Classes of User

[edling.livejournal.com]

Firstly, ello. Recently stumbled across this community while looking for something else and been enjoying reading through everyone having the same sort of day-to-day traumas as I have. I'm a sysadmin/ tech support/ anything else I.T.ish for a medium-sized company in the U.K.

Anyway, by way of a first post: lihan161051's last post got me thinking about types of users I've known and I think I've got them sorted into four main classes. Apologies if I'm just rehashing something someone else has already done to death, but here goes:

Classes of User, A Spotters Guide

The Proud Technophobe
Description: Knows nothing about computers and simultaneously thinks that they're both unbelievably complicated and beneath them, proud technophobes are incapable of reading from screens (although they're fine with print, which is why they print everything out), following simple instructions, or learning anything to do with I.T.
Call likely to start with: "I got this error and now it doesn't work", where 'error' might be anything from a confirmation dialog to a BSOD, and 'it doesn't work' means anything from they can't click on what they want to, to smoke is pouring out of their PC- no further information is ever given without digging by you.
Call likely to continue with: "What does the box on your screen say?"..."Can you try doing what it asks"..."That's that fixed then".
Most likely to say: "Why can't they make these things easier to use?"
Least likely to say: "That was actually pretty straightforward once I read what it was asking".
Comments: Usually fairly harmless, although they tend to look down on mere support people and will waste a tremendous amount of your time.

The Uncommon Joe
Description: These are the sort of people a naive young support tech might expect to spend most of their time dealing with, although they soon discover they're rather rare. The Uncommon Joe is intelligent and capable of following instructions, although they're not likely to have much I.T. knowledge or interest (nor should they need it- their job is to get on with X other thing they're employed for and they are good at).
Call likely to start with: "I've got this (properly described) message on my screen and I wasn't quite sure what to do so I thought I'd call you".
Call likely to continue with: "Yep, thanks for letting me know- it's easy to fix but a bit obscure"..."Go to this menu and press this button"..."All fixed now? Good".
Most likely to say: "This is probably very obvious to you, but I didn't want to do the wrong thing".
Least likely to say: "This I.T. lark is actually really interesting, think I might change careers".
Comments: Pretty easy to get on with- they know when to ask for help, describe problems properly, and appreciate your knowledge and assistance. If most of your users are like this you're very lucky.

The Power Luser
Description: The bane of support everywhere, Power Lusers think they understand computers backwards after reading a few articles on the internet. They will diagnose (invariably wrongly) and attempt to fix any problems themselves, and believe asking for help is an admission of defeat.
Call likely to start with: "I had this problem which I thought was because of this [completely different thing that happened to someone else last week], so I looked it up on google and tried [a totally inappropriate and dangerous procedure] and now something else has broken because my computer won't boot up".
Call likely to continue with: "You did WHAT!?!"..."Don't touch anything, I'll be right there".
Most likely to say: "Can you fix it quickly and make sure it doesn't happen again, I've got something really important that needs to be finished in 10 minutes".
Least likely to say: "Sorry about that, I've really wasted your time- next time I'll call you first rather than trying to fix it myself".
Comments: The most dangerous type of user by far. Not only will they, given half a chance, work on a problem themselves until the only practical solution is a complete re-install of their system from scratch, but they will also attempt to blame any loss of time or work on the shoddy support they recieved. Always make sure you have regular backups of their work when possible and never give them access to more than they need otherwise they'll only break it.

The Guru
The Guru is the rarest of users by far- they know computers, and could probably do your job if they had the inclination and time but they're being paid to do something else. They also realise that what they think is a solution to a problem may cause issues somewhere else that they're not aware of, or even if it doesn't that it's worth reporting in case it's symptomatic of something else, or even just for record keeping.
Call likely to start with: "I've got this problem, I've done some digging and been through the docs, and I think the solution is this, but thought I'd run it past you before I changed anything".
Call likely to continue with: "Yup, that looks exactly right to me, make that fix and it should be fine, I'll keep that solution on file in case someone else has the same issue".
Most likely to say: "I read this really interesting paper about [something very obscure and techical] at lunchtime- want me to pass you a copy?"
Least likely to say: "I've got no idea..."
Comments: As rare as hen's teeth- if you have one of these be nice to them. Not only do they do most of your job for you when they have an issue, but if you're stuck on something that's within their area(s) of expertise you can ask them about it and they'll probably be able to talk you through a solution.


