An excelent article on helpdesk callers.
This is an excelent article about help desk callers wish I would have had a decade ago. I subconciously figured out everything he has written, but I didn't know how to communicate it to others - to me I just has an instinct on how to deal with each caller that I picked up on usually within the first minute of a call. I would say I applied this hierchy.
One of my favorite caller types believe it or not was the finger pointer. While the finger pointer was busy ranting and pointing fingers I would continue to tell them what they needed to do next. Assuming you had the average finger pointer by the time the call was over if you were able to get them to follow directions either by getting them to pause complaining or just follow directions during the complaint fest if you were able to fix the problem they were pointing the finger at you, at how great you were. Not that you were really all that great, just that the problem was fixed. I was able to get many of them to follow my directions while jabbering on and on, I usually had a good laugh when those calls were over.
The user type I missed the most was the Whiz Kid. When I worked at the internet service I got the ocassional whiz kid, it made my day having someone I could actually talk to on near equal terms. Back then I would encourage them to apply for a job with us if they were young and unemployed. They were my favorite type of worker, I could teach them the trade, and often by the time they had been there a while they could teach me something in turn. I could probably count the number of whiz kids I got on one hand during all the years I supported gas stations. They were usually the teenaged clerk or assistant manager still in high school or working their way through college. They were gone by graduation time. The know nothing was the most common type there, rarely did we have a know it all, the finger pointer was still common, though not as fun with the gas stations as the ISP.
Good read, grepped from Slashdot.
One of my favorite caller types believe it or not was the finger pointer. While the finger pointer was busy ranting and pointing fingers I would continue to tell them what they needed to do next. Assuming you had the average finger pointer by the time the call was over if you were able to get them to follow directions either by getting them to pause complaining or just follow directions during the complaint fest if you were able to fix the problem they were pointing the finger at you, at how great you were. Not that you were really all that great, just that the problem was fixed. I was able to get many of them to follow my directions while jabbering on and on, I usually had a good laugh when those calls were over.
The user type I missed the most was the Whiz Kid. When I worked at the internet service I got the ocassional whiz kid, it made my day having someone I could actually talk to on near equal terms. Back then I would encourage them to apply for a job with us if they were young and unemployed. They were my favorite type of worker, I could teach them the trade, and often by the time they had been there a while they could teach me something in turn. I could probably count the number of whiz kids I got on one hand during all the years I supported gas stations. They were usually the teenaged clerk or assistant manager still in high school or working their way through college. They were gone by graduation time. The know nothing was the most common type there, rarely did we have a know it all, the finger pointer was still common, though not as fun with the gas stations as the ISP.
Good read, grepped from Slashdot.