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The 10 worst ways to communicate with end users

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I thought it made some good points and was well presented. I know some people I'm going to share it with.

Thanks!

Very well articulated and good advice for others who are not necessarily in the IT area.

I have shared it with my whole department! We (including me) have become burned out and "testy" with the users at one point or another and this was an excelent "reminder" for me and our IT department as a whole. Thanks!

if you want them to leave you alone to play with the systems that is..

10) throw sharp objects at anyone that opens your door.

9) grab them by the throat and ram them through the wall into the office next door.

8) hang them by their heels from the ceiling and use them for a pinata..screaming about disturbing your "important" mission and killing your charachter

7) tie them into a chair, prop their eyes open with toothpicks, put headphones on them and blast them visually and aurally with Britney Spears videos for 5 hours

6) same as 7, but use Michael Jackson Videos instead.
[ don't forget to gag them so they can't scream and break your concentration ]

5) place caltrops on the floor just inside your office, so they spike their feet on entering.

4) smash the telephone to bits and hang the remains from a noose in the ceiling.

3) hang a human skeleton by a noose from your ceiling.

2) take pot shots at your door randomly with a .22

1) use a manpack minigun on the door when it opens.
http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread124473/pg1

Jaqui,

You missed the baseball bat and flail :-?

I found that if I just wear the wireless headset and just point at it and nod, I can delay them for a period of time (or at least until I can sneak out of the office undetected).

I'm sadistic so I'm worse when I get up on the wrong side of the bed.

I'm actually in a pretty good mood this morning.

I have the same ideas!
But I use a little diffrent approch
1. If they keep bothering me I delete thier account.
2. If they keep stopping by the tech area I call security and tell them that this person is not an empolyee and should be held for police.
3. If a manager complains I wire her chair with 220 and wait for the fun.
4. If a manager complains to me I set of of her email to accept all from all.
5.I just use the reg.

Quoth she... "2) take pot shots at your door randomly with a .22"

Hmmm... what is this "door" of which you speak?

Was in the cubes waaaaaaaay too long.

You all need to read about "BOFH"

http://www.theregister.co.uk/odds/bofh/

Bob

Whew! I was starting to worry that BOFH was forgotten. How can you have a thread on luser helpdesks without BOFH?

Hmm, excuse of today seems to be "El Nino" ... That should be an easy one.

In case anyone was looking for it: http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ballard/bofh/bofhserver.pl

And if you don't know what we're talking about, time to catch up: http://bofh.ntk.net/Bastard.html

just kidding.

You mean I can't even look over your shoulder and ask, "What's that little thingy over there?"

Doggone! Maybe I should have bought a piano. It has keys, too!

Actually, I am the same way when I am working at the computer as you are when you are fixing the errors, so I think your list is OK.

People knock at my door and ask, "Did I interrupt?" and I say, "Of Course." Writers write...that's what we do.

End users who do not appreciate IT specialists amaze me. People who expect writers to stop in mid sentence to talk stupify me!

you actually caught the point.

Too many people think respect is pride. Respect is giving someone room to do and be who they are.

I have patience with others because I respect myself. I have no problem telling them gently but firmly that I need space to do what I need to do and that I will gladly speak with them to explain what I have done WHEN I am finished.

done writing?

The writer writes said the spokesman. And did the silence do the talking as he didn't know what to say about the writersblock of the writer.

Rob

and I truly don't mind interruptions when people really need to speak to me or have missed my face. It's the ones who think that I am not doing anything and who can't seem to comprehend that me sitting and hitting these keys IS an activity that requires thought.
What occurred here, though, is that I understood Jaqui's point. When you are trying to do your job, and "adults" interrupt the same way little children do when "Mommy is on the phone right now." It not only interfere's with the job, it's tough to deal with emotionally. I'm sure there are times when IT personell want to holler, "I'm a technician dammit! not your babysitrer!"
Be courteous and treat all customers with respect, is simple common sense, but when the majority of cutomers lack respect, what is needed are tools to get accross to them. (Here we go...another idea for a blog!)

just thinking that end-users are just there so we have our job. Sjeesh, what a bummer.

Actually they are but don't ever tell them that. As they might stop working and leave me without a job.
Or to be more to the point our company goes bankrupt.

To be more to the daring, let yourself get paid by the problem you fix. I bet you would be pleased with every single tiny problem that there is. May be even to the point of hiring people to do the job for you. But you would make damn sure that they (your employees) wouldn't upset your customer.

Mmm, who am I flaming about what. Silly me (grumble grumble) just taking the joke as far as
to the mirror, that was held before me, that I did get right true to the other side of IT and that is ...business is that what counts and what gets the bill paid

Rob

I love the way your nostrils flare when you are making a point!

