Don’t insult your users

The title of this post by Sherman Deforest got my attention right away, No One Needs To Feel Put Down By A Hired Expert. Obviously, no one needs to feel put down by their help desk either. 🙂

Here’s my favorite part:

They are not stupid or senile. Their cultural background is different than mine. Almost certainly either of them can do many things that are well beyond my grasp. Further more, they are smart enough to know when to ask for help rather than giving up in frustration.

It reminds me of something we like to do around the help desk when we are tempted to put down one of our users, remind ourselves that, in many cases, they got through law school, they can’t be just stupid. Stubborn, arrogant and argumentative? Sure, but not stupid, so don’t treat them that way just because they don’t know how to add rows to a table. It helps to remind myself just how much they do that I don’t know how to do, whether it be a lawyer, secretary, file clerk, etc. Then it easier to see how showing them how to operate their PC is what I get paid for, and not be troubled when they don’t seem to get it as quickly as I do.

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