Tag Archives: helpdesk

General IT

“In praise of rude nerds”

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The Spectator Magazine – 9th March 2013 – “In praise of rude nerds” by Mark Mason

Around this time last year I wrote a post extolling the benefits of a good first contact with Legal IT when providing good customer service. One of the points I mentioned was “be polite”, however I read an article this week (again in The Spectator) that suggests the “rude nerds” are where the good service is. Or as they put it “rude is the new polite”.

Have a read at the article, it stereotypes a little but effectively it’s about those that man technical helplines that “have the social skills of a breeze-block — but by Christ can they tell you how to defrag a hard-drive”. I suspect it’s intended to be a little tongue in cheek, but the sentiments are right. We’ve all been on calls where at some point you know whether a) the operator is reading a script and doesn’t understand your problem or b) you’re going to get a resolution.

At least with the Sheldon’s* of this world you know where you stand and ultimately your problem is fixed! So maybe the last line is right.

“This man hadn’t been rude, he’d just been true to his nature. A nature that, yes, shuns small talk, but also — and more importantly — lets him do his job brilliantly.

Give me that over futile, scripted politeness any day.”

 

* Sheldon Cooper – a character from the TV show “The Big Bang Theory“, someone who exhibits a strict adherence to routine and a total lack of social skills.

 

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General IT, General Legal IT

The Helpdesk is king (oh and local IT support too!)

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I read an article in The Spectator magazine recently that touched on a customer satisfaction survey of hotels in the USA. The following point caught my eye:

What emerged from this study was that a guest’s enjoyment and appreciation of almost every aspect of a hotel is coloured by their initial experience of their visit — specifically how fast and easy they had found the business of checking-in.

From a Legal IT point of view I’m sure the same is valid, how that first contact with IT comes across (typically the helpdesk or a local IT support) will colour their view on IT.

The article goes on to say:

It supports other research suggesting our memories of events are much more determined by how they begin and end than by ‘the stuff in the middle’. (The NHS does itself a disservice here — the stuff in the middle is often good, but the admission and discharge procedures are dreadful.) What has very little effect on our memory of any experience is its duration.

In a Legal IT context, the “begin” would be the initial contact with the IT department. The point where IT needs to answer quickly, be polite and be knowledgeable (not necessarily able to fix every problem, but enough to know when they can’t, explain they can’t and move the call on quickly to those that can).

The “end” is where the lawyers IT problem is solved and importantly the customer informed that it’s solved (based on a recent survey I’ve seen, something that is often forgotten).

So let’s divert all resource and budget to the helpdesk? Of course not, it’s not all about ensuring your helpdesk is spot on, the bit in the middle is after all pretty critical too! Without it you’ll rarely reach the problem solved and if that’s the case then you may as well not bother answering the phone in the beginning! It’s a balance, but clearly from the hotels survey getting that first point of contact spot on could just make everything IT do seem so much better.

One last quote from the Spectator article, “What has very little effect on our memory of any experience is its duration”, now there’s a start for an article on project deliverables at some point!

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