III - Resolve the Issue for the Client, or Show Them How to Fix it
We’re all familiar with the well-known quote, “Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.” I’m updating this for 2024:
Fix something for a client, and they’ll move on with their day. Show a client how to fix something, and they’ll be empowered for a long time.
-CP
Lots of Tech Support Professionals (TSPs) deploy a flurry of mouse-clicks and rapid-fire machine-gun keyboard typing to magically fix a client’s computer issue. As I mentioned in my first blog post, sometimes this is done in person and sometimes this is done remotely. While this may be a version of customer service, it does not address an important issue. The client may have the same computer problem pop up again in the future. Should this occur, and it often does in my experience when I simply fix the issue for them, another email is sent by the client, perhaps with elevated frustration in having to send another communique, which results in another wiggy-wiggy-flibble-flibble keyboard/mouse overture by the TSP, and the client’s computer is once again fixed.
Wouldn’t it be nice if the client knew how to fix their problem, thus decreasing the need to contact tech support and wait for the issue to be resolved? Wouldn’t it be nice to have one less email arrive in a TSP’s inbox?
When receiving a help request from a client, a Relational Technologist can respond with the following:
I’m happy to fix your computer issue, or if you like, I’d be happy to email you the list of steps I take to fix it, or I could send you a quick narrated screencast* showing you how I fixed things for you to see what I did. Let me know your preference?
Or… if you are a TSP meeting with the client in person:
Would you like me to take care of this for you? Or would you like to have me guide you through the steps with you on the keyboard and mouse?
Some clients aren’t as enthused with technology as TSPs, and they just want their darn computer fixed. Totally acceptable, as each client is a different person with a different perspective. (I’ll address this important aspect in a future post.) But some clients enjoy acquiring information and knowledge. Some clients like knowing why the computer got messed up; was it something they did, was it a virus, were they hacked, etc. Some clients don’t like dealing with tech support, and would rather search the web to figure out a solution. By demonstrating the solution process, the TSP is arming the client with knowledge, and showing how they can take care of this error when it happens again.
*So about those screencasts. Way back in Pre-COVID times, I purchased a Humble Bundle which included, among numerous software applications, a lifetime pro license for Droplr, a screenshot and screen recording software program. As the world went remote in spring 2020, an avalanche of client emails were coming requesting help for their unique situation. (I’m a Canvas Learning Management System administrator at a university with 2,000+ faculty, 4,000+ staff, and 15,000+ students. They were all required to use Canvas for their online coursework in the remote COVID era.)
I discovered that Droplr let me create narrated HD video recordings of my screen with a small URL link hosted on their website. This was a gamechanger for me. Instead of pounding out email after email with extensive bulletpoint lists of directions, checking for spelling and grammar errors, and editing and revising content before clicking send, I could launch Droplr, draw a customized window with my mouse to only show the web browser showing my client’s course (and not my full desktop), click record, and talk directly to client as if I was there with them in an in-person meeting, wiggled the mouse to show “click here,” typed in the form field specific information they would need, and click “Finish Recording.”
I would quickly receive a URL link of that recorded video that I could email the client to view any time they wished, they could rewind my narration if they didn’t understand something, and bookmark my weblink for future reference. A two-minute video versus a lengthy email full of boring text and links to documentation? Winner Winner Chicken Dinner, my clients LOVED my videos.
This version of asynchronous tech support gave me much quicker response time, customized support for my clients, and gave them the option to fix an issue themselves if they wished. This was my version of teaching my clients how to fish in an elegant, customized workflow.
In addition to Droplr, Zoom, OBS, Quicktime, Screencast-o-matic, and Camtasia are other screencast software titles that may work for you, should you wish to try out the relational side of support with a “video receipt” of your work for a client, or to personalize your communications with screensharing with your voice.