By Ed Avella
Campus Director & Dean of聽IT 探花精选
Thinking back to my days 聽in IT, trying to muddle through project deadlines, cost overruns and motivating the unmotivated in training sessions , I was constantly interrupted by the service call; the individual user problems that sidetracked every day of my already harried existence.
Phone rings. 鈥淭his is Ed.鈥�
Caller: 鈥淭his is ____, in Dept. X. My clicky thing broke.鈥�
Me: 鈥淵our what?鈥�
Caller: 鈥淢y clicky thing. You know, point the arrow to clicky thing.鈥�
Me: 鈥淥h, your mouse.鈥�
Caller: 鈥淲hatever. It broke. Can you get me a new one?鈥�
Me: 鈥淯h, sure. I鈥檒l be down in a few.鈥�
Seemed simple enough, right? Wrong. I brought a new mouse out of the box, unhooked the old one, plugged in the new one and walked away. Before I got out the door I heard, 鈥淚t鈥檚 still broke.鈥�
Turns out the 鈥渃licky thing鈥� wasn鈥檛 the mouse at all, the entire cursor (the arrow you see on screen) had disappeared. The problem had occurred because an update performed the night before on the video card in the computer wasn鈥檛 playing nice with Windows, but that鈥檚 not the lesson here.
It鈥檚 another take on the miscommunication between people, and our unwillingness to listen to what is being said and simply assume we heard them. The terminology the caller used is funny, and typical. However, the real problem here was not theirs, it was mine.
We are all guilty of assuming 鈥� we let our natural biases drive us and create associations based on our experiences. Trouble here is, we aren鈥檛 the ones experiencing the problem. And this can happen in any type of situation where you have an 鈥渆xpert鈥� and a 鈥渞egular user.鈥� It鈥檚 not their job to know the terminology to the level the technicians do. It鈥檚 only their job to explain what is happening the best way they know how. It鈥檚 our job to listen, and if necessary, have them duplicate the failure.
Its part of good diagnostic procedure, but more importantly, demonstrates good service. Whether coaching, training, repairing, diagnosis or even just offering advice 鈥� rule #1 has to be to try to listen without bias. It鈥檚 human nature to draw conclusions. Good service people are even better listeners. It will save you time, money and resources to get as much information as you can before trying to fix something. You might even find it鈥檚 not really broken!
So how do you audit your service processes and personnel to make sure they are asking the right questions?
Interested in pursuing a degree?
Fill out the form and get all admission information you need regarding your chosen program.
