In Chapter Two of The IT Professional’s Business and Communications Guide there are seven scenarios illustrating how you can interact with a variety of individuals in a professional environment. Pick one of the scenarios, clearly identify it in your paper and discuss why you picked that scenario and if you have used any of the tactics noted in the chapter.
– Paper should be of 3-4 pages length
– APA Format
– Absolutely No plagiarism
– Whatever is written using any resources please cite them..My professor is very strict on citation.
– Before proceeding with writing its mandatory to refer chapter two of IT Professional’s Business and Communications Guide
26356.book Page iii Tuesday, March 27, 2007 7:41 PM
The IT Professional’s
Business and
Communications
Guide
A Real-World Approach
to Comp TIA A+® Soft Skills
Steven Johnson
Wiley Publishing, Inc.
26356.book Page ii Tuesday, March 27, 2007 7:41 PM
26356.book Page i Tuesday, March 27, 2007 7:41 PM
The IT Professional’s
Business and
Communications
Guide
26356.book Page ii Tuesday, March 27, 2007 7:41 PM
26356.book Page iii Tuesday, March 27, 2007 7:41 PM
The IT Professional’s
Business and
Communications
Guide
A Real-World Approach
to Comp TIA A+® Soft Skills
Steven Johnson
Wiley Publishing, Inc.
26356.book Page iv Tuesday, March 27, 2007 7:41 PM
Acquisitions Editor: Jeff Kellum
Development Editor: Toni Zuccarini Ackley
Production Editor: Christine O’Connor
Copy Editor: Elizabeth Welch
Production Manager: Tim Tate
Vice President and Executive Group Publisher: Richard Swadley
Vice President and Executive Publisher: Joseph B. Wikert
Vice President and Publisher: Neil Edde
Book Designers: Judy Fung and Bill Gibson
Compositor: Craig Woods, Happenstance Type-O-Rama
Proofreader: James Brook, Word One
Indexer: Ted Laux
Anniversary Logo Design: Richard Pacifico
Cover Designer: Ryan Sneed
Cover Image: © Image Source, getty images
Copyright © 2007 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana
Published simultaneously in Canada
ISBN: 978-0-470-12635-6
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any
means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections
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Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: The publisher and the author make no representations or warranties with
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Johnson, Steven, 1981The IT professional’s business and communications guide : a real-world approach to Comp TIA A+ soft skills
/ Steven Johnson.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 978-0-470-12635-6 (pbk.)
1. Electronic data processing personnel–Certification. 2. Computer technicians–Certification–Study guides.
I. Title.
QA76.3.J6535 2007
004–dc22
2007011149
TRADEMARKS: Wiley, the Wiley logo, and the Sybex logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of John
Wiley & Sons, Inc. and/or its affiliates, in the United States and other countries, and may not be used without
written permission. CompTIA A+ is a registered trademark of The Computing Technology Industry Association, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Wiley Publishing, Inc., is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
26356.book Page v Tuesday, March 27, 2007 7:41 PM
To Our Valued Readers:
Thank you for looking to Sybex for your CompTIA A+ exam prep needs. The Sybex team at
Wiley is proud of its reputation for providing certification candidates with the practical knowledge and skills needed to succeed in the highly competitive IT workplace. Just as the CompTIA
is committed to establishing measurable standards for certifying IT professionals, Sybex is
committed to providing those individuals with the skills needed to meet those standards.
The author and editors have worked hard to ensure that the book you hold in your
hands is comprehensive, in-depth, and pedagogically sound. We’re confident that this
book will exceed the demanding standards of the certification marketplace and help you,
the CompTIA A+ certification candidate, succeed in your endeavors.
As always, your feedback is important to us. If you believe you’ve identified an error in the book,
please visit Wiley’s Technical Support web site at wiley.custhelp.com. If you have general
comments or suggestions, feel free to drop me a line directly at nedde@wiley.com. At Sybex we’re
continually striving to meet the needs of individuals preparing for certification exams.
Good luck in pursuit of your CompTIA A+ certification!
Neil Edde
Vice President & Publisher
Sybex, an Imprint of Wiley
26356.book Page vi Tuesday, March 27, 2007 7:41 PM
26356.book Page vii Tuesday, March 27, 2007 7:41 PM
For Tracy,
who told me I could,
and for John,
who made me believe it
26356.book Page viii Tuesday, March 27, 2007 7:41 PM
26356.book Page ix Tuesday, March 27, 2007 7:41 PM
Acknowledgments
This book would not have been possible without the careful guidance of dozens of people, all
of them having affected my life in some positive way. Most especially, I’d like to thank Jay
Gandee and Jeff D’Adamo, who provided me with the opportunity to be in a position to write
such a book.
Moreover, I’d like to thank the incredible editorial team at Sybex, including Jeff Kellum,
Toni Ackley, Neil Edde, and Christine O’Connor. Their courtesy, encouragement, belief, and
support have been more than I ever could have asked for during the periods of reevaluation
and questioning, and even doubt. Any author should be honored to work with such a group
of talented individuals.
Another big help along the way has been some of my colleagues: Brian Harkins,
Todd Lammle, Justin Korelc, Christopher Parker, Lou Rossi, and James Stanger. They’ve
not only been an inspiration but also friends and counselors along the way.
Last, I’d like to thank the Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA) as a
whole. Were it not for their amazing certification programs, hundreds of thousands of dedicated information technology professionals would be without a way to verify their capabilities
and show their worth.
26356.book Page x Tuesday, March 27, 2007 7:41 PM
26356.book Page xi Tuesday, March 27, 2007 7:41 PM
About the Author
Steven Johnson is the managing editor for PrepLogic, a leading IT training and preparation company, and he has been involved with IT for more years than he’d care to admit.
In addition to being “Triple A+” Certified (Remote Support, Depot Technician, and
IT Technician), Steve holds many other certifications and is a graduate of Texas Tech
University. Steve got his start in IT as a sales associate for RadioShack Corporation, which
he credits as the single greatest business inspiration in his life and the greatest teacher of
true customer service that he’s ever known. When he isn’t doing IT support for his work,
friends, family, or associates, he spends most of his time in the air as an ambitious private
pilot dreaming of one day soaring the skies as an airline captain.
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26356.book Page xiii Tuesday, March 27, 2007 7:41 PM
Contents at a Glance
Introduction
xxvii
Chapter 1
Interacting with Customers
1
Chapter 2
Working with Professionals
29
Chapter 3
Using Proper Phone Techniques
55
Chapter 4
Security in Communication
81
Chapter 5
Workplace Communication and Practices
107
Chapter 6
Leadership in IT
139
Chapter 7
Communication in the Real World
173
Index
193
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The IT Professional’s
Business and
Communications
Guide
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26356.book Page xvii Tuesday, March 27, 2007 7:41 PM
Table of Contents
Introduction
Chapter
xxvii
1
Interacting with Customers
The Angry Customer
Scenario
Background
Overview
Key Concepts
Resolution
Skills for the A+ Exam
Rude and Ruder
Scenario
Background
Overview
Key Concepts
Resolution
Skills for the A+ Exam
Impatience: Not Quite a Virtue
Scenario
Background
Overview
Key Concepts
Resolution
Skills for the A+ Exam
Assertive Intelligence
Scenario
Background
Overview
Key Concepts
Resolution
Skills for the A+ Exam
The Challenged Customer
Scenario
Background
Overview
Key Concepts
Resolution
Skills for the A+ Exam
1
2
3
3
3
4
5
6
6
7
7
8
8
9
10
11
11
11
12
12
13
14
15
15
15
16
16
16
17
18
18
18
19
19
20
20
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xviii
Table of Contents
Chapter
2
A Quiet Case
Scenario
Background
Overview
Key Concepts
Resolution
Skills for the A+ Exam
Easing Tension
Scenario
Background
Overview
Key Concepts
Resolution
Skills for the A+ Exam
Summary
21
21
21
22
22
23
23
24
24
24
25
25
26
26
27
Working with Professionals
29
The Inquisitive Coworker
Scenario
Background
Overview
Key Concepts
Resolution
Skills for the A+ Exam
Dealing with Sexual Harassment
Scenario
Background
Overview
Key Concepts
Resolution
Skills for the A+ Exam
The Lazy Worker
Scenario
Background
Overview
Key Concepts
Resolution
Skills for the A+ Exam
An Issue of Trust
Scenario
Background
Overview
30
30
31
31
32
33
33
33
34
34
35
35
36
37
38
38
38
38
39
40
41
41
41
42
42
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Table of Contents
Chapter
3
xix
Key Concepts
Resolution
Skills for the A+ Exam
Working with Your Manager
Scenario
Background
Overview
Key Concepts
Resolution
Skills for the A+ Exam
The Technical Professional
Scenario
Background
Overview
Key Concepts
Resolution
Skills for the A+ Exam
The Business Professional
Scenario
Background
Overview
Key Concepts
Resolution
Skills for the A+ Exam
Summary
42
43
43
44
44
44
45
45
46
46
47
47
48
48
48
49
49
50
50
50
51
51
52
53
53
Using Proper Phone Techniques
55
Focusing Distraction
Scenario
Background
Overview
Key Concepts
Resolution
Skills for the A+ Exam
Comforting a Crier
Scenario
Background
Overview
Key Concepts
Resolution
Skills for the A+ Exam
56
56
57
57
57
58
59
59
59
60
60
61
62
62
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xx
Table of Contents
Chapter
4
Handling Offense
Scenario
Background
Overview
Key Concepts
Resolution
Skills for the A+ Exam
Soothing Frustration
Scenario
Background
Overview
Key Concepts
Resolution
Skills for the A+ Exam
Creating Satisfaction
Scenario
Background
Overview
Key Concepts
Resolution
Skills for the A+ Exam
Callers with Accents
Scenario
Background
Overview
Key Concepts
Resolution
Skills for the A+ Exam
Interoffice Phone Conversations
Scenario
Background
Overview
Key Concepts
Resolution
Skills for the A+ Exam
Summary
63
63
63
64
64
65
67
67
67
68
68
68
69
70
70
71
71
72
72
73
73
74
74
75
75
75
76
76
77
77
77
78
78
79
79
80
Security in Communication
81
Ethics in Security
Scenario
Background
82
82
83
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Table of Contents
Overview
Key Concepts
Resolution
Skills for the A+ Exam
What Can I Throw Away?
