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May 2007
 

When You Must Call for Help

There are many reasons that we all don’t like calling technical support, but the primary one is that we don’t like to feel stupid. Phone support technicians have an uncanny knack for making us feel stupid, so we avoid them at all costs. The problem is that those costs can be extremely high. For example, business owners often rely on outsourced local IT support to make the calls which they then pay hourly for. Since much of the time is spent on hold, they’re literally paying the local technician to do nothing.

Another example of the high costs comes in the form of lost productivity. Small companies often try to work around the broken computer or component rather than make the call to the manufacturer’s support line. This can lead to weeks or months of slowed productivity.

Our advice is to make the call as soon as you can once the problem is noticed and keep the hints listed below in mind as you call:

  1. Have your model and serial numbers ready
  2. Recognize in advance that you will likely be speaking with someone for whom English is a second language
  3. Be polite
  4. Speak clearly (sometimes they can’t understand you either)
  5. Don’t hesitate to ask the technician to repeat slowly (and spell when necessary)
  6. Don’t be afraid to tell the technician that you don’t see what he/she is describing.
  7. Ask for a case number early in the conversation in case of disconnection.
  8. Call when you can afford to be patient and have other work handy for long hold times.

As IT professionals, we spend much of our time working with manufacturer support. Once you get the hang of talking to telephone technicians, you may find that you can learn a lot about technology and about other cultures on someone else’s dime.

Upcoming Events
Special Month of May at the
Indianapolis Motor Speedway Edition

Wed., May 16 - Fri., May 18
Practice at the IMS

Sat., May 19
Third Day Qualifying/Coca-Cola Throwback Day

Sun., May 20
Bump Day Qualifying/
Armed Forces Day
Wed., May 23
American Family Insurance 500 Festival Community Day
Thurs., May 24
Freedom 100 Practice
and Qualifying
Fri., May 25
Miller Lite Carb Day
Sat., May 26
Public Driver's Meeting, IPL 500 Festival Parade, Regions Bank 500 Festival Snakepit Ball
Sun., May 27
Race Day
Mon., May 28
Indianapolis 500
Victory Celebration
Top 5 Website Ownership Mistakes

1. Commitment Level – Owning a website is like gardening. You don’t build a website, or a garden, and just walk away. Both need consistent nurturing to bear fruit.

Successful webmasters consistently add valuable content to their sites while weeding out old, irrelevant content. Have you even visited your own website within the last month?

2. Watching Your Statistics – Many website owners don’t even look at their traffic statistics. Can you imagine a TV advertiser not checking the ratings and demographics of the shows they advertise with?

Studying your statistics is about the only way to measure how you are doing. Any marketing strategy needs to be measured for effectiveness, don’t you agree?

3. Guardedness (not giving out enough information) – This mistake applies especially to “knowledge professionals” such as lawyers and consultants. When your only product is what you know, there is a natural tendency to guard your knowledge as if it were the secret formula for Pepsi.

If you want potential customers to find you through your website, the best thing you can do is give away a portion of that knowledge in great detail. It shows the customer that you really know what you are talking about. If your content is very good then chances are the reader will feel more comfortable with paying you for further consulting.

A great example of this is the Manager-Tools website. These business consultants give away a large amount of very good knowledge. They know that their readers will eventually have needs not covered through the website, and will surely at least think about hiring them for further consulting.

4. Ease of Use – Can your visitors easily find the information they are looking for? Is your contact information readily displayed throughout your website?

Usability is a vast topic and can mean different things for different websites. A good practice is to regularly read up on the topic. Over time you will gain a feel for what your particular website needs.

Some good resources: uie.com, usability news

5. Trader vs. Investor – There are very few if any shortcuts to internet marketing. The most successful webmasters approach their content with an eye to long-term-investment.

This very newsletter, for example, will be placed on the Promethius online newsletter archive where it will steadily generate a modest number of targeted visits over the next several years.

We won’t panic when new sales don’t start pouring in next week as a result of this issue. We know the web doesn’t work that way.
Words from the Wise
 

Good will is the one and only asset that competition cannot undersell or destroy.
--Marshall Field

A lot of companies have chosen to downsize, and maybe that was the right thing for them. We chose a different path. Our belief was that if we kept putting great products in front of customers, they would continue to open their wallets.
--Steve Jobs

If you work just for money, you'll never make it, but if you love what you're doing and you always put the customer first, success will be yours.
--Ray Kroc

Is there something specific you'd like to see? We'd appreciate your feedback and article ideas.
Please e-mail them to support@promethius.com.

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