Phew- that was longer than I thought. Hopefully you'll recognise some of the types of people we all know and love or it'll provide some guidance to a young support tech just starting out somewhere- are there any types of user I've forgotten?

Comments

[spooforbrains.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, I have encountered all of these (and been one of them) ...

Re: How about these?

[cesaretech.livejournal.com]

My Jekyll and Hyde cases usually leave the support as the monster. Just because someone cannot remember their passwords or when to change them, it's automatically our fault. They hate when the system demands for a password change after x amount of time. Suddenly it's our faults when Hyde forgets and cannot log into the systems. Yes, too bad the technicians were trying to protect their security by mandating password changes.

There's also another type of caller, at least at universities:

Mr./Mrs./Miss State-the-Obvious
They have good motives, but usually just waste their cell-phone minutes by calling Tech Support to state something that's bluntly obvious. We would be the first to know if there was a thunder storm that shut down the power on campus. Yes, we know that the computers and every other piece of electronic equipment shut off. Thank you for calling us, but that's not going to make the process of bringing everything back up go any faster.

Re: How about these?

[kyidyl.livejournal.com]

The Jekyll and Hyde seems to be women more in the general public, and men more in a professional environment. Whether it's a proportion thing or not, I don't know. But women, we're better at it. ;) I was the Jekyll and Hyde tech...except I hide it with a mute button and they never know what explative I just called them. ;)

[fixerkitty.livejournal.com]

The Panicker
The minute the smallest thing goes wrong, or an error message appears, they believe it's the end of the world and start throwing a tantrum. This often involves screaming such things as "But I have a REAL job!! This has to work ALL THE TIME!" "I'm going to get fired if I can't log in once per day!" and "Do you know how much money I'm losing by having this down for X amount of time?" Crying like a two year old on their end is often not uncommon (and often nearly occurs on the tech's end as well), as well as not listening well or following instructions because they're too wrapped up in their apocalypse scenarios to think things through in a rational fashion.

Note: to those of you who actually know me...*sigh*... 'nuf said.

[docskurlock.livejournal.com]

I supported a lawyer that was a Panicker. Something would go wrong and he'd call em up and tell me that the whole network was crashed and that he couldn't do anything at all. Drove me batshit because usually it was a simple reboot that fixed the problem. That and removing the crappy screensaver he had.

[klfjoat.livejournal.com]

There's an OOOOOLD list of the 9 types of users from a Usenet posting way back in the early 90's that this is similar to... I think the following link goes to the version I remember.

http://www.oscarc.net/stories/sysadmin.html#users

[kyidyl.livejournal.com]

I felt that the car conversation on that page rang especially true... :)

[solradia.livejournal.com]

Let's not forget the sub-category of the Technophobe:

The Entitled:

Calls in to the helpdesk to get them to fix the coffee pot in the office because "It's electronic, you guys fix electronic stuff!!!"

The Luser that calls their ISP: "I pay (x amount of dollars)a month for your internet service, I PAY you to fix my computer for me!"

not to forget the classic

"You installed your software on my computer and now it won't work!"

[kyidyl.livejournal.com]

The Proud technophobe is usually the one that goes "Oh god yes, please URC into my computer!" promptly followed by "Mind if I take a piss/get some coffee/eat/birth a child?" ;P~~

The Power Luser will most often start off the conversation by saying "So I was deleting things in my registry..." or they're the ones that you log into their computer and they've modded it with windowblinds or some crap like that. And GOD FORBID you touch it to make it usable again. I had one who had a graphics problem, and so once I'd determined it couldn't be anything else but one of the billion addons he'd installed, wouldn't let me remove them. Then he proceeded to whine when I said I couldn't support his computer anymore because he'd changed it too much. ;P~~

The Guru is cool, but can be dangerous...cause sometimes they might know more then you. ;P~~

I like this thread, this is good! ;) I like the way you've formatted these, too. Good job. :)

[meljane.livejournal.com]

We have this weird lady in Psychology at the uni I work at and she seems to think we put an alien in her computer.

[catsidhe.livejournal.com]

Staff or client?

[meljane.livejournal.com]

Staff , although I'm not sure whether they are a lecturer or not .

