Technologists: How to draw the line with knowledge-suckers
- August 29th, 2010
- By Patrick
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Where this problem plagued me the most was when I worked for an ISP. Why this was troubling was because my job on the phone was to determine whether or not there was a problem with our service but the customers were, I’d say perhaps forty percent of the time, looking for me to troubleshoot problems with their PC. Even though it wasn’t done on purpose these situations became more of an issue of who was at fault for the situation rather than an exercise of cooperative investigation (a place I don’t like to be).
A problem, for sure – one that every single member of the staff had to deal with, sometimes on a daily basis.
When you work in the computer field people who don’t work in the computer field are going to ask you questions. When this takes you away from making money doing what it is you are good at it, it can be frustrating to continue to look for a point of failure (when this is not your duty as an employee or consultant).
At multiple places I’ve worked this would generate friction between not only customer and employee, but between other employees and even management.
During the time I was self employed it was my job to look at these problems. I got paid to look at situations, diagnose what I thought the problem was, formulate potential solutions, and then pitch those options to the client for approval.
The distinction here between what I did as a freelance tech and the job I had at the ISP is getting paid for doing the looking.
A friend of mine used to jest, “Sure. Let me look at that for you.” He ponied up and looked at the problem when he could swing time away from his real duties. Most of us did our best to walk that line of making sure the customer was satisfied by giving them the most we could (so they wouldn’t leave us) and telling them to kick rocks.
It was a stressful and draining experience which sometimes led to confrontations that never needed to happen. The truth was that our negotiation power was stripped of us without that one answer to how to address the situation: here is where you start looking otherwise you’re going to paying me or this other person we have lined up for it.
When I was on the phone with these customers, knowing that I had to draw a line somewhere, I was often confused and dismayed. I wanted to explain why I could not go the extra mile to help solve their technology problem without coming right out and saying, “you pay us for the Internet connection, not for technical support of your computer”. I was used to going this extra mile. Most techs are. But as a support tech at an ISP, we simply didn’t do that. Plain and simple.
Only it wasn’t plain and simple because not only would we have to do it over and over again in different situations with different people but it could take hours and span fifteen phone calls for a single customer to get it. “We don’t do that. Get it? No? Okay. We really just don’t do that. We do this. I can do this simple thing if you like but that’s as far as it goes. No? But we don’t do that.” Like talking to wall.
The customer has a hunch, smells that the person the phone is competent enough to address their problem and they want it addressed, not thinking that we aren’t getting paid to look at their problem that isn’t related to what we do. We’re getting paid to 1.) Find any problems with our infrastructure and get it repaired as soon as possible, 2.) Identify faulty equipment that might be at the customer premises that we’ve provided, 3.) Make sure that the customer has any applicable settings that we need to provide them with, and 4.) Process any adds, moves or changes that will ensure their service continues to be useful.
It was as if my only recourse was to insinuate that the customer was unintelligent and that they should know better than to ask such questions. That isn’t because that was what I was told to say or wanted to do, it was simply the only reaction I had available to me given the circumstances. We didn’t do what they would continually ask us to do.
Non-techie’s have a tough enough time understanding what I do for a living without having to explain it to them every time I need to draw the line. Explaining to a customer what I did and why I needed to stay away from his or her particular problem would not only take time but begin a debate of whether or not I should be looking at the problem.
What a drag.
It wasn’t just me that felt this pain. Some people were so fed up with dealing with these situations they would outright laugh at the accusations the customers were making over the phone. The customers would become demanding and accusing, even arrogant. Some of them were elderly and needed someone to hold their hand to perform a series of steps in order to complete a task. Those were the ones I had the most sympathy for but the fact remained. I simply wasn’t paid to give step-by-step instructions to people for how to email their loved ones.
It seemed unfair that I knew that I could address the problem that these people faced but lacked the ability to help them resolve their other problems. My hands were tied because my job was my job. I was to make sure the customers were getting the services that we provided them and process any changes that they needed so the service remained useful to them. But the problem was always that dividing line and the need to pull away from the customer’s needs (often in a manner that might make them not want to be our customer anymore).
