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When things go bad...

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by mmetrick

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A cliet called that she was not able to send or receive emails for several days. They use Outlook, and the other users had no problems on their workstations. I suggested that she reboot her system, then see what happens. An hour later her assistant called and said she needed me asap to fix her problem. When I got there, I rebooted her system, and of course everything worked. I have no choice but to bill for the service call. Now she wants an explanation as to why this happens and why didn't I advise her how to prevent it? this is a client who can get me alot of referrals, so I must give a good response. Any advise?

4 replies

by thechas

You need to explain why you need to reboot a Windows PC from time to time in terms that the client can understand.

Perhaps explain how a PC that has been running for a while gets to be like a white board that has been used for a large number of presentations.
Rebooting the PC is like thoroughly washing a white board.

Also, offer a suite of system utilities that you are comfortable using and setting up to automatically run on her PC to REDUCE but NOT eliminate the need to reboot.

Depending on her specific PC, you might even want to recommend more RAM,
a second hard drive for the page file,
a better video card,
or other hardware upgrades that would help the PC meet her specific needs.

I'm sure that you will get more suggestions.

This might be a good topic for the Discussion Center.
Post it late Sunday or early Monday to get the most attention.

Chas

by mmetrick

The whiteboard analogy was perfect. My reply to the client contained the right combination of tech knowledge and pandering. Keeps me looking good. Thanks for the reply!

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