4 ms·
> If you're reading HN you probably don't need that level of support, but that's not to say there aren't customers who need their hand held to restart a compute
by flukus 9y ago
> If you're reading HN you probably don't need that level of support, but that's not to say there aren't customers who need their hand held to restart a computer.
Part of the issue is that support is never allowed to push back on the customer. They don't get to say "I'm sorry, but you'll have to do a rudimentary computing course before I can proceed further". In a business environment it's all to easy to save on training costs in a department because they can push those costs on to support.
- jandrese 9y agoThere really isn't a polite way to say "Do you have anyone competent in your office you could maybe ask first?"
- PhantomGremlin 9y agoThis has been an ongoing problem for decades. There's the (probably apocryphal) story of WordPerfect (huh, what's that?) support. It ends with: SERVICE: "Tell them you're too fucking stupid to own a computer." http://www.generationterrorists.com/quotes/misc/wordperfect_helpline.html http://www.generationterrorists.com/quotes/misc/wordperfect_...
- emodendroket 9y ago> Part of the issue is that support is never allowed to push back on the customer. They don't get to say "I'm sorry, but you'll have to do a rudimentary computing course before I can proceed further". Well, no kidding, because who would pay for that?
- hmmph 9y agoWhether you're selling software or hard drugs, there'll always be customers who are just not worth keeping. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angel_and_demon_customers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angel_and_demon_customers
- emodendroket 9y agoI'm sorry, but nontechnical customers are an overwhelming majority. If you can't figure out a way to serve them you aren't going to be very successful.