Scenario
Background
Overview
Key Concepts
Resolution
Skills for the A+ Exam
Confiding in Your Superiors
Scenario
Background
Overview
Key Concepts
Resolution
Skills for the A+ Exam
Caution with Coworkers
Scenario
Background
Overview
Key Concepts
Resolution
Skills for the A+ Exam
What If It Isn’t My Customer’s Computer?
Scenario
Background
Overview
Key Concepts
Resolution
Skills for the A+ Exam
Phone and E-mail Security
Mini-Scenario 1
Mini-Scenario 2
Mini-Scenario 3
Mini-Scenario 4
Resolution
Skills for the A+ Exam
Social Engineering
Scenario
Background
xxi
83
83
84
85
86
86
87
87
88
89
89
90
90
91
91
91
93
93
94
94
94
95
95
96
96
97
97
97
98
98
99
100
100
100
101
101
102
102
102
103
103
103
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xxii
Table of Contents
Overview
Key Concepts
Resolution
Skills for the A+ Exam
Summary
Chapter
5
Workplace Communication and Practices
Slang and Vernacular
Scenario
Background
Overview
Key Concepts
Resolution
Skills for the A+ Exam
Gender Barriers
Scenario
Background
Overview
Key Concepts
Resolution
Skills for the A+ Exam
Conflicts
Scenario
Background
Overview
Key Concepts
Resolution
Skills for the A+ Exam
Tone and Mood
Scenario
Background
Overview
Key Concepts
Resolution
Skills for the A+ Exam
Teamwork
Scenario
Background
Overview
Key Concepts
104
104
105
106
106
107
108
108
109
109
110
111
111
112
112
113
113
114
115
116
116
116
117
118
118
121
122
122
122
123
123
123
125
126
126
126
127
127
128
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Table of Contents
Resolution
Skills for the A+ Exam
Staying Appropriate
Scenario
Background
Overview
Key Concepts
Resolution
Skills for the A+ Exam
Apologizing
Scenario
Background
Overview
Key Concepts
Resolution
Skills for the A+ Exam
Summary
Chapter
6
Leadership in IT
Authority
Method 1: Threat of Authority
Method 2: Creating Purpose
Resolution
Discipline
Scenario
Background
Overview
Key Concepts
Resolution
Delegation
Scenario
Background
Overview
Key Concepts
Resolution
Mentoring
Scenario
Background
Overview
Key Concepts
Resolution
xxiii
129
129
130
130
131
131
131
133
133
134
134
135
135
135
137
137
137
139
140
141
142
143
143
144
145
145
146
148
149
149
150
150
151
152
153
153
154
154
155
156
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xxiv
Table of Contents
Fraternization
Scenario
Background
Overview
Key Concepts
Resolution
Micromanagement
Scenario
Background
Overview
Key Concepts
Resolution
Feedback
Scenario
Background
Overview
Key Concepts
Resolution
Bonus Questions
Bonus Question 1
Bonus Question 2
Summary
Chapter
7
Communication in the Real World
Plugged In
Key Concepts
Resolution
Being “CAT”ty
Key Concepts
Resolution
Dialing Out
Key Concepts
Resolution
Persuasion
Key Concepts
Resolution
Administration by Majority
Key Concepts
Resolution
157
158
158
159
159
161
161
162
163
163
164
165
166
166
167
167
167
169
169
169
170
170
173
174
176
176
177
178
179
179
180
181
181
182
184
184
185
186
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Table of Contents
Packet What?
Key Concepts
Resolution
Spies Among Us
Key Concepts
Resolution
Summary
Index
xxv
186
187
188
188
189
190
190
193
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Introduction
Welcome to The IT Professional’s Guide to Business and Communications. Whether you are new
to the field, an IT professional looking to bone up on your communication skills, or a seasoned pro
looking to arm yourself for your upcoming exam, you’ve come to the right place. This book is
a tool that you can use to understand business communication as a whole and particularly the
important role that communication plays in IT. By reading this book, you will not only improve
your personal and business-related communication skills but also your general IT skills.
The Purpose of This Book
The IT world has changed a great deal since its inception. At the dawn of the computing era, you
could possess absolutely no social skills whatsoever but could still be highly technical and expect
to receive a job with a major corporation commanding a high salary. Today, however, this is no
longer the case. Now, companies have begun to require that IT personnel, in addition to possessing specific technical requirements, maintain a high level of social and communication skills.
In 2006 CompTIA reacted to this industry demand by making the biggest change that had
ever been made to the A+ exam. Rather than testing technical knowledge and ability only, it
became a test of IT business aptitude as well. CompTIA achieved this by implementing two
things: soft skills and customer interaction questions. The reason this book is so valuable to
you as an IT professional is because you need to have the knowledge and ability to deal with
customers, coworkers, consultants, and other businesses as an IT technician. Without a lot of
training and experience, you simply cannot understand it unless you’ve seen it in action!
Who Should Read This Book
You should read this book if you are new to the computing industry, have never worked in a
business environment, have never worked in a situation that involved much communication,
or are generally interested in improving your communication and customer interaction skills.
You probably don’t need to read this book if you are an experienced businessperson, skilled
orator, or communication expert. The approach is high level, general, and designed for those
transitioning into the professional world.
How This Book Is Organized
Unlike a textbook, this book is broken into case scenarios. There are a total of 49 scenarios,
each involving some of the most important points in customer interaction and business communication. You will be able to jump into each topic headfirst and observe both mock and
actual situations that are either likely to occur or have occurred in the real world. The major
topics covered in this book are:
Customer Interaction How to treat, respect, understand, and assist your customer in a
retail, corporate, or other business environment
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xxviii
Introduction
Professional Behavior Understanding the proper way to conduct yourself in a business environment as an IT professional
Proper Phone Techniques Basic phone communication procedures, including transferring calls, treating callers with respect, and conducting yourself professionally in a phone
center environment
Communication Security In-depth analysis of common communication security issues, such
as privileged information, social engineering, and user privacy
Workplace Communication Communicating with other professionals in the workplace in a
clear, direct, and easy-to-understand manner
Leadership
How to present yourself as a leader in an IT environment
Communication in the Real World Actual historical scenarios pulling from the preceding
six subjects to give you a real-world perspective of the IT business environment
Study Tips and Best Wishes
Jumping into IT is not an easy thing to do. It’s common to get bogged down or intimidated by
the sheer amount of paths, information, and technical capabilities that some of the people in
the world possess. As you start down this road, you’re going to feel a bit torn as you feel your
technical interests pull toward one specific area or another, but don’t fret—this is normal.
When you’re reviewing this book, just keep in mind that while the technology may change, the
business world may adapt, and the industry as a whole may have a different face in the future,
good communication practices aren’t going anywhere.
After reading this book, if you aren’t already a business-savvy professional you should be
well on your way. Or if you struggle with communication, you will understand the actions and
intentions of your coworkers much more than you would have without reading this book. As
you’re reading, mark for future reference those scenarios that occur frequently in your own
life. If you still have difficulty, turn back to the situations you struggle with in real life and read
the /Key Concepts/ and /Resolution/ sections once again—after all, practice makes perfect.
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Chapter
1
Interacting with
Customers
26356.book Page 2 Tuesday, March 27, 2007 7:41 PM
Before I can begin discussing any type of interoffice, general, or
business communication, I have to point out one very important
fact. This fact is that, whether you realize it or not, the foundation of all IT and general communication in the professional world is based on customer interaction. This is because a customer is much more than just a person you deal with in a retail
environment. A customer is any person you interact with who could stand to grant you and
your company potential benefits. This includes consumers, other businesses, service providers,
consultants, and a myriad of other individuals.
Remember: A large potion of your exam is going to be on customer interaction, and it will
probably involve situations that are similar to those listed here. It’s a good idea to read about
the interaction, collect your own thoughts on how the situation could best be resolved, and
then take the suggestions and analysis into consideration.
This chapter breaks down into the following seven different scenarios, each dealing with
some of the most commonly occurring issues in professional communication:
Scenario 1: The Angry Customer
Scenario 2: Rude and Ruder
Scenario 3: Impatience: Not Quite a Virtue
Scenario 4: Assertive Intelligence
Scenario 5: The Challenged Customer[
Scenario 6: A Quiet Case
Scenario 7: Easing Tension
The Angry Customer
Here’s the hard-and-fast truth: no matter what you’re doing, whether you’re in information
technology, business, support, engineering, or working at a fast-food restaurant, chances are
that you’re going to run into an angry customer. As much as we don’t like to deal with angry
people, they are just one of those tough facts of life that we as IT technicians have to learn to
deal with. Fortunately, the trick to dealing with angry people is that most of the time they are
upset, frustrated, angry, or just generally agitated, but not with us. They are agitated with the
situation. In this scenario, you’re going to see what it’s like to deal with an angry customer,
how best to resolve the situation, and how you can turn an angry customer into a friend of
your organization for life.