I do hear you. I see a problem in world communication on an emotional level...so I'm gonna' see if I can come up with some open source ideas until someone decides that my "fix' might be good enough to pay for. Then if I have employees, we will make sure that they use the fix on themselves before heading out into the field. But by then the computers will probably be running the show and they will get in the way!
Technicians have technical skills, and I understand that they are forced to also have people skills to deal with customers. Apparently, from what I am reading there are a lot of end users who own neither skill.

Good eyes! I hardly feel myself that they are flaring. LOL actually that is even the right word in Dutch as it means fun

Please, hurry up with that "fix" cause I have a bunch of IT-co-workers who can use such nice skills.

Whether they are forced, to have "people skills", or not isn't the question. I think everybody needs them! Unfortunately they're not given to everyone. So some of us have to work on them to master them.

There are a lot of communication trainings, they're nice and do deliver the tools on how and when to communicate what. What is missing in these trainings is the practice. That is, to master skills you need to make them your own and that takes a lot of time. Time a training doesn't have as they take 2, 3 or maybe 5 days. Then there is still the needed environment to train skills as it must be an environment where people can feel free to make mistakes to improve themselves. I, for one, have learned a lot of my mistakes and of the mistakes of others as well

So please hurry up with the "fix"

Rob

Just wondering, is this an IT culture? Many IT people seem to forget their role in business. They there to connect people and technology together. That bloody idiot that doesn't know how to change cartridge could be a nuclear scientist, but we IT still label him idiot. Maybe we IT folks should step down a step and realise we know maybe lot about computers, but what else we know? Are we really so smart as we tend to think? Come you guys, look at yourself more realistically.

We are like superheros, saving the corporate world from various disasters, and making their day-to-day life easier. More than genius or scientist!

Yes, we are like superheros. We can figure out which server is thrashing and determine that the cause is a run-away process on a client machine on a different subnet...

... but still can't make a good peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

We are like bumbling sidekicks, constantly tripping over our previous failures.

If you had gotten _____ right the first time, you would not have so many emergencies to "solve", would you?

I recall a computer magazine article. The hotshot IT journo had a problem with a phone. He took it back to Dixons to complain. The salesman took it, popped the back off, put the battery in the right way and handed it back - all in one well-practised movement. He was obviously thinking "Jeez, these lusers can't even put a battery in a phone."

We all take our turn at being idiots.

I had been working with computers since I was 14. Well, one day in my early 30s and years of tech suppoert, programming, and computer building/repair experience, I had really done a good one. My old home-built computer died out on me. It was 1999 and I wanted a newer "Y2K compatible" computer. So I decided to buy a new one. It arrived UPS. I put it next to my old computer and I put a plug in the power strip. I tried several times to turn on the new computer, even jabbing the power switch a few times, to find it kinda kink inwards oddly. I thought oh great, I just got a cheap, defective computer! I was about to call the place I bought it from, but at least I looked first, traced the plug I put in the outlet to...


The old computer!

So once plugged in, even with the dented in power switch, it worked! I never really worried about the switch until a friend came down and decided while helping me with an upgrade (he helps out when I need upgrading at times, as sometimes I'm not physically able to do some things) - he saw the power switch dented inwards and fixed it.

Goes to show you, even when you "know everything about computers" as some users have called me, you can even get your moments of "you should have known better!"

And even after an all-nighter, I've actually called tech support once to find that my router wasn't plugged in. :/

(Guess it does help to go get some sleep BEFORE the sun comes up!)

I can't tell you how many times the problem I'm being contacted about is caused by either the power or the device being physically disconnected. I support just over a thousand users and they are a great user base. We do have our users who just don't seem to get it and we have a few that don't listen to what we tell them but that's normal for any organization.

Basically, my first question with hardware is it plugged in or is it plugged in correctly.

I have been in tech support myself and also usually ask the question is it plugged in, is the blue network cable plugged in. But i find it amazing how offended some poeple can get!!! I usually phrase it " i know this is simple but can you check....." but this usually can still offend... jeeeesh you called me for help just starting off simple and working from there!!!!

It might be a good idea to try to ask the user their computer proficiency level before asking the other questions. If you don't know where they are (proficiency-wise) you can be exchanging words but not meanings.

If you ask a user if they are connecting with the network, their answer might be right for their context but not for yours. A hardcore geek might give you a simple answer based on hardware diagnostics and software tools. An existentialist might give you the same simple answer with the same conviction in their voice based on "other factors". You probably shouldn't use both of those answers in the same way...

