since. He shadows me wherever I go. If I’m watching TV or working in my study and get up to go to the kitchen or bath, Ace jumps up and follows me. He refuses to sleep anywhere but at the foot of our bed. I cannot go outside unless Ace goes with me. When I arrive home after work, Ace is sitting at the front door anxiously awaiting my arrival. (no, he does not greet me with a Martini, yet) Ace was abused by his previous owner, kicked mostly it appears, because for two months if your foot even brushed him, he would let out a loud yelp and lay down and pee on the floor in submission. It took me about two months, but he is now a different dog. Brazen, self confident, and occasionally tries to play the “alpha” male, but is generally snapped down by the other women dogs in the house.
So last night as Ace and I are sitting on the couch having a yogurt (he loves yogurt) and watching Hell’s Kitchen, I was thinking, “what if dogs were help desk software agents”?
Ace would be a great help desk agent. Always going out of his way to please people. Mostly minding his own business, but when a stranger comes around, Ace warms up to them pretty quickly, and once they pet him, he wags his tail and is their best friend. Chances are, the company is going to lose money on Ace, but he’ll probably be a great example for the rest of the team. It’s just Ace will probably have a hard time making it to management, he was so abused that the other dogs (and humans) have a tendency to run right over the top of Ace, thus he still has the submissive streak. But, he is making progress, and who knows, with enough counseling, a few self confidence courses, and he may become the best of the best. Self confidence and empathy, not a bad combination to head up a Customer Support Center.
Before Ace was Lucy, the Shar-Pei. I inherited Lucy for awhile from my son. I loved Lucy. (yeah, great pun) Lucy was lovable, playful, minded well, and when pressed, she could growl and liked to wrestle. Problem was, Lucy was a house dog. And since we were gone all day, Lucy could not stand being alone, thus would eat leather furniture, eat doors, shoes, anything that was edible or not. As long as someone was with her, she was fine, but when left alone, she went nuts. Thus we gave her to a fellow worker whose wife was home during the day, and wanted a house dog and protector. Lucy was like the agent that was creative, good worker, and did well as long as they could work on “their” terms. Nothing wrong with that, as long as you know going in what the ground rules are when you hire them.
Then we have the three Chihuhua’s. Fendi, Lexi, and Chloe. A customer service manager’s nightmare……
Fendi has been around for over 3 years. She is the wife’s dog, and WILL NOT allow you to pick her up. Every time you bend down to pick her up, she backs up two feet. My wife says it is my fault. As a puppy we would play chase and my son and I would toss her blanket on her to catch her, but I swear she liked it…. My wife can pick her up, but she has to make her “stay” and then she can retrieve her. But if I am sitting down, she will jump up into my lap and love to sit there while I scratch her back. After 5 minutes, she has had enough and goes off to her domain. Fendi loves the water hose. You can’t turn it on, without her going after it, and she will play with it for hours….kind of like the water cooler manager…….
Lexi is the Queen Bee. The oldest of the four, and a standard, so she is probably 8-10” tall and rules the roost. She is generally fairly grouchy, bossy to the others, but likes to sit on my lap and receive petting. (remind you of anyone you know)?
And Chloe is the tea cup. She eats like it may be her last meal, then eats anyone else’s leftovers, and goes looking for more. Thus she is about 5” tall and 5” wide. What is so strange about Chloe is the fact that she has seizures, thus has to take seizure medicine. While I have discovered that it is not that unusual, the daughter that owns her, has lupus, and had seizures when she was young. And like the daughter, Chloe is small, but takes no crap from anyone. If Ace or Lexi even thinks about looking at Chloe’s tea spoon of food, she’s like a Gremlin, all teeth. Reminds me of a Help Desk Software agent a client had one time that was always getting written up and receiving complaints from customers. She was a short, wiry 5’ gal in her early 20’s, and refused to back down from any customer that tried to push her around. It was interesting, because it was obvious she had been picked on in school due to her size, and the people on the other end of the phone didn’t realize her size, but it didn’t matter to her.
Lastly the two cats. What can I say, “they’re cats”. They belong in IT management. Lmao. (that’ll get some mail)!!
How about you? What kind of Help Desk Software agent do you have at home?