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The Angry Customer
3
Scenario
It’s 9 A.M. and you’ve just opened the gates to a local computer store where you have recently
been placed into a position of authority. As the sole A+ Certified Technician, not only are you
in charge of ensuring that all of your technical tickets and requests are fulfilled, but you are
also responsible for customer support issues involving technical matters that the normal customer service representatives cannot field.
After setting up your work area and greeting two of your newly arriving coworkers, you are
disturbed from the assembly room by a frantic and frightened coworker who bursts into your
back room, breathlessly saying, “There’s someone at the front counter screaming at the top of
his lungs and demanding to speak with a person who ‘knows what he’s doing!’” Surprised,
you walk out to the sales floor to investigate.
Upon arriving at the sales floor, you immediately notice an incredibly large and furious-looking man, hunching over a sales terminal and glaring at your second coworker. This coworker,
equally as frightened as the first, turns to you for support with a pleading look on his face. The
customer catches on to this instantly and turns to address you, yelling, “You better know what
the heck you’re talking about!”
Stunned, you stammer for just a second, but you are able to get out, “Yes, sir. How is it that
I can help you?”
Barely allowing you to get your statement out, the customer yells, “I’ve had a really bad
night and your piece of junk computer is broken. What are you going to do about it?” He then
stares at you directly, further urging on a confrontation and intimidating other coworkers in
your store.
Background
Although we’d like them to be the exception, angry customers in the modern workplace have
become sort of the norm. When unfortunate events happen to people, they tend to react negatively toward the people is closest to them. In this particular case, it’s happening in a retail
or personal contact–oriented business. However, this happens even more often on the phone
or via distance (as in an e-mail), because although only a few people might have the courage
to approach you with an “I’m angry!” attitude, many more people feel that not seeing someone face to face allows them to vent their anger at will. Therefore, it’s important to remember
that while customers like this might require the most attention and the gentlest of kid gloves
when you’re interacting with them, these ideas should be put into practice when you’re dealing
with all of your customers. It will help your customer performance evaluations and might just
make someone who’s boiling on the inside feel a bit better.
Overview
Before I talk about being in the position of dealing with an angry person, put yourself in the shoes
of Fred, the angry customer. Fred has just bought a brand-new laptop from Super Company X.
The laptop is fast and stylish, and it’s got every new feature Fred could ever ask for. To top it off,
this laptop even comes with a nice briefcase he can use to carry it back and forth to work.
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4
Chapter 1
Interacting with Customers
Unfortunately, last night Fred spent his entire night preparing a business presentation for
his company. After he had spent three hours writing the presentation, the computer screen
went blank and the computer refused to turn back on. Panicked, Fred has come to your computer store. At this point, his hardware, work, and job are on the line. He’s tired, scared, and
more than a little frustrated.
As stated before, Fred is not necessarily angry with you or your company. In fact, it’s the
opposite of that. Fred is actually hopeful that your company will be able to help him with this
problem that he has encountered. In reality, Fred is angry with the company that manufactured the product and is upset with said product’s usability. He has the sincerest hope that
your company, and more importantly you, will be able to help him. That’s the first thing you
have to reassure him about.
Key Concepts
When most people without certification training are presented with this situation, they naturally
respond with one of four options. These options generally depend on the type of person, but they
can be broken down into:
Lecturing
Fighting
Resolving
Helping
None of these thoughts is necessarily illogical, but one of them is certainly the best approach
for dealing with an angry person. Let’s consider all these options and discuss why each of them
is or is not a good idea.
Lecturing Fred About His Tone
Of all the options presented here, this is by far the worst one. When people are angry, they
don’t want to hear that they are sounding angry. They want to hear that their anger has gotten
the attention that they desire and that you are going to help them with their problem. Furthermore, this doesn’t let the customer know that you’re going to try to help him, which is what
he really wants.
Fighting Fire with Fire
If you respond to rudeness with rudeness, you’re not going to help anyone, especially yourself.
Most people who respond with this attitude to a situation believe that whoever is addressing
them in this fashion is insulting them. This isn’t necessarily true. One could actually argue that
when someone is angry with an employee in a retail or remote situation it is because the person
believes that the employee is capable of helping them but unwilling. This indicates a great deal
of unspoken respect.
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The Angry Customer
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Getting Straight to the Issue
Of the options discussed so far, this would seem like the most appropriate one; however, it has
some flaws. First, it doesn’t necessarily tell the customer that you are going to help him out.
In fact, it indicates to the customer that you are already classifying him along with hundreds
of other cases you have already seen. Second, the customer hasn’t explained the problem yet.
He’s barely begun to discuss it. Already asking questions indicates that you believe you have
already solved the problem and, in his view, are insulting his intelligence.
Telling Him You’ll Help
Although it may seem fairly obvious, the best thing you can tell an angry person is that his problem
is going to be fixed. Truth be told, he does not want to be there and you do not want him to be
upset. After you’ve established this, the customer can feel comforted in you as a person and begin
to tell you what you need to know to help him.
Resolution
Most frustrated and angry customers just want to have their issue resolved. Furthermore, they
want you to address them in a way that they find comforting and to investigate their issue with
concern. This simple tactic and mind-set can save you hundreds of hours of argument, frustration, headaches, and annoyance, as well as making someone a friendly customer of yours
for life. However, there are a lot of additional tactics you can use, including using passive voice
and speaking in a pleasant tone.
Passive Voice
The simplest way to remove blame from any situation is to discuss the problem as if it just
happened by chance. This is accomplished by using passive voice. Simply defined, passive
voice is voice that is not active but acted upon.
Although that may not seem immediately clear, it’s actually fairly simple to understand. It
means that whenever you speak about action involving a subject, you speak as if the subject
has had an action impressed upon it, versus making the action itself. To clarify, consider these
few examples:
Active (Normal) Voice
“So, you disconnected the motherboard from the power supply?”
Passive Voice
“So, the power supply was disconnected from the motherboard?”
Active (Normal) Voice
“Did you buy the right type of DIMM for your motherboard?”
Passive Voice
“Is the DIMM that was bought the correct type?”
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Interacting with Customers
This tactic succeeds in removing any type of personal blame and instead places the
blame on an unknown entity. Although in reality it’s normally still the user’s fault or issue,
the language used removes any personal liability.
Pleasant Tone
Remember the old saying, “You can catch more flies with honey than you can with vinegar”?
It’s true. Customers who are angry always respond better to people who are polite and courteous. It takes away any ammo they have to become angrier. If you think back to the times
when you were extremely irate and were calmed down, chances are that the person you were
dealing with was very understanding and spoke in a way that you found soothing in some
form or another. It’s important to understand the effect this can have on customers in a retail
or remote environment and to effect a semblance of it on a day-to-day basis. You’ll find that
it goes a long way toward making not only your customers a bit easier to deal with, but also
your friends and family.
Skills for the A+ Exam
Here’s an example of the type of questions you will see about angry customers on the A+ exam:
1.
A furious customer slams his hands down on the desk in front of you and demands that
you pay for the computer that he believes you broke. Which of the following is the best
statement to calm the customer?
A.
OK, sir. Let me see if it’s broken and we’ll go from there.
B.
I’ll be certain to let my management know to help you.
C.
OK, sir. How much does that product cost? Maybe we could help.
D.
Sir, I’m more than willing to help. Let me see what I can do to fix the situation.
Answer A: Incorrect. This answer leads the customer to become angry. He will think,
“What do you mean you’ll CHECK to see if it’s broken?”
Answer B: Incorrect. This answer makes the customer believe that you can’t help him with
anything and that he should be speaking with your manager.
Answer C: Incorrect. This answer makes the customer think that your company is cheap
and will only help him if it’s in the budget.
Answer D: Correct. This informs the customer that you are willing to help and try your
best. That’s all the customer can really ever hope for.
Rude and Ruder
I don’t know about you, but I really just don’t like rude people. I don’t think anybody actually
does. They’re not the sort of people you want to have over for dinner, or the sort of folks you’d
like to call friend. Unfortunately, whether or not we want to associate with them, rude people
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Rude and Ruder
7
have a weird habit of just showing up where we don’t want them. Take this real-life scenario
as an example. The names, places, and people have been changed to protect the innocent (or
perhaps I should say the guilty), but the truth is still intact.
Scenario
You’ve been working at your retail computer business for six months and you think you’ve finally
started to get a grip on how things work. You’re familiar with the inventory, you’ve gotten to know
your coworkers on a more personal level, and you think that your manager approves of your performance up to today.
Today, in order to get ahead on the business inventory that is going to be conducted at the
end of this month, you’ve decided to start counting some of the currently existing parts and
computers that are normally not used and then place them into a safer area where they will not
be exposed to the potential of theft or misplacement. This way, you can cut down on the time
you’re going to have to spend on your inventory management later.
Suddenly, just as you’ve begun your project and started to unpack a great many boxes onto the
main floor, the door to the front office opens and an older-looking man in his late 60s walks into
the store. He then makes his way directly up to the front counter, looks you in the eye, and says,
“This place looks like a complete mess. Don’t you know how to run a business?”
You immediately apologize for the situation and ask how you can help. He then responds
by saying, “I’ll tell you how you can help—you can clean up this mess. Until then, I’m not sure
if I really want to be caught shopping here. This place isn’t up to my standards, and I don’t
think it’s up to yours, either.”
Slightly frustrated, you nod but maintain a professional appearance. You then say, “OK,
sir. Well, I’m sorry for the appearance of the store, but do you think that you could still give
me an idea of what you’re looking for? After all, you’re already here and I’m willing to help.”
Chuckling, the man says, “Trying to sales pitch me now, huh? Fat chance of that
happening, punk.”
