And lose face the next time the internet goes out and they’re blowing on their cable like an idiot in front of everyone. Love it!
This also probably increases the chance that they will actually look at the cable and touch it instead of just answering that it’s obviously plugged in. Brilliant!
Another tip for IT folk out there.
When offering a user a laptop bag, don’t ask them if they want a laptop bag. Ask them what color laptop bag they’d like.
When I started doing this acceptance of laptop bags went from 50% to 100%.
You’ll have to stock a variety of colors, but it’s a small price to pay to encourage the use of laptop bags.
Same concept applies in sales. The way you phrase the question can help get the answer that you want
Ask them if they want the light or the heavy duty. It’s the same bag. No one cares.
I used to ask customers to unplug their modem, tell me were the pins on the plug all brass or did it have black tips so I knew which model they had.
In reality I just wanted them to turn the damn thing off and on again
This is a really solid solution. Everyone knows about the "did you turn it off and on again? " trope so instead of them pretending or what not you make them feel like they’re problem solving with you.
This is how superstitions start.
" It’s bad luck to put your shoes on the table"
Okay Grandma, if that’s what it takes for you to accept germ theory, I’m in.
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It’s comfy to have my feet up
How else are you going to reason with animals?
Yup, superstitions like “blowing on the NES cartridge to remove dust will make it work.”
In some cases this could introduce enough moisture to get a connection.
And could also corrode the cartridge. I knew a guy whose son absolutely ruined a Pokémon 3DS cartridge that way.
I used to say, “Look, I already know you have it plugged in, but unplug and plug it in again to re-seat it. You get that out of the way while I keep looking on my end.”
Boom! You didn’t call them stupid and got them engaged as a partner in the troubleshooting process.
Had one lady on the phone, “I’m sure the cable is screwed in, but from my end, it looks for all the world like it’s not.”
She was offended but finally looked. Lo and behold, unplugged. Here’s the kicker, she starts demanding that I explain why the maid would do that. She wasn’t merely exclaiming about the maid’s malfeasance, she wanted me to explain it.
A favorite was telling a guy it looked utterly disconnected, like the cable wasn’t even plugged in. (We could kinda tell from our end.) “Hold on a minute.” I hear the backdoor screen slam, he’s gone for 3 minutes, modem comes on!
“What did you find?!”
“Cable company came to disconnect my neighbor, got my line instead, screwed it back in.”
LOL, our idiot disco tech left the pedestal unlocked AND got the wrong customer.
Once had the guy on the phone tell me to unplug the Ethernet cable and flip it around. I was thinking like, “What? Are Ethernet cables one-way? That doesn’t make sense…but whatever”. Lo and behold, it worked…one end wasn’t all the way in 😓
Aww
