Well-Behaved Customers

As I’ve alluded to in previous posts, there are certain habits of customers which I (and others in the Computer Service Business) find annoying. Allow me to give a list of things that you shouldn’t do if you want to maintain a productive and positive relationship with a Service Professional.

1. Know the limits of your knowledge. I’m not a car mechanic, nor do I pretend to be one. Thus, when my car breaks down, rather than attempt to diagnose or fix problems that are beyond me, I do a simple once-over of my car. If the symptoms I see don’t lead to a diagnosis and a solution that I am capable of, I write down a list of symptoms and take the car to a mechanic… treat your computer likewise. You can do a whole lot of damage to your computer by getting in over your head, much as I can by trying to fix a car that I’m not capable of fixing. It’s a rare problem indeed that gets worse by being left alone for the 20 minutes it takes to contact a professional, rarer still in the realm of computers (or cars, for that matter.)
2. Ask questions if you don’t understand. While incredibly inane questions do annoy me slightly, it’s infinitely preferable to the customer who refuses to ask for help and then attempts to blame me for his own misconceptions. If you don’t know where that plug goes, ask.
3. Let me do my job in peace. If I told you I’d get back to you in 2-3 days and it’s been 4 with no word, give me a call. A repair shop is a very hectic place and it’s easy for a phone call to get lost in the chaos. But you’re not doing anyone any favors if you call more than once every day or two, and more than one call a day is just asking to foment malice. Remember, my technicians are usually 17-year-old, socially-awkward boys – if they were waiters, they’d be spitting in your soup with this kind of treatment, don’t leave them in charge of your $3000 computer and then treat them like crap. I can’t be watching all of them, all of the time.
4. Let’s pretend for a minute that I’m the expert. Now, there are going to be things that I don’t know and things that I’m going to have to look up and I might even occasionally be wrong, but quit arguing with me. Remember, I’m the one who has a 4-year degree in Computer Science, 10+ years of experience on the bench and the one who is managing this store. You came to me because I know what I’m doing, so quit trying to convince me that adding a male/female USB converter to this daisy chain of adapters will be just what you need to get your archaic printer to work on this new computer, because it won’t.
5. Seriously, stop arguing with me. I really could care less why you like AMD more than Intel or ATI over nVidia, Kingston over Corsair, and the list goes on. Odds are pretty good that I’ve heard your arguments before, and probably given an better presentation than the one you’re attempting. I really don’t get into these arguments and try to keep my professional opinions away from fanboys. If you want to have this one out, go find yourself a forum, go to Tom’s Hardware or go troll the Amazon.com reviews or something.

In the end, I don’t want to paint service technicians and managers as Hateful Trolls, because we’re not, but we are (usually) fairly busy people with little time or tolerance for inane nonsense. We love chatting it up with intelligent customers on any number of topics, but if you’re going to be an obnoxious boor I know that I, at least, have little time for you.

~ by assistantmanager on June 21, 2007.