And if all else fails, you can ask leading questions leading to "is it plugged in" by asking "since I can't see it, please tell me which lights are on?"

Remember, if the user answers "Volume in Drive C has no label" then, at minimum, you know it is turned on and the keyboard and monitor work.

...about the IT specialist who paid a mechanic 407.00 to replace a blown fuse in his car's ignition system (true story). And they say you can't do SH#$ without IT!

The statement, "We all take our turn at being idiots" crystalizes this entire thread content in one line. I can only add that, some of us hide it better than others.

The statement, "We all take our turn at being idiots" crystalizes this entire thread content in one line. I can only add that, some of us hide it better than others.

I have a problem with this one issue.

End user training does not fall into most corporate IT budgets. It is usually handled by HR or even an entire training department.

Just because other departments or upper management has dropped the ball in Technical Training for End Users does NOT mean IT should pick up the slack.

We make "things work" not "people work". That is something that is oft forgotten.

As an IT Manager, I expect not only my employees, but also the users they support to come to their jobs with the necessary technical skills to accomplish that job. If they do not possesses these skills and have no plan to acquire them, they do not belong in my organization.

In order for an IT group to work in harmony with the user group there needs to be a workable infrastructure within which there is agreement in terms of what each will bring to the table. Lack of training is indeed a failure on someones part to fulfill their obligation. The problem is determining who's responsibility it can lead to conflict, as in the note above. The ITIL infrastructure can resolve many of these conflicts and missunderstandings. It starts with a well defined Service Level Agreement (that includes a "Supported Products List") that Service Desk (Help Desk) Management can then use to build the "business aligned" operations (Skills and tools).

The nice thing about ITIL is it calls for a well structured Change Management process that has a Service Desk voice. In other words new products cannot be deployed until agreed to requirements are met. This can include user training designed to prevent calls from coming into the Service Desk that are used training related.

The ITIL processes can be used by any IT organization large or small.

Good point. But this is a management issue and as a senior manager it's your job to fix it. Take copies of the helpdesk logs and find out which people and departments make the most calls. Take the list to the board. Tell them how much dumb support calls cost and don't forget to tell them that it is unnecessarily stressful for the highly trained helpdesk team to deal with. Push for a company-wide training scheme and don't forget to start with the board members themselves. Set targets for each department, starting with the board. Threaten to start billing excessive support costs to departments that don't comply. Try to work Sarbanes-Oxley in there somehow.

Any of us who are on the "front line" are also customer service providers, even up the line to those who never speak to a customer but have internal clients in the form of other IT members. It's part of what we're paid for and that's a standard business expectation - while we may sometimes feel "I'm here to work with this box, not with you," a heart-to-heart with organization management will probably reveal that this approach is not what they feel is adequate or sufficient to our jobs. Many of us began our careers before the latest wave of management revision of their expectations of IT, but the "I'm the IT guy, not the People guy" approach to our jobs is generally not flying any more and we need to catch up. IT people who approach the rest of the organization with an elitist attitude or unwillingness to give more than the old standard of customer support are dinosaurs in the field, and it's beginning to show in their performance appraisals and whether they keep their jobs in the long term.

That noted, I completely understand your ultimate point and you're on target in many ways. How do you approach this so that the goal of freeing IT resources to work on IT problems is met? You must make a business case study and discuss it with your management. I would say if you come into it with the negative statement of "I'm not here to do this," you've probably shot yourself in the foot before you started the demo. You need to present positively "How providing this training to end users can help your entire organization." If you're so swamped with petty requests that you can't do large ones the organization needs, then you need to be able to show that this is the case looking clearly and without bias. What does the end user lose by not having this training - how much time on average do they have to wait before their issue is resolved, especially if several people have the same problem at the same time and don't know how to troubleshoot it? What are the core competencies that would help end users to do their tasks more efficiently and with less down time? What does the organization lose if you're explaining the same thing fifty times? If you present it as "we're too busy!" that won't make your case. Present it, instead, as "The president's new laptop setup was delayed by X days." "We estimate we could have had the ABC project done one week sooner if not addressing these other issues repeatedly." (Whatever it impacted, have your numbers and ducks in a row before presenting this estimate - what is it based on?) Perhaps an even better approach - "Here is a list of projects we would like to undertake which will save the organization X amount of time and money" - i.e. cleaning up server space, mirroring drives, all the flotsam and jetsam of maintenance review chores that could ultimately save down time later down the pike. Planning proactively for the future means taking up a good chunk of time to develop these projects now - perhaps that's the time you can free up by instituting end user training projects.

