In our tech support department, we had to develop some of our expertise simply because we had so little respect on our own. We were just customer service reps, really. So every time we sought help from a bigger company or a bigger department, we had to come loaded for bear.
If we submitted a trouble report, we had to already know what circuit IDs were being affected. We had to have already ruled out other possible causes for the problem. We had to be able to explain the problem clearly and consisely.
As a result, in the technical field, some technicians (the knowledgable geeks who really run the international telecommunications network) decided that, even if we were very low on our corporate totem pole, at least we were willing to do something when we noticed a problem.
Sometimes we spoke so confidently, and mixed in so many technical terms, they didn't realize how low we were on the corporate totem pole. I used to get calls from confused techs with New York City accents who thought they were supposed to call my number to report local system outages, simply because my colleague had fixed them before (by knowing who was really supposed to handle it, and having their direct phone number on a frayed piece of paper).
Further reading: Does great customer service increase average talk times?
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