Background
One of the more “interesting” things about working in support, customer service, or anything involving the service industry is that we as professionals are exposed to a wide variety
of people from an uncountable number of backgrounds. This is important to note because
while you might find the behavior of others to be rude, it may not be intended that way.
Granted, in this case it’s pretty obvious—the customer has a fairly large chip on his shoulder.
However, that isn’t always the case.
In some places in the United States, a common way to joke is by complaining about situations. It doesn’t matter if something is perfect or if they don’t have any real complaints at all,
they will still complain. Because of this, it’s important that you weave an aura of complete and
total understanding about you before you begin to deal with any sort of customer. If they do
something that is rude or upsetting, don’t fret. After all, you’re only going to be dealing with
them for a limited amount of time. Furthermore, you can also consider that this might just be
their way of expressing their beliefs and, by their standards, may not be rude.
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Interacting with Customers
Overview
The first thing I have to point out in this situation is that your customer is obviously upset. The
right thing was done here, in that before the actual situation of the customer was dealt with,
an apology was made. But even after that apology was made, the customer continued to complain and make acid remarks.
Personally, I find situations like this fairly tough to deal with. You almost want to go up to
them and say, “What is it that you WANT!?” In fact, I’ve even seen someone do that at the
workplace. And while I wouldn’t recommend it, it actually had pretty good results.
In the section that follows, you’re going to see some of the basic temptations to avoid in this
situation (such as raising your voice and asking them what they want) and then look at some
of the reasons that they have this demeanor. By reviewing these facts, you should be fairly well
armed to deal with a customer who makes you as upset as this one. But be warned, there is no
easy fix-all for dealing with different types of people; there are only general guidelines. Each
situation is unique, and you have to use your best judgment of what will and will not work.
Key Concepts
Although it would normally be a good idea to understand your customer’s perspective, in this
case the customer is openly hostile. With an openly hostile customer, it’s going to become
extremely difficult to obtain information from them. Therefore, you have to consider the possible avenues of approach you have to communicate with them.
Temptations to Avoid
People like this customer can bring out the worst in us. Because of that, it’s important to
remember that there are certain temptations that should just be avoided. In particular, you
should make sure that you do not ask someone to calm down, and that you do not refuse
service or become equally argumentative. The following will explain how these concepts can
turn a bad situation into an even worse one very quickly:
Asking Them to Calm Down This is a bad idea. Have you ever had someone ask you to
calm down when you’re angry? Did it work? When people are angry and you ask them to calm
down they just instantly think, “Hey! Aren’t you listening to me? I’m angry! I want attention.”
In the real world (that is, the nonbusiness world) you don’t really have to placate everyone you
meet. If someone wants attention when they’re angry, you can always choose to ignore them
or just wait until they’ve calmed down after an indeterminate period of time. In business, you
don’t have that choice, especially in retail.
Refusal Boy, it would be great if you could just say, “I don’t feel like dealing with you today,
Mr. Customer. Thank you and have a very nice day.” I think it would save everyone a lot of
headaches. Truth be told, I’ve actually seen people do this. They get to the point where they
don’t want to deal with a customer and then they simply tell the customer to go away.
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Rude and Ruder
9
There’s a simple reason you can’t do this: collateral damage. If you allow one individual to
walk away angry, that customer creates 10 more who will not want to deal with you in the
future. People like to talk, and you deciding that you don’t want to deal with a person could
be just about the worst event in that person’s day—and you’d better be darn sure that they’re
going to want to tell someone about it.
Being Rude Back You know, I don’t think I need to get into this one. But, just in case, it
almost goes without saying that you can’t be rude to customers—no matter what they do. If
you’re like me, you’ve actually been the rude customer once or twice in your life and dealt with
someone who was rude back. You’ve also probably dealt with someone who remained professional and calm throughout the entire incident.
To this day, I can still remember walking into an unnamed cell phone store and chewing out
the manager. He stood there and took every bad name, insult, and angry complaint I could
throw out and just responded with kindness and understanding. It really took the wind out of
my sails. On the other hand, just the other day I went to go buy a pretzel at another unnamed
business and I wasn’t served. After two minutes of that, I asked for service. The attendant
responded with “Yeah,” and then continued to baste and ready a fresh garlic pretzel (which
happened to be the exact one I wanted at that moment). Things like that stick with you. The
bottom line is don’t be rude, no matter what somebody else does.
Remember, these are things to be avoided at all cost. No matter how upset you get, don’t give
in to these temptations! Not only are they damaging to your customer, but they also can be damaging to you and your business. Instead, consider the discussion in the following section.
Resolution
There are a lot of reasons why people tend to be rude, but they usually boil down to one of
these two things:
Frustrated
Culturally different
Frustrated
Of the two problems, frustrated is by far the easiest one to handle. Frustrated people just want
their problem to be fixed! Remain calm, do your best to help the customer, and know that
you’re going to make them have a good day if you fix their issue.
Focus on the customer. Let the customer know that you’re concerned about
their problem. They will think better of you and appreciate that you’re doing
everything you can to help them.
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Culturally Different
You don’t need someone like me to tell you that there are a lot of different types of people
out there. In the United States alone, people in the South tend to think and act differently than
people in the North. People from California don’t usually vote the same way as people from
Texas. The trick is that you can do a few things to make sure that everybody stays happy:
Use acceptable language. There are certain things you can and cannot say to people. Some
of the language that you need to avoid using are slang words or phrases, derogatory terms,
acronyms, and just about anything that would make someone who doesn’t come from the
same background as you feel uncomfortable.
Avoid excessive body language. It’s always a safe bet to not make many hand movements
when dealing with a customer. Unless you’re a master of empathy (which most of us aren’t),
you can’t say for certain how someone is going to react to a particular gesture. They could feel
threatened, insulted, or even sexually harassed by an action you make. Consider that while
such expressions as a good old-fashioned “thumbs up” might be considered friendly and
encouraging in the United States, it is considered to be one of the rudest gestures on the planet
in many other cultures.
Skills for the A+ Exam
Here’s an example of the type of questions you will see about rude customers on the A+ exam:
2.
A user informs you that he has been waiting on hold for a very long time and wants to be
spoken to immediately. You currently have three other customers who have been holding
longer and are also reading an e-mail saying that you have to log out of your workstation
in five minutes, forcing you to place your current customers back into the hold queue.
What is your best response?
A. I’ll be glad to help you immediately, sir.
B.
I apologize, sir. We will be with you as soon as we can. It shouldn’t be much longer.
Again, I apologize for the inconvenience.
C.
OK, no problem. I have to leave in just a few minutes, but is there a chance that it’s a
tiny problem? I’d like to help.
D.
Sir, I’m more than willing to help. Let me see what I can do to fix the situation. Or if
I can’t fix it, I’ll get you to someone who can.
Answer A: Incorrect. You can’t do this. If you start, you probably won’t be able to finish
this in five minutes and won’t be able to log out of your terminal.
Answer B: Correct. Sometimes you have to tell a customer the hard truth, even if they’re
rude or upset.
Answer C: Incorrect. I have a bit of a soft heart, so I’ve tried to do this more than once. Unfortunately, it never works. The problem is always a big problem. But even if it isn’t, it’s not a
good practice to get into. The A+ exam is going to ask you questions like this. Be prepared.
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Impatience: Not Quite a Virtue
11
Answer D: Incorrect. This is a great distracter. You’re being polite, kind, and very helpful.
Unfortunately, this response doesn’t account for the fact that you have people currently
holding and that all your other associates are busy. Be sure to watch out for this type of
thing on the real exam.
Impatience: Not Quite a Virtue
I bet if I were to sit down and have a one-on-one talk with you about being impatient, you’d
probably confess to me that there’s been at least one time in your social or working life that
you’ve been anxious about something. For most people, it’s been a lot more than just once. In
fact, it’s probably happened a couple of hundred times.
Patience is a hard thing to master. Even for the most calm, confident, and level-headed people
you will ever meet, patience is just one of those things in life that takes a lifetime to be able to
control and two lifetimes to master. One of the “joys” of IT is that you have to learn how to do
it as soon as you start your position. Unfortunately, your customers don’t exactly have to share
your state of mind.
Scenario
It’s Christmas, the busiest time of the year at your small office. Everyone has built up a good
share of vacation, personal leave, and even a little sick time that they’ve been talking about
using now for the past month. Truth be told, you’ve even arranged to take some time off yourself. After all, what good is having paid vacation if you don’t use it?
As a result of the upcoming vacation, everyone is in a hurry to pack things up and get
ready to leave the office. Employees have been submitting jobs to the servers, locking
down workstations, and doing their best to get documents signed off by the boss before
their leave begins.
On the morning of your last day in the office before your vacation starts, you receive an
early phone call from your supervisor, notifying you that the office Exchange server has just
gone down and you need to rush to the office immediately. Upon your arrival, you quickly
realize that the server has been infected with an extremely malicious virus and that it’s going
to take you hours to fix. To top it off, most of the crew is planning on taking a half day today
and needs the equipment.
As soon as you finish the diagnosis, you receive another phone call from your supervisor:
“Hey, it’s Alan. Can you have that server back up in 30 minutes?”
Background
Someone once told me that if you want to get into IT to give yourself more free time, you’re
getting into the wrong business. I thought he was kidding at the time, but he turned out to
be almost completely correct. IT is one of those businesses that, just like being a doctor or
a lawyer, may require you to work at some very odd hours. Problems happen and they don’t
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Interacting with Customers
normally tend to just resolve themselves. Because of this, it’s important to remember that
there are going to be times when things go wrong. Unfortunately, they always seem to come
at the wrong times, like holidays, weekends, or other times that we’d like to think about anything other than work.