You don't get anywhere in today's environment by saying "I have too much work." You'll get where you need to be by positively presenting what work you can do that has a positive cost-benefit ratio to the time and expense involved in more detailed end user training.

Thanks for the point, Paul. Some have seem to forgotten that we IT people are tasked to take customers in hand to help them embrace the technology. I can count just as many customers who have turned away from Tech Support because of their repeated encounters with IT homo superiors! There's is a 'yellow brick road' to a customer's IT problems but there is no 'Wizard'; we just have to guide them along the way. I treat my customers with respect for one simple reason; they play the bills!

I think Paul is brilliant! I couldn't have said it better and it was exactly what I was thinking.

Ditto.

This thread is months old...

Some of us had to learn this the hard way over the course of years. Some of the wiser folks will be thanking you for publishing this wisdom.

One trick that I do using this communications format is to take that extra minute and listen to the user and what they are saying. Then I like to leave what I call an ?empowerment gift.? I take a moment and show them a cool trick or process to help them in performance or in a personal trouble shooting skill.

I once got a hundred dollar bill out of pocket from a CEO when I simply showed him how to ping his mail server to see if he was connected when he was having a problem. The funny thing was I was not even working for him I just heard him complaining as I was walking by and asked if I could help. Three months later I was running his company's IT department.

Skill level alone will not work for you. You have to be able to communicate too.

This article was a breath of fresh air for me. I am in charge of all corporate desktop support for my company, encompassing about 200-250 seats. and let me tell you, after a long week of dealing with all kinds of users and issues, to say the least your patience and customer service tend to drop off. This article didn't invent the wheel and wasn't highly technical. It strictly helped me to stop myself for a minute and ask myself how I measure up against what the author of this article is saying.

Dan

We in IT do need to be reminded that the users know THEIR jobs, and we know OURS. Ours is to help them do theirs without making them feel like morons. Now if only the people I send it to will recognize themselves!
Thank you for the article.

"Try something new once a year so you remember how a beginner feels."

"Try something new once a year so you remember how a beginner feels."

We are pro's like anyone else. How would you feel if a carpentr came to your house to do some work and made you feel like an idiot ? Or the plumber? Or the mailman?

We possess a skill that we need to convey with grace and patience. So what if you have 50 certs? If we had no users who ask us for advice, those 50 certs would not matter. I would not want the person that does my taxes to "dog me out" so don't do it to users.

I believe tech support personnel should read this once every quarter just to be reminded that we IT Gurus and those dedicated to support, have been hired to keep the machinery well oiled and flowing. In this case it's user interaction with their computers. True, some can be very annoying, nasty and down right ill mannered but usually it's out of ignorance and therefore our jobs to enlighten as the Guru would say.

Try to be the best at what you do and if that is tech support then give a genuine smile and help the user out. The success of the company depends on it.

If you think that I.T. folks are here to just to help you then that shows just how big of a moron you are. We are here for I.T. not for you. You are here to do your job and we are here to do ours. Obviously you have difficulty doing your job. That does not reflect well upon you and that is why some folks think of you folks as morons. Once upon a time ago folks used clay tablets and then over time they got an abacus and over more time still they got computers to use. What you use to do "Your Job" is YOUR RESPONSIBILITY not somebody else?s job.

Do all home computers come with an I.T. person to change your ribbons. toner & Ink cartridges and add paper to your printers and so on and so forth? NO!!!! You are expected to do that. Being at the office does not preclude YOUR RESPONSIBILITY.

Does your car come with a mechanic? No. Does that change if you drive your car to work? No. Does your house come with a carpenter? No. Does that change if you do business or some of your job there? No. Do you get it now? No, then you probably are a moron.

If you can?t or won?t do your entire job then it?s time for your supervisor to get on the stick and help you. When they get tried of holding your hand, spoon feeding you, changing your diaper and taking care of your psychological needs, then the odds are they with get around to replacing you with somebody who can and will do your job with out all those needs. We don?t want bothered with your short cummins and we view folks as morons who impose those short cummins upon us.

We go to college, take professional training and learn a great deal on our own. You might ask what all of that effort, training and learning at great financial cost and personal time is all about. Well it?s all about I.T. and none of it is about you. If you don?t understand that then no doubt you are a moron.

Talk to Dr. Ruth, Dr. Phil or your local clergy, you can take a twelve step program but don?t bother I.T. If you do impose those needs upon us we will think of you as morons.

Once again this is a typical Becky article. Sorry Becky, try harder next time and be creative.

In closing, if you think others are here just for you, then see a doctor they have pills that take care of that. The modern miracles of medicine you know.