The Sheep, the Inept Inexpert and the Inspired Ignorant

Computer technicians working at a call center have to deal with many types of people. Have you every wondered what kind callers technical support people have to talk to?

Techs often talk only about the worst scenarios, but most will admit that some callers are easier to deal with than others. There are three categories of unknowledgeable customers that highlight the spectrum of difficulty a technician must deal with when trying to diagnose a computer over the phone: the sheep, the inept inexpert and the inspired ignorant.

Have you ever met anyone who was afraid of computers? These people are the sheep. They live in constant fear that, if they press the wrong key at the wrong time, their computer will blow up. When a sheep calls, most of the time is spent in an attempt to calm them down. Once they are calm, they are really easy to deal with. A sheep will have kept a detailed written log of every error message that pops up. They listen very intently and do exactly as the tech requests. When the call is finished and the computer is once again working, they treat the tech as if they have just performed magic.

The inept inexpert are the most dangerous. They somehow have the idea that fixing a computer must be as easy as tying one’s shoes. This attitude can lead to disaster. Dread is always in accompaniment of their words, “I tried to fix it before I called,” because they almost always pick the most destructive and irrelevant remedy. If the computer was not molested before they called, it will be before they hang up. The inept inexpert is bound to jump ahead of the tech’s instructions and wrongly guess the next step. The least destructive and inexpensive way of dealing with this type of caller is to blindly authorize hardware replacement