From the management and ownership side of the situation, I could completely understand that more time on the phone that wasn’t related to what we actually did meant that money and knowledge was leaking out of the phone lines without compensation for it. We became less profitable with every minute spent serving needs other than the ones that supported what we provided these customers.
The business does what it does, and that boat has to stay afloat by responding to situations that are related to that specific enterprise. That is a more than reasonable expectation for everyone in the business to follow. If the business can’t make money, the business is going to die. We lose our jobs. Probably the reverse order.
One approach was to start thinking that the customers are mean, to blame them for the situation of “we have the knowledge to fix that problem, so why not just do part of it?” They aren’t really. They typically just don’t understand the difference between where their efforts end and the support technician’s start.
I find that that’s the key to a workable solution. How does the technician draw the line in a manner that is both friendly and reasonable so the time and knowledge sucking doesn’t occur?
I recommend drawing the line with this simple phrase: “Start looking here”. As a technologist I know where resources are to be found and I have experiences with computers and web sites that are probably related to the issues that they are having. When a customer asks a question I can quickly find (or already know where to find) the resources to alleviate the problems that the customer is facing.
The resource that I give them might not fix the problem immediately, but a few things are definitely going to happen. First the customer is going to understand that looking at a problem is work (shattering the illusion that us looking at it isn’t work for us and should be offered on a complimentary basis). Secondly they are going to come to grips with the fact that people who are experts in a particular field get paid to do what they do for a reason – because they are the ones who have learned the knowledge, built the skills and learned the tricks of the trade. Thirdly the choice of whether or not they are going to be looking at it or you are going to be looking at it for a fee is brought to a head.
“Sir, I can tell you where I would start looking to solve your problem, but if I have to walk down that road for you I’ll need to charge you for it.” It gives the customer the benefit of your knowledge (which they very much want) without giving them any of your time (which they should be paying for if it is unrelated to your current duties as a support person).
That one phrase should be crystal clear for both the support technician and the customer. It is both fair and an accurate description of the situation and how events should proceed from that point. The customer isn’t left being treated as if they are unimportant as a customer and the technician who in most cases has the knowledge to fix the issue if given time enough hasn’t left them feeling as if they’ve run over their dog and left the scene of the crime (how I felt most times when I had to explain firmly and repetitively that I was paid to support the infrastructure of my company).
Of course starting points may vary depending on customers and what their questions are. The point is that it takes about the same amount of time to tell a customer where to start troubleshooting an issue on their own than it does to repeat what I do and don’t do (which does nothing but damage the business relationship as the customer is forced into coming to no other conclusion than saying “I must have been a dumb-ass for forcing the issue, apparently.” Or worse, “these people are dumb-asses for treating me this way and as soon as I find another provider I’m going to switch.”)
Telling customers where to start looking makes it crystal clear that looking into the problem IS the work when it comes to information technology. Are you an information technologist? If you have to look at yet another problem that isn’t specifically your job, does a growl want to rise from your throat?
Solutions abound. They’re everywhere. That’s one of the great things about the Internet (and Leo Laporte’s radio show, clearly), the sharing that happens when people figure out how to solve problems. Looking into the problem is where the work and headaches (and eurekas!) are found. If a customer doesn’t understand that, telling them where to start looking should help them to figure that out pretty quickly. Perhaps just one step past “You could start by Googling it” would be enough to help them feel like they haven’t been stranded.
You can bet that 90% of the time they don’t want to do the looking. When you help them realize that fact (without being condescending) they are a prime candidate to pitch an up-sell service or be referred to a prepared business partner.
Given that I am (and you probably are) an experienced computer tech or engineer, providing a ready resource for them to begin their investigation and sticking to that as your answer to their unrelated (or unpaid) problem is my vote for drawing that line where the knowledge and time-suck begins without damaging relationships: with increased employee angst and the customer feeling their needs haven’t been met on a hunch a half hour of your time would fix their problem.