As you read over this analysis, I encourage you to put yourself in a particular mind-set
before you begin to think it over. That mind-set is that you are going to have to work very hard
in IT and there are just times when work is going to take a long time. As simple as it sounds,
that frame of thought will save you a lot of time and frustration if you can get yourself mentally prepared for it before it happens.
Overview
From the description of the condition of the office, you can easily tell that most people are anxious to have all their problems solved and be under way with the rest of the day. Just like it
says in the beginning, who can really blame them? It’s the holidays and they’re all ready to take
a break. The problem is, problems don’t take breaks.
When you’re involved with a situation like this in your business, you’re going to need to
consider a lot of factors: elements like time, complexity, workload, and just how generally difficult a problem is going to be to fix. You should take all of these factors into account and
present your supervisor with what you consider to be a fairly reasonable timeframe. However,
when you do that, you should also consider some of the key concepts listed next in this scenario when you’re speaking to someone about a problem that won’t just quickly disappear.
Key Concepts
There are many sides to the practice of being patient. Some of them come from the perspective
of the customer/coworker and some from the perspective of the employee. The important
thing to remember is that, as far as you are concerned, there is only one side that you have to
worry about—yours.
Granted, you’re going to have to be concerned with the customer’s state of mind. You can’t
just ignore their feelings and continue on with the workday. (Since you’ve made it to this point
of the chapter, you probably already understand that.) But the main idea is that customers are
always going to have problems. Being impatient and in a hurry is just one of those problems
that you have to learn to deal with for their benefit. Let’s now take a look at a few things to
keep in mind as you deal with an impatient customer.
The Problem Isn’t Going Away
Just because a customer may want a problem to be instantly fixed, it doesn’t mean that it’s going
to happen. Because of this, it’s a good idea to let people know the severity of their problems. In
the previous scenario, you were dealing with a complex server that had an extremely urgent and
complex problem. Although the manager may want it done in 30 minutes, it probably isn’t feasible. Furthermore, if you try to do what you can in 30 minutes and just turn the server back on,
the problem will still be there.
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Impatience: Not Quite a Virtue
13
Whenever possible, be up-front with your customer. If they ask for the unreasonable,
professionally tell them that it’s unreasonable. If someone came to you and said, “I need you
to overhaul this V-8 engine in 10 minutes,” you could easily tell them that you don’t believe
that you can overhaul the engine in 10 minutes. Instead, you’d need somewhere around a
week (assuming, of course, you could work on cars in the first place).
Doing a Half-Job Will Be Worse Than Not Doing It at All
It’s easy to tempt yourself into committing one of the cardinal sins of IT and, more importantly, one of the cardinal sins of business. The best advice you will probably ever receive in
business is the following: never do a half-job. Don’t just patch something together. Don’t get
something to the point that it works, but not very well. Get your task done to the point that
what you were supposed to do was done great.
Your goal in everything you do in business is to get people to say, “Wow.” If you don’t
accomplish that every single time you set out, it’s not the end of the world. However, not trying to shoot for that goal every time you go out is just letting yourself down. If you fully grasp
your potential and do everything you were gifted with, you will be able to churn out some
amazing results. If something’s worth doing, it’s worth doing well.
Resolution
When dealing with impatient people, just remember that the key is to be polite and to do the
best you can to solve their problem as quickly as possible, whether that involves abstract ideas
or the traditional method of just working your way through their issue. At the end of the day,
they are people just like you and they just want to have their situation taken care of. Remember that every time you deal with someone who is anxious or impatient about something, you
have the opportunity to be the hero and solve problem quickly. Along the way, here are some
good practices to keep in mind as you’re solving these problems.
Be Extremely Polite
Being polite can go a long way to diffusing an impatient customer. As you’ve seen in previous
scenarios, it’s a disarming tactic to someone who is openly hostile or confrontational. In the
case of someone who is extremely impatient, it is an almost miraculous tactic, and in the case
of your superiors, it can actually score you a lot of brownie points.
If someone is anxious and ready to have something done immediately, they’re most likely
not going to act adversely if you say one of the following easy-to-memorize quotes:
“I’ll do my very best to get to you [or your problem] as soon as I can. Thank you for
your patience.”
“Thank you, sir/ma’am. I’ll be with you in just a moment.”
Offer Alternatives
One of the most interesting things about the social issue of patience is that it only occurs if someone has a problem that they want attended to immediately. Whether that problem is personal or
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Interacting with Customers
work related, it can be quickly diffused by thinking of a solution that the individual may not have
considered.
When you have a customer or coworker who appears to be concerned about a particular
issue, the best advice is to quickly ask them about their situation and see if you can think of
any alternative solutions they may not have considered.
“Mr. Boss, I think the server is going to be down for quite a while. Do you think it might
be a better idea for us to queue up the e-mails on the backup Exchange server while I
repair this one?”
Or, in the retail world, “I’m currently with another customer, Mr. Customer. I’ll be with
you as soon as I can, but if you need immediate assistance I can call a coworker from the
back to come and help you.”
Skills for the A+ Exam
Here’s an example of the type of questions you will see about impatient customers on the
A+ exam:
3.
You are working on one of three priority help desk tickets when your supervisor calls
and says that he has another priority ticket that has to be taken care of immediately. The
tickets you currently have will probably already take you several hours. What is your
best action?
A.
Stop what you’re doing and take care of the ticket your supervisor has.
B.
Stop what you’re doing and inform the supervisor of your situation.
C.
Continue working on the ticket and suggest that it might be a better idea to hand the
ticket to the second team; your office is at its max.
D.
Continue working on the ticket and tell your supervisor that you think you can handle
the situation, but make him aware that there is an issue.
Answer A: Incorrect. It’s a good idea to do what your boss tells you, but not at the sacrifice of your performance. You should also never stop working on an issue when you
can continue diagnosing it.
Answer B: Incorrect. You should always keep your supervisor informed, but you shouldn’t
stop working just to do that.
Answer C: Correct. This answer not only informs your supervisor of the situation, but also
suggests an alternative for him. Your superiors will appreciate your understanding of their
situation, and this will help them remember that you can handle difficult situations well.
Answer D: Incorrect. You should never tell a supervisor that you can do something but
there may be problems attached to it. Supervisors want to hear that something either can
or cannot be done.
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Assertive Intelligence
15
Assertive Intelligence
Have you ever noticed how most of the people you meet in this world tend to be a little less
smart than you? Most IT people know the feeling. It’s not exactly an industry that attracts
people who dislike an intellectual challenge. In fact, some of the smartest people you will ever
meet are in this field . . . which is actually the problem.
A good portion of the time you’ll be administering, assisting, or troubleshooting an issue
with someone, they’ll be a lot smarter than you are. On top of that, they’ll probably be older,
more experienced, and a great deal more connected. That makes it pretty tough to be the new
IT guy sometimes.
Scenario
You’re working in a call center environment for a local cable company and have just been promoted from a Level 1 support technician to a Level 2 support technician, and you couldn’t be
happier. Finally, you’ve stopped receiving phone calls that involve trivial things like unplugging the cable modem and plugging it back in. Now, you’re starting to get involved with actual
technical issues like subnetting, driver conflicts, failed hardware issues, and the sorts of thing
that tech geeks just love! You’re on the top of the company’s tech food chain.
Sometime during the day you receive a phone call and you answer with a standard greeting.
The customer responds with:
“Hi. I’m a consultant working for SmallBus, Inc. and it looks like their 2600 is having QoS
issues. I’d like to set it up to be fed in from our backup cable modem here, but your DHCP
server seems to keep assigning us new IP addresses every hour. Can you give us something
static for a day until I can figure out what the issue is?”
Background
Most companies that you will work for in your career will have a whole range of employees
with different skill levels. Because of this, there’s a strong chance that you’ll have someone else
in your organization who is much more experienced in IT than you—or, if not more experienced, who will certainly have a larger knowledge base.
However, this isn’t always the case. Many small companies will hire just one IT person,
who will be in charge of virtually the entire business. This is a difficult situation to be in,
because IT is so broad and the expectations of a sole IT person are extremely high. So, for
those of you who are planning on working for a smaller company, pay especially close attention to this scenario—chances are that you will encounter it a lot as you deal with other companies that interact with your own.
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Overview
There are a couple dead giveaways that you can look for regarding problems of a complex
nature that have extremely experienced professionals asking about them:
They immediately identify the problem without hesitation.
The problem is narrow and self-contained, not broad and overarching.
There is usually a specific request.
This makes it fairly easy to identify exactly what is wrong (assuming you can understand
the technology) and move on to some of the tactics you can use to resolve the problem.
Key Concepts
First off, let’s say you don’t even know what a 2600 is. (I know that some of you might be saying,
“Hey, Steve, it’s a Cisco router. I know this stuff,” but bear with me.) Second, let’s also say that
you’re not familiar with IOS and how to configure Cisco networks. In case you don’t know what
IOS is in the first place, don’t worry; you’ll be fine. Now, let’s analyze the conversation and take
a look at the things you know before you even start to deal with the customer.
Someone who throws around Cisco terminology and consults for a living is probably a
pretty intelligent, or at least technically experienced, person. Some key things to listen for in
your customer or coworker’s language are:
Length of words
Acronyms
Technical terms
Jargon usage
If the person consults for a living, they’re going to know their way around the IT field, whether
or not they’ve got all the certifications in the world. Make sure you avoid the following when dealing with a smart, experienced person:
Avoid explaining the basics.
Avoid overly long explanations.
