Ask, Listen, Learn

A month ago, both computers used to run my business were hit (we think) with a nasty computer virus. While neither Marvelyne nor I is qualified to diagnos this for sure, it's the most likely scenario when two computers, within 10 minutes of one another, have their operating system corrupted.

Even now, a month later, we're still mopping up the mess...and maybe creating a few more along the way. Yesterday, we realized Marvelyne's brand spanking new machine wasn't performing all it's functions. Quite literally, from noon until nearly 11 p.m., she sat in front of the computer, most of the time dealing with tech support. At one point early on, tech support had her do a full system restore (and if you're not geeky, this consists of taking every file, setting, driver, etc. off the hard drive and doing a process where by the machine starts anew.) Should this be necessary on a three week old machine? I think not.

Then, after fighting this battle into the late night, we learn the sad, hard truth...ya know that whole system restore you did about six hours ago? Yeah, that wasn't really necessary. Boom! Six plus hours down the crapper.

And why was this done? Because tech support did not ask questions. Instead, they jumped in at whatever point they could and started to run towards a goal. That's all fine and good, and I empathize with how tough it must be to deal with customers all day long who are always, ALWAYS in a pickle. Still, had more questions been asked before creating a diagnosis of the problem, we could have saved a day's work.

This isn't really an isolated occurrence, as I'm sure you know. It often happens where, without all the facts, someone jumps to conclusions, only to learn later that had they gathered more info, it would have led to a different outcome.

As I go into this coming weekend, one of my biggest goals is to remember to ask questions, gather info and make decisions once I have all the facts. Establishing this as a pattern is one of the things I personally need to work on-a lot! I hope this tech support example will show you, faithful reader, the benefits of asking questions, listening to the answers and, when all info is present, act accordingly.