Thursday, January 04, 2007
The light goes on
A customer called and wanted to setup Outlook Express. This is common enough, and I've probably done it a couple thousand times. It's a task that I could probably do drunk and nearly comatose and not wearing pants.
This particular customer was not particularly familiar with using his computer, and had the always annoying habit of reading absolutely everything on the screen. I directed his attention to the proper area of his screen a few times, and explained that most of the information on the screen at any given time isn't going to be useful for us while setting up OE. After the third or fourth time, he understood!
Caller: "Oh... you guys are pretty precise, huh?"
Me: "Yes, it usually makes it a lot easier to go through these steps when you know exactly what we need you to look at."
Caller: "Oh, I guess you've probably gone through this a lot."
Me: "Yeah, I'd guess a couple dozen times every day."
After that exchange, he listened carefully and followed the exact instructions I gave him. We finished the setup without a hitch. He'd gone from a pain in the posterior to an ideal caller!
Caller: "Hey, that was easy. Thanks a lot!"
No problem. Thanks for listening!
This particular customer was not particularly familiar with using his computer, and had the always annoying habit of reading absolutely everything on the screen. I directed his attention to the proper area of his screen a few times, and explained that most of the information on the screen at any given time isn't going to be useful for us while setting up OE. After the third or fourth time, he understood!
Caller: "Oh... you guys are pretty precise, huh?"
Me: "Yes, it usually makes it a lot easier to go through these steps when you know exactly what we need you to look at."
Caller: "Oh, I guess you've probably gone through this a lot."
Me: "Yeah, I'd guess a couple dozen times every day."
After that exchange, he listened carefully and followed the exact instructions I gave him. We finished the setup without a hitch. He'd gone from a pain in the posterior to an ideal caller!
Caller: "Hey, that was easy. Thanks a lot!"
No problem. Thanks for listening!
Labels: listening, understanding
# posted by Terry @ 10:03 AM 