Resolution
Since you’ll come across this scenario pretty often, it’s a good idea to prepare yourself for exactly
what to do when and not if it presents itself. As a general guideline, you can get past the situation
by doing two things: Concentrating on what they need and not using technical terms back.
Concentrate on What They Need
Experienced professionals are going to have a good idea of what they want before you even
start diagnosing their issue. One of the best things you can do early in your evaluation is to find
out exactly what they want from you. The more you understand what they want, the better
you are going to be able to help them.
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Assertive Intelligence
17
Don’t Use Technical Terms Back
This one goes against what you might normally think. The guy called up, started spouting off
terms, and is asking for something very technical. This is all true, but it doesn’t necessarily
mean that the person is going to understand everything you throw back at them. In this particular case, the person seems to be a Cisco expert. Say your DHCP server used Juniper technology, instead. Or, in the worst case, say the problem is actually because the person did
something wrong in the first place.
Assume They’re Dumb; Act Like They’re Smart
This sounds mean and deceitful and, well, it sort of is. However, it’s a good philosophy to
adopt. People really like to feel as if they’re intelligent, well spoken, and an absolute expert on
the subject. Making them think otherwise can result in a lot of negative emotions, such as
anger, sadness, or maybe even a little anxiety.
Furthermore, the person might know a little about a particular field, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re an expert. For the moment, you can feel safe to use some more technical terms and treat the person with a little more credit than you would a normal user, but
it’s best to stick to a common playing field.
Skills for the A+ Exam
Here’s an example of the type of questions you will see about technically proficient customers
on the A+ exam:
4.
How should you respond to a customer who uses jargon?
A.
Use the jargon back moderately.
B.
Don’t use it in return at all.
C.
Use it heavily in return.
D.
Ask the customer if they understand the terms, then use them heavily.
Answer A: Incorrect. While this might be appealing, jargon is just not a good idea in technical support. It can really confuse the issue.
Answer B: Correct. When in doubt, don’t use it. That’s the first rule of jargon, acronyms,
and special terms. Whenever you’re in technical support, you have to resort to the least
common denominator.
Answer C: Incorrect. Young Skywalker, this is not the way of the Force. Never use
acronyms, jargon, or special terms heavily!
Answer D: Incorrect. This is an interesting idea, but still not a good one. If you asked
a customer about every single term, the two of you would be on the phone or talking
together for a very long time.
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18
Chapter 1
Interacting with Customers
The Challenged Customer
Dealing with a disability is difficult for both the person with the disability and the person
who has to adjust their behavior because of it. Whether the problem is physical, mental,
or emotional, a disability can often imply some type of communication issue that inhibits
your ability to understand the customer’s needs. However, as an IT professional, it’s your
responsibility to overcome that problem and understand what the needs of the individual
actually are. The only problem is that doing so can prove to be quite difficult.
Scenario
In the middle of the day a customer walks into your retail store and indicates with her hands that
she would like to speak with you. This is odd, because most customers usually indicate to you
that they would like to speak by calling out your name or saying “Excuse me.” Furthermore,
you’ve been working underneath the counter arranging some of the inventory and you couldn’t
see the person waving at you, so she must have been waving for at least a few seconds, if not a
few minutes. Regardless, you immediately make your way over to the customer and greet her
professionally with a polite “Good afternoon, ma’am, how can I help you?”
The customer responds with a polite nod and then begins to wave her hands in odd directions again. At first, you aren’t sure what she’s indicating, so you interrupt with a brief “Pardon, ma’am? I’m not sure I understand.”
Then, as soon as you say that, the customer screams in an almost piercingly loud voice
and yells out something absolutely unintelligible. After recoiling from the impact of the
sound, you ask the customer to politely repeat her request, and she again screams something that you do not understand.
A bit intimidated, you ask her to repeat herself one more time. Unfortunately, she
doesn’t respond to this well. She begins to look very upset and starts waving her hands
even more frantically, continuing to scream.
Background
It’s a bit hard when you don’t have a disability to remember that there are literally millions of
people in this world who live day to day with a life-altering illness, infirmity, or impairment.
However, in the workplace, disability is an important factor to consider when you’re providing customer service, because it is your duty to provide service not just to healthy and fully
functioning people but to people who are challenged as well.
What this means to you as an IT professional is that you need to be able to easily identify
when someone has a disability and you need to know the ways to cope with it—and there are
many. Although you may not be intimately familiar with all of them, this scenario will familiarize you with some of the most common ways to communicate to someone who has a disability that presents a barrier to their communication.
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The Challenged Customer
19
Overview
Some of the indications that you can look for to determine whether a customer has a disability
are as follows:
Physical Movements Does the person have a limp? Is there some impediment in their motor
functions that is recurring?
Visual Comprehension Levels Does the person you’re dealing with seem to understand
everything you’re telling them?
Inanimate Accompaniments Does the person have a hearing aid? A cane? Are they in a
wheelchair?
These are just a few of the things you can look for. Table 1.1 in the next section will further
illustrate some of the communicative techniques that you can use when you’re communicating
with individuals who have easily diagnosable problems.
Key Concepts
This is a tough situation. The customer obviously wants something and it is your inability to
understand, not her inability to communicate, that is causing the issue. Fortunately, there are
some pretty safe procedures that you can use to deal with this sort of scenario.
Step 1: Diagnose the Disability Sensitively
Believe me when I say that this is a very difficult thing to do politically. What you are doing
in this first step is trying to discover what the customer’s disability is and figure out ways to
overcome it in a way that doesn’t make the customer feel embarrassed. Here are some of the
best ways to determine the nature of a customer’s disability:
Body Language
Customers who are deaf or hard of hearing will usually try to make sudden movements to
attempt to convey their meaning. Additionally, people who are incapable of speech will generally use more refined movements to indicate what it is that they desire. In this case, a customer is moving her hands rapidly and seemingly randomly, which usually indicates that the
customer is hearing-impaired.
Speech Patterns
People who have disabilities tend to speak in different manners. Some people have difficulty
enunciating terms or speaking in complex sentences. Sometimes people who are hearingimpaired will speak in unusual tones because they don’t know what their voice truly sounds
like. Understanding what to look for in these types of disabilities is key to discovering how
to communicate.
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Chapter 1
20
Interacting with Customers
Step 2: Attempt a New Mode of Communication
This is the easy part. Once you have diagnosed someone’s problem, it’s fairly easy to find
a way to communicate with them. Check out Table 1.1 for a list of good communication
recommendations for disabled customers.
TABLE 1.1
Communication Methods for Disabled Customers
Disability
Communication Method
Hearing-impaired
Use illustrations and written communication.
Visually impaired/blind
Use descriptive language and the sense of touch.
Mentally disabled
Be patient and understanding, and try to make things simple to
understand.
Physically disabled
Don’t ask to assist; just assist with moving and finding things as if
it were standard customer service.
Resolution
When dealing with disabled individuals, it’s important to remember to be patient and understand that they are not stupid or inept; they are simply disabled. The best thing you can do as
an IT professional in a difficult situation like this is to remember that it is your job to communicate. It is your job to make the customer pleased with your service and responsibility.
Watching their body language, understanding their alternative forms of communication,
and readily keeping communication tools, such as a pad and paper, at your disposal to help
with the occasional situation not only will help you quickly diagnose their problem, but also
will quickly impress the person and maybe even impress your superiors.
Skills for the A+ Exam
Here’s an example of the type of questions you will see about disabled customers on the
A+ exam:
5.
A customer who happens to be visually impaired asks you if you can help him identify
what is wrong with his laptop computer. Immediately upon inspection of his laptop, you
realize that the plastic has been broken on the bottom of the computer and exposed to the
elements, ruining the equipment. What is the best procedure?
A.
Inform the customer of the broken plastic professionally and offer alternatives.
B.
Attempt to make light of the situation and say that it looks like something accidentally
broke the computer.
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A Quiet Case
C.
Speak very slowly to the customer and ask him if he understands.
D.
Apologize repeatedly and say that the problem will never happen again.
21
Answer A: Correct. This is the absolute best thing you can do. You need to be straightforward, honest, and professional in a situation like this, just as you would be for someone who isn’t visually impaired.
Answer B: Incorrect. You should never make light of a customer’s disability. It is rude and
insulting, and will probably result in disciplinary action.
Answer C: Incorrect. The customer is not hearing-impaired, and it isn’t a good tactic to
use, even if he were.
Answer D: Incorrect. You have nothing to apologize for. You did nothing wrong.
A Quiet Case
There’s something that is both really likable and really irritating about people who are very
quiet. They’re likable, because we don’t feel intimidated or judged by them. If you don’t say
anything, no one really knows what you think. Therefore, we automatically assume that
they’re probably not thinking anything too negative. Unfortunately, the fact that they don’t
say much at all has a tendency to make most of us nervous.
In IT, you will run into a lot of cases of quiet people who have technical issues. They present
an extremely interesting scenario, because you have to not only be able to diagnose their issue,
but also do it with barely any information whatsoever. Let’s look at a typical case of a quiet
customer and examine some of the tactics you can use to overcome their naturally shy nature.
Scenario
Your company is running a huge promotional sale on computer memory. For the first time ever,
system RAM is half price and every DIMM that you sell includes a free 32MB Compact Flash
card. It’s a heck of a deal, and you’ve managed to pick up a few DIMMs and cards yourself.
While you’re near the front counter, an individual approaches you with a copy of a magazine in hand. Without saying hello, he motions you to look at his magazine, and then indicates a bright red advertisement for your company and for your sale. Afterward, he gestures
for you to follow him and leads you toward a specific brand of memory. He points, mumbles
something under his breath, and then indicates back toward your memory stick again.
