Help! I work in a technical support environment and I have several people that have exceptional customer service skills, but are really struggling with the ability to gather information from the client and troubleshoot the issue. Can anyone provide suggestions for activities that I can use to help them improve these skills? This is critical to their success and employment with us! I have tried several things, but nothing seems to work, please help! Thank you!

Please provide information about what you did try, how it was implemented and what didn't work in particular.

Likewise, more details abot what they should be doing but are not doing are necessary to help identify what appropriate solutions would be.

Okay, here goes...

They should be able to ask a set of logical questions that will give them information on what the client's issue could be. For example, "Kathy" calls in and says, "my report is incorrect." Our analysts should be able to ask a series of questions that will give them the information they need to resolve Kathy's issue. (What do you mean by incorrect? Was it correct the last time you ran it? What has changed in the database since the last time you ran it? etc). The answers to these questions should lead them to possible reasons for the report being off. (records not being included, date range is incorrect, payments types are wrong...)

What we are seeing is that they are asking the right questions, but cannnot take it to the next level of deducing what the problem might be. We have given them activities where we ask them "what questions would you ask if a client were to call in with Issue X." They are able to ask the right questions. It's when we say, okay, here are the answers to your questions that they are not able to take it any further.
In addition, we have asked them to explain the functionality of the software that they are using to pull the report and they are able to do that as well. So the long and short of it is that they can ask good questions and they understand how the software works, but they can't make that leap from "here is what is wrong" to "how can I match that with what I know about the software and fix the issue." I hope that makes sense.

Other things that we have tried:
Mock calls (we act as the client and walk through an issue)
Case reviews (we go over old cases and see what they would have asked and why they think that resolution turned out the way it did.)
Troubleshooting activities (what questions would you ask)
20 questions (same goal as above)
Product testing (to ensure that they know how the product is supposed to work)

Hope that helps! I would love to hear your thoughts!

Look at creating a job aid--especially a decision tree or troubleshooting diagram. They're ideal for performers in such situations (where you can't give them a brain transplant and you need to improve their analytical ability with specific problems).

I think a big part of it is that our society (US) discourages thinking things through at an early age. Much of our public education system is based on recitation of facts" the why is seldom emphasized. At work we are told, "that is an interesting idea, but just do it the way your have been told: we have experience and know the best way". And the reasoned political discourse I loved as a young man has largely been replaced by politicians saying "I know best. Leave it to me." Your commends tell me that they know the correct questions to ask and how things work: they recite well.

There are exceptions to all these, but they are increasingly the norm.

To answer your question, then, you have to create an environment where thinking things through is the norm. You have to break the cycle your people have learned most of their lives. My suggestion is to get them doing thought exercises. Check out some of the exercises in Thinkertoys or in one of Paul Sloane's books.