Tuesday, April 24, 2007
"No, the REAL reason I'm calling is..."
A woman called today to let me know that she was having trouble with her connection.
Me: "Alright, what kind of trouble are you having?"
Caller: "My desktop icons take forever to load! I know that I've got dialup, but this is ridiculous!"
Me: "How quickly your desktop icons load doesn't have anything to do with your internet connection, though. You'll notice that those have to come up before you ever connect to the internet. If you're finding that they're loading slowly, it would be because the computer is starting slowly."
Caller: "Oh. Well, the real reason I'm calling is that Windows Messenger keeps signing in!"
After helping her find the option to uncheck so that Messenger didn't sign in automatically every time, she had this to say:
Caller: "Great! Now the real reason I'm calling is--"
Let me stop her there. This is a small thing, but it's frustrating. If you're calling with more than one issue, then don't announce that this next one is the "real reason" unless it's the last one. Why not? We generally budget our time to make sure that we're wrapping up your account properly before the next call comes in, and when you introduce an issue as "the real reason I'm calling", you convey the impression that once we've solved that, you'll be on your way. If not, that's fine, but it'd be nice if you didn't create that false expectation.
Caller: "Great! Now the real reason I'm calling is that I left my computer on for a few days, and Outlook wasn't finding email, but I restarted it this morning and it worked fine."
Me: "OK."
Caller: "What would cause that?"
What would cause what? You restarted your computer after it'd been on for several days, and stuff worked. Sounds like normal computer behavior so far.
Me: "So it's working fine now?"
Caller: "Yes, but it wasn't before!"
Me: "A lot of things that are having problems can be cleared up by restarting the computer, and if it's working now then it seems like your mail program just needed the computer to restart."
Caller: "Oh, that's good! Now, the real reason I'm calling--"
...that's infuriating...
Caller: "--is that my computer keeps saying something about virtual memory problems. What does that mean?"
Me: "Did it go away after you'd restarted?"
Caller: "Yeah, it did."
Me: "OK, then I wouldn't worry about it too much. If it comes back, you might need to talk to a computer technician, but if you've restarted and it's taken care of the problem, then I'd imagine you'll be fine."
Caller: "OK, thanks!"
And the call ended.
So she didn't really have much in the way of connection issues, and I didn't really do much of anything. Mostly, I just affirmed that restarting your computer sometimes is a good thing.
But the real reason I'm typing out this post is that the way you communicate affects the way people perceive you. I will always try to help everyone the same way, no matter how nice or obnoxious, smart or not so smart, knowledgeable or green, but it would be naive to think that I'm not affected.
Me: "Alright, what kind of trouble are you having?"
Caller: "My desktop icons take forever to load! I know that I've got dialup, but this is ridiculous!"
Me: "How quickly your desktop icons load doesn't have anything to do with your internet connection, though. You'll notice that those have to come up before you ever connect to the internet. If you're finding that they're loading slowly, it would be because the computer is starting slowly."
Caller: "Oh. Well, the real reason I'm calling is that Windows Messenger keeps signing in!"
After helping her find the option to uncheck so that Messenger didn't sign in automatically every time, she had this to say:
Caller: "Great! Now the real reason I'm calling is--"
Let me stop her there. This is a small thing, but it's frustrating. If you're calling with more than one issue, then don't announce that this next one is the "real reason" unless it's the last one. Why not? We generally budget our time to make sure that we're wrapping up your account properly before the next call comes in, and when you introduce an issue as "the real reason I'm calling", you convey the impression that once we've solved that, you'll be on your way. If not, that's fine, but it'd be nice if you didn't create that false expectation.
Caller: "Great! Now the real reason I'm calling is that I left my computer on for a few days, and Outlook wasn't finding email, but I restarted it this morning and it worked fine."
Me: "OK."
Caller: "What would cause that?"
What would cause what? You restarted your computer after it'd been on for several days, and stuff worked. Sounds like normal computer behavior so far.
Me: "So it's working fine now?"
Caller: "Yes, but it wasn't before!"
Me: "A lot of things that are having problems can be cleared up by restarting the computer, and if it's working now then it seems like your mail program just needed the computer to restart."
Caller: "Oh, that's good! Now, the real reason I'm calling--"
...that's infuriating...
Caller: "--is that my computer keeps saying something about virtual memory problems. What does that mean?"
Me: "Did it go away after you'd restarted?"
Caller: "Yeah, it did."
Me: "OK, then I wouldn't worry about it too much. If it comes back, you might need to talk to a computer technician, but if you've restarted and it's taken care of the problem, then I'd imagine you'll be fine."
Caller: "OK, thanks!"
And the call ended.
So she didn't really have much in the way of connection issues, and I didn't really do much of anything. Mostly, I just affirmed that restarting your computer sometimes is a good thing.
But the real reason I'm typing out this post is that the way you communicate affects the way people perceive you. I will always try to help everyone the same way, no matter how nice or obnoxious, smart or not so smart, knowledgeable or green, but it would be naive to think that I'm not affected.
Labels: communication
# posted by Terry @ 7:18 AM 