Background
In the real world, most corporations outline a pretty firm policy that they like you to take
when it concerns their customers. They believe there is one way that will suit every single customer you will ever have, and it will make everyone match up into a perfect little row that
works just the way they want. Unfortunately, the real world doesn’t work like that (although
it sure would be nice if it did).
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22
Chapter 1
Interacting with Customers
Whenever you’re dealing with an “unusual” customer, whether that customer is quiet,
quirky, or just strange, you should keep your company’s view in mind, but you should also be
aware that not everyone fits into a “one size fits all” box. You’re going to have to adjust. Now,
I’m not saying that you should go in the opposite direction from what your company has been
teaching you, but you can do well by keeping your company’s viewpoints in mind and following the spirit of them while embracing your own sense of customer service. The A+ exam
encourages you to do this by asking a few out-of-the-ordinary questions, and the real world
will do the same by presenting situations just like this one.
Overview
This situation is actually inspired by something that happened to me once in the real world.
All too often, people will approach you with written material that they think will convey information better than they are able to verbally, and they will place it in front of you as if to say,
“Here, read this and understand what I want.” Personally, I find it kind of frustrating, but I
had to place myself in the shoes of someone in just this sort of situation. Specifically, this person probably:
Has poor communication skills
Doesn’t like to interact with sales or service people
Has done a lot of research on the subject
Would like to see this transaction taken care of as quickly as possible
With these things in mind, you can really put yourself into the mind-set of being a helper.
Never forget—understanding your customer is the key to understanding what you have to do
to complete a successful transaction. The next section offers some tips on how to do that.
Key Concepts
I don’t know about you, but when I think about situations like this (which are all too real), I
find it hard not to laugh. I mean, really, I don’t think most people act that way. But occasionally, folks just like to act a bit differently than the norm. And, at the end of the day, it takes
a lot of different types of people to make the world work. Let’s take a look and see if we can
figure out the tactics for dealing with someone like this.
Do the Talking for Them
When someone won’t talk, do it for them! Talk about the product, talk about the store, talk
about anything professional or promotional about your company. The more you say, the more
likely that the person will acknowledge what you say or feel compelled to comment, whether
that be through verbal or physical language.
In this case, you could say something along the lines of, “Oh, so you’re interested in applying our sales toward this particular stick of memory. Is that correct?”
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A Quiet Case
23
Feel Free to Suggest
Most people who don’t talk a lot have a lot to say; they just don’t choose or know how to voice
it. Instead, you can let people know exactly what you think they are trying to indicate.
“Are you interested in this promotion?”
“Are you looking for a replacement DIMM?”
“Is this what you’re looking for?
This sort of forceful, yet respectful communication engenders trust in people and helps
them understand that you’re not a stranger; you’re someone who is there to help them. People
tend to be a lot more communicative with helpers than they are with strangers.
Resolution
OK, now for the good part. How to fix it! The best thing about this type of person is that it’s
not all that hard to fix. You just have to be a little creative, and a little excited about doing it.
Let’s go into a little bit more detail on how to do that.
Be Excited!
Don’t ever feel afraid to be energetic about your job and your company. When someone seems
quiet, docile, or uninterested in your company, it’s not going to hurt to be excited about what you
do. People like enthusiasm. It doesn’t matter if it’s enthusiasm that is in their field or not; they just
like it. But you should always remember that you’re a professional, not a cheerleader. Getting a
reputation as someone more excited about their company than Steve Ballmer may not be a good
idea. Just remember to be open and encouraging, and be the one who takes the first step.
Be Creative
Another thing you shouldn’t be afraid to be when dealing with quiet people is creative. While
someone quiet may not like to be outspoken or unusual themselves, that doesn’t mean they’re
not going to respond well to someone whom they view as insightful. Keep a good attitude, don’t
be embarrassed to embrace new ideas, and always be the first one to provide a suggestion.
Skills for the A+ Exam
Here’s an example of the type of questions you will see about quiet customers on the A+ exam:
6.
What is the best solution for dealing with a customer who is not very communicative
about her problem?
A.
Repeat your questions, ensuring she understands.
B.
Repeatedly ask for clarification of her issues.
C.
Speak very softly, concentrating on her issue.
D.
Speak very passionately, concentrating on what you need to understand about her
problem.
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24
Chapter 1
Interacting with Customers
Answer A: Incorrect. Chances are that she already understands your question; she is just
having difficulty getting you to understand her response.
Answer B: Incorrect. It’s not a good idea to continuously repeat information until you
hear an answer that you either like or understand. You’re likely to upset your customer.
Answer C: Incorrect. You should only speak softly in an office environment if someone
appears adverse to your loud tone.
Answer D: Correct. Speaking passionately and concentrating on what you need to understand about her problem is a surefire way to get someone to open up.
Easing Tension
You wouldn’t believe how stressful computers and technology can be to some people. When you
tell them that they have to own, operate, and even maintain a computer, you might as well be
telling them that they are going to have to spend their day filing tax returns that are inevitably
going to be audited. They’re tired, frightened, and more than a little nervous about the machine
they’re going to get or the problem that they’ve come across.
Scenario
Halfway through your day, you take the time to assist a customer who has been staring at your
new computer systems for over an hour. You introduce yourself, tell him your position, and ask
if there is any way that you can help him. After a little visible reticence, the customer informs you
that he’s looking for a computer that ensures that “No one can spy on him or give viruses.”
After explaining to the customer that viruses and spyware are more of a software issue than
a hardware one, he tells you that he thinks it just doesn’t make sense that there isn’t a single
computer on the market that can be completely resistant to malware. He then asks you to get
your manager or someone who knows more about the subject so that he can consult them.
Background
If you work in any sort of customer service, which, as you can certainly tell by now, we do,
you’re going to hear the words “I’d like to speak to your manager” a lot. Be prepared for this.
It’s not anything to be ashamed of. Sometimes people will ask to speak to your manager for
the oddest reasons. They may have a complaint. They may think that your service has been so
admirable that they’d like to ask if there’s a way you could receive a bonus for it. Or they could
just be curious about a factor that’s totally unrelated to you.
This is worth mentioning because hearing that someone wants to speak to your manager
can make you nervous. It immediately brings to mind questions like “Am I in trouble?” or
“Did I do something wrong?” But what you should keep in mind is that you shouldn’t be
afraid. Even if it is the worst possible case, the situation won’t be that bad. Chances are that,
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Easing Tension
25
even if you get a bad review, your company is not going to fire you or get you in a lot of trouble
over a single incident. At the end of the day, things will be what they will be. Now, let’s move
on to how to deal with easing the obvious tension in this situation.
Overview
What lets us know that there’s a problem with this customer’s state of mind and situation is
that the customer is asking a specific question about security. In general, whenever this topic
comes up, it’s a good idea to put yourself in the mind-set that you’re going to have to ease
someone’s worry. In fact, there are a lot more dead giveaway subjects that let you know you’re
going to have to do this. For instance, there are subjects such as:
Broken hardware
Malfunctioning software
Quality problems
End-user difficulties
Customer service issues
While there are a lot more than these few subjects, these first concepts give you a good idea
of just how many problems there are that have to be handled with care. In fact, it’s a good idea
when you’re dealing with a customer to automatically put yourself in the mind-set that you are
going to have to ease some tension. People are nervous about a lot of things, and your confident words can go a long way to making them feel better. Be sure to layer your words with
kindness and don’t spare the simple explanations; they can go a long way. Beyond that, let’s
take a look at the next section for more questions to ask about a customer’s condition.
Key Concepts
The first thing you can tell with someone who behaves in this manner is that something has
happened. Regardless of how, when, or why, the person has been led to believe something by
someone else. There are a lot of rumors in the IT industry, and there’s a lot of confusion. Close
to 99 percent of all problems involving anxiety, tension, or fear in the IT industry originate
from one thing: ignorance. As IT professionals, we have to discover the source of this ignorance and see what we can do to remedy it.
Why Does the Customer Feel So Nervous/Have This Problem?
People can be told some pretty incredible things. One technique that can help you get to the
bottom of whatever it is that they have learned is by simply inquiring about what the customer
knows. Has he or she been told something that is complete nonsense? Are they confusing technologies? Is there a way that they may just have been given some inappropriate advice? By asking a simple question, you can understand a lot about the person you’re dealing with and what
you’re going to need to do to help them.
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Chapter 1
26
Interacting with Customers
What Is the Customer’s Goal?
There has to be some reason the person is anxious enough about whatever their situation is
that they’ve felt motivated to do something about it. Once you understand what that is, you’ll
be better suited to help him or her out of the bad situation.
Resolution
Once you’ve clearly defined the the customer’s situation, understood their goal, and realized
what has caused them so much tension, you’re in a good spot. Chances are that once you
understand their mind-set you’ll be able to help them out. However, there are two tactics that
you can put into play: are being confident and being informative.
Be Confident
A good friend of mine once told me that 99 percent of the things that we worry about the most
never happen. Some people just need to be told that in a bit more detail. Remember that when
you’re dealing with someone who is ignorant of a field it’s important to be logical and reasonable, as well as to appear to be an authority on the subject. Nothing cures concern quite
as much as confidence.
Be Informative
Nothing tops off the concept of being confident like the idea of being confident and being
informative. If you’re just purely confident and don’t know what you’re talking about, you’re
going to make someone more nervous. However, if you are confident and you’re informed,
you’re going to be a valuable resource to the person with the problem. Stay calm, keep yourself
in the know, and always remember—chances are that you know a lot more about the subject
than the person you’re dealing with.
Skills for the A+ Exam
Here’s an example of the type of questions you will see about stressed-out customers on the
A+ exam:
7.
