We all know that often there are often animosities between users and I.T. professionals that support them. Key issues for the user are impatience, arrogance, and the use of technical jargon by the IT support person. NetworkWorld has an interesting article “What users hate about IT pros” which outlines some of the feelings experienced by users at the hands of the IT professionals they deal with on a daily basis.
My current job includes the direct support of users and from experience I know it is very easy to be so focused on the task that you forget to spend the appropriate time communicating with the user. It all breaks down to communications. Here’s some advice on improving those ever important communications:
1. Keep it simple: you don’t need to describe the seven-layer stack each time you respond to a help-desk request.
2. Help users help themselves by giving then enough information to get out of the situation themselves, should it happen again.
3. Use easily understood analogies to illustrate points.
4. Avoid complex acronyms and confusing jargon.
5. Watch for the glazed-over look, it’s a sure sign you’ve lost your audience.
Technorati Tags: communications, IT