Do you really know your customer?

Do you really know your customer? Their expectations? , Their needs? Most organizations think they do . . . but there are two sides to every story and you need to clearly define the people you deal with on a daily basis both internally and externally
Why are understanding and managing one s work expectations important? Expectations have a powerful impact on our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors and play a key role in driving our attitudes, whether spoken or unspoken. Research shows that people who have clearly defined, well-communicated expectations find more satisfaction and success in their work than people whose expectations remain unspoken or unrealized.
We as technicians have expectations too. When a customer calls we expect they know what they are doing or have the capacity to follow simple instructions. However in all likelihood they do not! So we refer to the 10 commandments of Technical support and speak to them as if they were our grand parents, taking it slow and easy depending on the feeling we get from them after they describe the issue they are facing. We ask the Socratic questions in hopes they find their own answer, we lead them in the path we wish them to go, and we praise them like children.
We have power too we can either make the experience a good one or a bad one with just a few words or that utterance under our breath that gets overheard. I am a poor practitioner of both and have had my fair share of bad experiences.
One of those experiences has shown her face in the light of a new project. I attempted (unsuccessfully) to assist this person with little experience with the product I was supporting.. She in turn got upset and I attempted to calm her down by being nice she got more and more upset. To the point if I answered the phone with my name she would ask for someone else, because I was a "Condescending little Bastard!" if I didn’t use my name we got along famously. I had a call from an associate, he was working with her to move to the new product. I answered his questions to the best of my knowledge and sent him reference materials as well. I Gave him the advise be careful with this one. She will not tolerate incompetence in any way, you should be factual and use tact while dealing with her as she has higher expectations from us as she does with the product.
Moral to my story?. Be kind, truthful, be confident in your knowledge but I don’t know still is a valid answer. Be humble enough to ask for help. Use your customer skills as a regular customer to deal with one.
Learn from your customers. They are the key to the others in their area of the country. What plays in Peoria won’t play in Miami. We have so much to know about people, we have to know people we have to know ourselves.