IT’s a Hard Job

IM-terruptions

I see your name right there on my chat window. I have a question. All I have to do is click on your name and ask it. How easy is that? What could possibly be the problem?

Now we can reach anyone any time, and here’s the problem: not every issue requires immediate action. Read the rest of this entry »

Please don’t recommend this to other people

Internal recommendations (within your team) are not as innocent as they seem.

They’re actually great ways to avoid owning responsibility. They’re speed bumps. They are harmfully harmless. Read the rest of this entry »

(dis)please advise

People love the phrase “please advise”. You shouldn’t.

That’s one way you go from “techie” to “consultant”. Techies do what is asked of them. Consultants tell clients what they should do so that the client can follow their advice and guidance.

If you’re a stickler for business writing, here’s more on the phrase

And here’s an attorney who uses it and loves the phrase, but check out the comments, many people despise it…

Boomerang: I love you. I hate you.

I’m not one to use the term “revolutionary” casually. But this tool is revolutionary if you’re a high-frequency email person.

Boomerang, I love you.

Here’s the typical experience I have with most web tools:

read a blurb about it
sign up (mainly so I can get a short username)
wait for the agonizing 13 seconds to get the email confirmation and activation link
try the site for a minute
move onto something else
forget about the site until I get a “we miss you” email

Not with Boomerang. I saw the brand mentioned online, gave it a try, and proceeded to use the tool probably 25 times over the rest of the day. By the next day, it was painful to work on a browser without Boomerang installed (works on Chrome and Firefox as of this writing).

So, what is it? Boomerang is a deceptively simple tool/service that does 2 things very well:

SEND your emails in the future, and RETURN emails to you in the future. Try it now.

Underwhelmed? That’s to be expected. The simplicity is part of the elegance. Now stop and think about your emails. Read the rest of this entry »

20 years of work reveals 15 pearls

We’ve been doing some bragging this year. It’s our 20th year in business. One of the best parts of celebrating this milestone is the great perspective it provides. Had I known when I started the business with my brother that we’d be doing it for two decades, I suppose we would have done a few things differently. So in no particular order, here are some lessons we’ve learned:

1. Don’t let great people go. We’ve lost some amazing employees over the years. Some were outside my control, but many weren’t. I should have been a much, much better boss. I put a happy customer ahead of a happy employee. It was based on a good intention but was poor execution, and short-sighted.
2. Don’t let bad employees stay. Sometimes we were afraid of the consequences and didn’t act quickly enough when we had a bad fit. Family-owned businesses are apparently notorious for “quick to hire, slow to fire” – we had our share of these, and the pain and aggravation could have been avoided. Read the rest of this entry »

Should I do this?

“Hey, should I do this?”

Ask your IT person this question. Depending how long you’ve worked together, they might give you a one-word answer. But that one word can save you hours and hours of wasted time, energy and money.

Many people engage their technology partner after they have tried to be self-reliant. Many men know this because by the time they ask for directions they’re already lost, or by the time they see a doctor the item in question is already deeply infected. That’s an ego / self-reliance thing.

And small business people try to save money the same way. Oh, I can Google it and make the decision, I’ll check in with my tech guy if I need to.  Read the rest of this entry »

Wake up! No one thanks the anesthesiologist.

There are some jobs where you don’t get to deliver much good news. CPA’s. Attorneys. Anesthesiologists. No one thanks the anesthesiologist. They just notice them if there’s a problem. Same thing with most intelligence agencies. They probably thwart a large number of crimes that we’ll never hear about. But people pay attention to the mistakes, the problems. The bad news.

Comcast probably doesn’t get many calls from customers saying “hey, just wanted you to know that the internet worked great today for me” – so when you hear people talking about Comcast, it’s usually to complain. Check  Twitter to see what they’re up against.

As an IT person, what percentage of your time communicating with clients is about good news? “I got your computer working again” might sound like good news to the IT person, but to the end-user, it usually just means they are finally able to get back to work.

Two questions: does this really matter, and what can you do about it? Read the rest of this entry »

Don’t teach me how to FISH!

Old saying: “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach him how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” Many, many computer consultants believe strongly in this principle.

The problem is this: you’re not going to always get the opportunity to teach fishing. This principle only works if it’s shared by both the teacher and the student. Some of your customers just want the damn fish. They know you can teach them the “right” way, but they might just want the “right now” way.

Read the rest of this entry »

Using Google in front of your customer?

If you’re an IT person and your customer sees you using Google, you may be hurting your credibility. When you use Google in front of a client, here’s what you’re probably thinking:

Here’s what they may be thinking: Read the rest of this entry »

5 ways your PC habits will be changing

Are you moving or not moving?