[catsidhe.livejournal.com]

But then, when dealing with Academentia, there is often little to tell between an academic and a mental patient...

[pat-barron.livejournal.com]

Heh, here's one of my favorite "types"...

The So-Called Former IT Manager

These tend to be found in universities, though I've seen a couple in industry as well. They're folks who were supposed to be doing something else (in universities, lots of times they're computer science professors, or senior CS or engineering research staff), who at some point in the past managed to get themselves appointed as the manager of a computing facility - either because they thought it was fun, or because nobody else would do it. But they don't necessarily have any experience or skills that would be relevant to managing a computing facility. Lots of times, they're in a somewhat new organization, like a department that's just been formed, and hasn't had time yet to hire a professional IT manager. Eventually, their organization hires a real IT manager, and/or their management decides that they need to get on with the duties they're actually being paid to do and quit spending so much time fooling around with the IT stuff, so they get displaced from their IT management "responsibilities". But they can never quite let go... Sometimes, by the time you end up dealing with one of these folks, it's been years since they've done anything in IT - but they still think they'd be capable of doing the job, if they were asked to. Even though whatever capabilities they might have had are usually frozen in that moment in time when they were involved in IT - as far as they're concerned, the right thing to do in any given situation is whatever they would have done "back then" - even if it was 10, even 20 years ago, even though technology is dramatically different than it was then.

These people are usually basically intelligent. And sometimes they can even be reasonable. But if you're dealing with them, and things aren't going their way ... the conversation invariably descends into, "I used to run a computing facility, and back when I was doing this, here's what we would have done..." Or maybe even, if they're feeling particularly frustrated (or just plain snotty), something like "Back when I ran a Help Desk, my staff was so much better..."

This can be especially awkward when the person you're dealing with was, at some time in the past, the manager of the IT department / help desk / etc. that you currently work for...

[kostika.livejournal.com]

I've worked under this very type while he was in said position. Nothing like the special ego and importance he feels for himself when essentially he's really just no good at solving tech problems. I would hate to be a tech supporting him now.

[benatwork.livejournal.com]

Heh. Reminds me of this old classic" (http://redwing.hutman.net/%7Emreed/)

[cesaretech.livejournal.com]

I have not come across too many of those, yet.

There are too many sub-categories for the L_user.

The Frozen in Time
This customer has equipment so old, you wonder just how he/she was able to keep it updated at all. When Tech Support says they only accept Windows XP or Windows Vista, they insist that they want to keep Windows 2000 and demand that new software be installed on it. When the Help Desk tries to explain that Microsoft Office 2007 is not compatible, they lead you through a detailed discription of their life and more than once tell you that Bill Gates is out to screw everyone over. Occasionally, you meet one that caves and agrees to update. Some. Not all.

The Disgruntled Parent
Whenever their precious child loses internet connection or actually has a problem with the computer, the parents will call in place. They believe that doing so will automatically put them on high priority. They demand to know why their child's computer crashed and usually will not even think of accepting that it was their son's or daughter's fault for not running an anti-virus. They will badger you and demand that Tech Support look at their child's computer ahead of all the others, because their child needs it for school. If they are present in the room, they want to look over your shoulder whenever you even glance at their child's computer, to make certain you do not ruin it anymore than it already is. All of this time, you begin to wonder why an eighteen year old's parents are calling you instead of applying something called personal responsibility.

[shirenomad]

The Cargo Cultist

In these people's minds, you're god of the computers. Sounds like a good prospect at first, until you realize that this means they expect you can do anything (and will, now that they have sent you their prayers in the form of a tech support call). You'll be asked to wave your hands and lo, their computer will be fixed, instantly. (Extreme cases will call in while the computer is turned off and they're somewhere else entirely. No matter, surely that won't slow you down, right?) They also tend to refuse to do any troubleshooting themselves: isn't that your job? Why would they need to do anything? If you fail to live up to their expectations, they'll become confused and frustrated, convinced you could do what they ask but are for some reason refusing to (you cruel deity, you).

[whitewolf3399.livejournal.com]

We get quite a few of these in ISP support circles as well, especially the business class services which are usually 'bundled' meaning we own the customer premise router as well.

"My internet is down, I pay you to fix it. I'm not touching anything, doing anything or even talking to you until it's back up and working"