Tuesday, February 20, 2007
I just don't know
One of the things that drives me crazy is when someone doesn't know the answer to a question, and so just makes one up. When you're doing tech support, that's horrible. If the caller doesn't know the answer, you'd much rather hear them say "I don't know". Then you can try and help them find out, and you can be sure that you've got the right answer.
When a caller gives you an answer and they don't know, you don't find out when they're wrong until you've wasted some time. There are easy cases where this happens, and it's just frustrating:
Me: "What version of Windows are you using?"
Caller: "2000."
Me: "OK, please click on Start, move up to Settings, and click Network and Dial-up Connections."
Caller: "It doesn't say that under settings. It says Dialup Networking. Should I click that?"
At this point I know they actually have Windows Millenium Edition. Admittedly, it's stupid that the naming conventions worked out so that there's a Windows 2000 and Millenium Edition, but there is, and they're fairly different.
Then there are other cases where a caller says something, and we waste a fair bit of time figuring out the problem, only to discover that the reason that we didn't look at the cause was because of an answer that the caller gave earlier. Take the case of Lance*, who called and said he wasn't able to send out email. Receiving was working, but not sending.
The first thing we usually do with most email errors is doublecheck the account settings. On our way in, we saw that he had an email account with another company. I asked if he still used it, since if he didn't, we would remove it. "Yeah, I still use it sometimes." Are you connected to that internet provider right now? "No, I'm connected to you guys." The logs seemed to back that up, so we moved on.
We checked the account settings, and they were fine. We checked for software that might be interfering, but turning it off didn't seem to help. We tried to telnet into the outgoing mail server, and it failed. Hmm.
I asked him to try emailing himself from the other email account, and it worked fine. OK... so he's able to get through perfectly well on some other provider's email account but not ours. Are you sure you're connected to us right now? "Yeah." Alright, because it's behaving like the computer is connected to the other provider. "Nope, it isn't."
So we went back to the command prompt and I had him enter ipconfig. Sure enough, the domain was the other provider. "Oh... I don't know how that happened." Well, let's have you try connecting to us, then retry your email. "Oh, it worked. So... I should make sure I'm connected to you before I try to send your email?"
Yes. Yes you should.
The worst part is that it's such a simple issue, and we could have had it resolved in about three minutes, instead of 25. He didn't know who he was connected to, but since he answered surely, I didn't have a reason to doubt him until nothing else turned up a problem.
*Probably not his real name. I don't remember what his name was, but for some reason 'Lance' makes me laugh, and I don't remember laughing at his name, so it probably wasn't Lance.
When a caller gives you an answer and they don't know, you don't find out when they're wrong until you've wasted some time. There are easy cases where this happens, and it's just frustrating:
Me: "What version of Windows are you using?"
Caller: "2000."
Me: "OK, please click on Start, move up to Settings, and click Network and Dial-up Connections."
Caller: "It doesn't say that under settings. It says Dialup Networking. Should I click that?"
At this point I know they actually have Windows Millenium Edition. Admittedly, it's stupid that the naming conventions worked out so that there's a Windows 2000 and Millenium Edition, but there is, and they're fairly different.
Then there are other cases where a caller says something, and we waste a fair bit of time figuring out the problem, only to discover that the reason that we didn't look at the cause was because of an answer that the caller gave earlier. Take the case of Lance*, who called and said he wasn't able to send out email. Receiving was working, but not sending.
The first thing we usually do with most email errors is doublecheck the account settings. On our way in, we saw that he had an email account with another company. I asked if he still used it, since if he didn't, we would remove it. "Yeah, I still use it sometimes." Are you connected to that internet provider right now? "No, I'm connected to you guys." The logs seemed to back that up, so we moved on.
We checked the account settings, and they were fine. We checked for software that might be interfering, but turning it off didn't seem to help. We tried to telnet into the outgoing mail server, and it failed. Hmm.
I asked him to try emailing himself from the other email account, and it worked fine. OK... so he's able to get through perfectly well on some other provider's email account but not ours. Are you sure you're connected to us right now? "Yeah." Alright, because it's behaving like the computer is connected to the other provider. "Nope, it isn't."
So we went back to the command prompt and I had him enter ipconfig. Sure enough, the domain was the other provider. "Oh... I don't know how that happened." Well, let's have you try connecting to us, then retry your email. "Oh, it worked. So... I should make sure I'm connected to you before I try to send your email?"
Yes. Yes you should.
The worst part is that it's such a simple issue, and we could have had it resolved in about three minutes, instead of 25. He didn't know who he was connected to, but since he answered surely, I didn't have a reason to doubt him until nothing else turned up a problem.
*Probably not his real name. I don't remember what his name was, but for some reason 'Lance' makes me laugh, and I don't remember laughing at his name, so it probably wasn't Lance.
Labels: confidence, honesty, wasteoftime
Saturday, January 13, 2007
Just be honest!
Today, I've listened to quite a few people call in, tell me that they need to setup their connection on their computer, only to find that they'd already tried creating an account. Now, I can understand that sentiment: you know you didn't do it correctly, so you call us to have us help you get the connection setup correctly.
However, there isn't that much to setting up a dialup connection. If you know how to start the Windows wizard, then it's almost completely self-explanatory. And most of the people calling in who're in this situation today have things almost completely right. In fact, all but one of them have had only one thing wrong: their login information.
I realize that this type of thinking doesn't come naturally to everyone, but I wish people would realize that if you're getting to the point where your connection says "dialing... establishing connection... verifying username and password", then obviously you're getting through. When it says that your username or password is wrong, then it doesn't make sense to check your modem settings, or the dialup number, or your Internet Explorer settings, or anything other than your username and password.
The thing is, some people are determined to get us to run them through the setup, despite the fact that all it'll do is waste everyone's time. It's much faster to just say "I tried setting up my connection, but it's not connecting. Can we take a look at the settings?" Odds are that you've already done the important legwork, and a detail or two just needs to be adjusted.
Just be honest about it. You'll save yourself time in the end.
However, there isn't that much to setting up a dialup connection. If you know how to start the Windows wizard, then it's almost completely self-explanatory. And most of the people calling in who're in this situation today have things almost completely right. In fact, all but one of them have had only one thing wrong: their login information.
I realize that this type of thinking doesn't come naturally to everyone, but I wish people would realize that if you're getting to the point where your connection says "dialing... establishing connection... verifying username and password", then obviously you're getting through. When it says that your username or password is wrong, then it doesn't make sense to check your modem settings, or the dialup number, or your Internet Explorer settings, or anything other than your username and password.
The thing is, some people are determined to get us to run them through the setup, despite the fact that all it'll do is waste everyone's time. It's much faster to just say "I tried setting up my connection, but it's not connecting. Can we take a look at the settings?" Odds are that you've already done the important legwork, and a detail or two just needs to be adjusted.
Just be honest about it. You'll save yourself time in the end.