What is the best way to calm an apprehensive customer?
A.
Be as technical as possible.
B.
Ask for clarification of their issues.
C.
Speak very slowly, calming them to the best of your ability.
D.
Speak in a calm tone of voice, appearing concerned about their issue.
Answer A: Incorrect. This is probably just going to make them more nervous. It’s best to
err on the side of plain speech.
Answer B: Incorrect. If you choose this method, chances are that the customer is going to
get frustrated on top of being nervous—not exactly a good combination.
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Summary
27
Answer C: Incorrect. If there’s one surefire way to make someone even more nervous, it’s
to speak to them like they’re a child. In addition to making them feel awkward about an
issue, you’ll make them feel insulted.
Answer D: Correct. Speaking in a calm tone of voice always goes a long way in communication. However, the key is to appear extremely concerned about their issue. An understanding person is a good person in the eyes of the customer.
Summary
One of the greatest, if not the greatest, concepts in modern economics is the idea of supply and
demand. If something is in great supply and low demand, it will economically fail. And vice versa
if something is in great demand and low supply, it will succeed. The key is that creating demand
in any given market is necessary in order to have a viable business. Part of the process of creating
that demand is ensuring that you not only have great products but also excellent service.
Every moment that you neglect a customer, fail to utilize skills that you’ve been taught, or
don’t capitalize on the fact that you could enhance the mood and experience of a consumer is
a moment that will cost either you or your industry vast amounts of time, money, and effort.
Because of this, we as professionals in the IT support industry have to be aware that we must
take into account the effect everything we say and do will have on the image of the company
we represent. If you’re ever having trouble along the way, keep a copy of this book nearby and
review some of the encounters we’ve gone over. If you’re still lost, take comfort in the fact that
if your mind is in the right place, you’re most likely going to succeed. But if you fail, there will
always be ways to recover in the eyes of the customer.
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26356.book Page 29 Tuesday, March 27, 2007 7:41 PM
Chapter
2
Working with
Professionals
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As an A+ Certified help desk technician, you’re going to be
entering a world you’ve probably never encountered before—the
world of business. And, as I’m sure you already know, the world of
business can be a difficult place in which to function because there are so many different types of
people with whom you interact. For almost every type of person you have to communicate in a different way. Some people will like things spelled out explicitly; others will just want a rough overview. Some workers will prefer to never be spoken to, and some will simply never be quiet.
Given that, there are several ways you can adapt to the professional environment and succeed in your new career. You can start by being aware of some of the most common personality types you will deal with in your workplace activities. This chapter will go into the
personalities in detail and explain how you can interact with a variety of individuals.
Scenario 1: The Inquisitive Coworker
Scenario 2: Dealing with Sexual Harassment
Scenario 3: The Lazy Worker
Scenario 4: An Issue of Trust
Scenario 5: Working with Your Manager
Scenario 6: The Technical Professional
Scenario 7: The Business Professional
The Inquisitive Coworker
Some people are just curious. More often than not, you’ll run into someone who will ask you
about your day, your family, your activities, or a variety of other aspects of your day-to-day
life. Most of the time, their interest is purely innocent. People have a generally curious
nature and normally believe that any inquiries they make into your personal business are
just indications that they have a certain amount of concern for you and your well-being.
There are occasions, however, when someone appears to be innocently curious but, in fact,
is being exceptionally deceptive.
Scenario
You’ve been working on a project for your boss for the past several weeks. The project involves
cleaning out your company’s inventory warehouse and reorganizing it from a system that relies
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The Inquisitive Coworker
31
on ID tags into an alphabetical system. Halfway through the project, you realize that you have
made a mistake in the “B” section and that you have placed them in reverse order.
As you begin to rearrange things, a coworker approaches you from behind and asks, “Hey,
what are you doing?”
Stopping your work for the moment, you take the time to turn around and explain the situation to your coworker and then continue to arrange the inventory appropriately. The next
day, you receive a notice from your supervisor that he would like to have a meeting about the
organization of the inventory room.
At this meeting, he specifically mentions that he noticed an error yesterday in the “B” section of the boxes you’ve been organizing, and asks if this duty is something you don’t feel comfortable with. It is extremely unlikely that your superior could have noticed this on his own
and you suspect that he was informed about it by your coworker.
Background
It’s time for another hard-and-fast truth: people can be sneaky in the workplace. It sounds very
harsh, but I don’t think I can write this book without telling you that you should be careful
of whom you trust in an office or retail environment. This isn’t to say that there aren’t good
bosses, good coworkers, and good customers, but there are so many bad ones that it’s difficult
to tell the good from the bad.
The second part of this hard-and-fast truth is that people are normally out for themselves. It’s
unfortunate that all too many people believe that by making another person look bad they can make
themselves look better. Again, this isn’t always the case, but nine times out of ten, it is. You simply
have to be careful and be wary of anyone who wants to know something out of the ordinary.
Overview
Something else I should make clear about this situation is that what your coworker did in this
situation (or at least we presume he did) is something that you should never do. You may
remember your parents telling you this when you were growing up: nobody likes a rat, and this
includes managers. The reason that you should never do this is because it shows little loyalty
to the people you are associated and working with. If you’re willing to expose someone’s mistakes for your own personal gain, you’re probably not someone who is worth being trusted.
However, as you saw earlier, rats do exist and they seem to pop their heads up in business
environments very frequently. If you’re in a situation where you’re dealing with someone who
shows that they are obviously untrustworthy after one or two circumstances, it’s best to adjust
your interactions with that person to protect yourself. Don’t associate with someone whom
you know has acted against you in the past; it’s just not a good idea.
Now, we aren’t always granted this luxury. There’s a time period before you really get to
know someone in the office when you’re not sure what their beliefs are. Therefore, it’s a good
idea to have a strategy for how to deal with someone who is overly inquisitive or just generally
involved in business you don’t want them to know about. In the following section, I’ve outlined some of my best suggestions of how to implement these protections. Take a look and see
if they might work for you. They might very well save you a possible loss in reputation, just
as in the current scenario.
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Chapter 2
Working with Professionals
Key Concepts
There are several tactics for avoiding someone who is overly inquisitive. They are (in no particular order):
Avoidance
Answering by omission
Playing dumb
Tactic 1: Avoidance
The best way to deal with a problem is to avoid it in the first place. When someone you know
to be inquisitive approaches you with what you believe to be a detrimental question, avoid it.
Say that you have somewhere to be or that you don’t think that now is the appropriate time
to deal with that. You can also simply say that you’re very busy and can deal with them later.
Most inquisitive people won’t have the nerve to continue their line of questioning if you try
to dodge it in the first place. However, you will occasionally see a random person who simply
refuses to go away until their question is answered. In this case, you can simply say something
noncommittal but informative—in this case, “I’m fixing a problem with these boxes.” By
doing this, you’re giving an answer and at the same time forcing that person to dig even further
for a simple truth. Chances are it simply won’t happen. And, if it does, just do it again.
Tactic 2: Answering by Omission
This tactic is what is colloquially known as “a car salesman’s best friend.” Answering by omission is a trick that works well against people who are inquisitive and rarely requires any work
by you. The method is simple. You answer the question, but you leave detailed portions of it
out. In this case, consider a full answer:
Full Answer: “I am rearranging these boxes because I accidentally placed them in reverse order.”
An alternative to this answer would be:
Omission:
“I am rearranging these boxes for .”
Do you see the beauty of this? It’s very subtle. If the employee asks you why you are rearranging the boxes, not only will they be challenging the authority of your boss, but they will
also be forcing you to give the inevitable answer. What’s that answer? The truth: “I’m not sure
why he wants the inventory in alphabetical order, perhaps you could ask him.”
With this scenario, you have diffused the situation by taking out the most damaging element—the fact that you made a mistake. The truth is that mistakes happen; you just don’t have
to let everyone know about it.
Tactic 3: Playing Dumb
Playing dumb involves not owning up to what the problem is. It’s not necessarily lying, but it’s
a bit of an ethical fine line. A dumb answer to your inquisitive worker’s question would be
something along the lines of “Well, I gotta move these boxes.”
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Dealing with Sexual Harassment
33
It not only sounds ignorant but it also discourages further inquiry. Normally, people don’t
want to pick the brain of someone who either doesn’t know a lot about a subject or is just too
uncaring to know the difference. Be cautious with this one, however. If you’re not careful, it
can get you in a little trouble. Consider what would happen if you played dumb in front of a
superior. That could result in your losing face, and that’s never a good thing.
Resolution
The best solution to dealing with a person like this is to not use just one of the resolution tactics
I just listed , but to combine all of them into a series of diverted questions, omitted answers,
and lack of information. There are a lot of ways to deal with this situation, but I’d like to
repeat my bottom-line advice once again: be cautious when dealing with people who are too
curious. They’re usually not in it for your benefit.
Skills for the A+ Exam
Here is an example of a question involving the use of the word manipulation that you might
see on the A+ exam:
1.
A coworker asks you how it is that you manage to stay so unoccupied most of the time.
What should your response be?
A.
Sometimes I just take an occasional break.
B.
I like to make use of time management; would you like some tips?
C.
There’s a pretty simple way to look busy; let me show you.
D.
After you’ve been here a while you’ll get the hang of how to do it, too.
Answer A: Incorrect. This is something that can be used against you, and it’s never a good
idea to reveal that sort of information in an office or retail environment.
Answer B: Correct. This answer makes you seem informed and willing to help.
Answer C: Incorrect. Confirming that you are indeed trying to “look busy” most of the
time is ammo that another employee can use against you.
Answer D: Incorrect. Although this does divert att…