IT: Serve the customer or lord over them? Dreamed 530 days ago | | 427 words
“Do you see your role as serving the employees of your company, or ruling over them?”
The question was raised by John Gruber over at Daring Fireball.
Now with only 1 year and 4 months of “official” IT work under my belt, take everything I say with a grain of salt. As it is simply one man’s opinion.
I’ve seen my fair share of good and bad tech people. The good ones are easy to tell. They’re the ones who treats each person on their level. They do not talk down to the knowledgeable and they do not drown the new user in in jargon.
They go the extra mile to explain something in simple layman’s terms if requested. They make sure the solution they offer is not overly harsh (Reimage the PC!) without reason.
They good ones provide superior customer service since each and every person on their site they support is their customer. Customers with problems. Customers who will not call you until something has hone awry.
You are, after all, simply insurance. Paid to be there when something goes wrong, and unseen when all is well.
The bad ones lord their knowledge and power all in their domain. They do not return phone calls or emails. They are impossible to wrestly information out of, knowing it is only they who possess the knowledge. And without it, progress cannot be made.
It is these people who rule the IT departments of the world with iron fists. The person no one has pleasant words for behind closed doors and in hallways.
It is these people who feel their knowledge is a gift to all who receive it. They will not tell the customer what they’re doing or explain their actions.
They will merely flip through screens and menus so fast it’ll make their heads spin. They will fix problems with no explanation or advice.
It is they who work in cryptic, magical ways.
It is they who hamper the rest of us from doing our jobs trying to wait on them.
This is a close to my mind this night as I’ve spent the past few days being very irritated at some people who lord over their tech department.
I try my best to serve my customers. To keep them happy makes me happy. And if everyone’s happy, then all is well in the world.
All I want to do is to help people. I want to make technology not a scary and frightening wasteland of chips and bits. I want to make it familiar. I want to make it as commonplace and usable as the television or radio.
Comment
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I don’t have much to say, other than we need more people like you in IT. OK, I know a bunch about computers, but in an area I know very little about – like cars – it would be horrible to deal with a technician who treated me like an idiot. Or worse, didn’t explain what was going on, or how to prevent a problem from occurring again. IT is a service industry as well as tech…important not to forget that.
— mog · Jun 21, 09:36 AM · #
Thank you. :)
I know exactly what you mean about cars. I am clueless about them. If they don’t go, stop, and turn I’m at a total loss.
I think you hit the nail on the head. IT is a service industry! In a lot of ways more than it is a straight technical one. Sure you’re dealing with computers all day, but there are real people attached to all of these computers who need your help too.
Something else technical people often forget is that by training and teaching the people who use the technology everyday (whether by choice or by job description) it will make their lives easier.
It all goes back to giving a man a fish, he eats for a day. Teach a man to fish, he eats for a lifetime.
— peroty · Jun 21, 11:44 AM · #