Bringing Humanity Into the World of Technology
Award-Winning IT Customer Service Speaker and Author
Don addresses 600 IT professionals about IT Customer Service at the 2019 Church IT Network conference in Kansas City.
Author of 8 books for IT pros, including...
The Compassionate Geek: How Engineers, IT Pros, and Other Tech Specialists Can Master Human Relations Skills to Deliver Outstanding Customer Service
The 5 Principles of IT Customer Service Success
Cisco ASA for Accidental Administrators: An Illustrated Step-by-Step Cisco ASA Learning and Configuration Guide
The Accidental Administrator: Cisco Router Step-by-Step Configuration Guide (Understanding the Basics of Cisco Routers)
The Accidental Administrator: Linux Server Step-by-Step Configuration Guide (for IT Professionals and Accidental Administrators)
Recent Blog Posts
Customer Care Training Rule Number One: First, Do No Harm
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You may have heard the Latin phrase, Primum non nocere, which means “first, do no harm.” Although it’s often associated with the physician’s Hippocratic Oath, the original oath does not include the precise phrase. It is, however, taught in medical schools as part of medical ethics classes and it has an important connotation for those of us who serve end-users and other customers.
But, I Didn’t Think I Was Being Rude! (Why Your Customers Might Think You’re Rude When You’re Not)
I recently had a conversation with a client who told me he sometimes hears complaints from his end-users that he’s being rude. He told me that he didn’t feel like he was being rude at all.
I doubt he was being rude, but I suspect he maintains a “strictly-business” demeanor around the office. I’ve noticed in our email exchanges and phone calls that his responses to me are terse and strictly-business with no trace of humanness. He’s really beyond formal, in that his emails don’t even include a greeting (“Hi Don” or “Dear Don”), a complimentary close (“Kind regards” or “Sincerely”), or even an email signature. I noticed in our phone conversations that he didn’t initiate any sort of attempt to connect with me as one person to another. Of course, I’m seen as a vendor and sometimes treated differently from, say, co-workers. Still, I wonder if a clue to his problem with end-users might be found in the way he interacted with me.
Tech Support Calls: The 6 Critical Steps (Includes Video)
When you take a user support call, there’s a specific order for how things should happen. In this post, I’ll explain each of the six steps, in order. I’ve also created this video to help you understand the steps. It includes a demonstration of a support call.
Don Crawley, Author of The Compassionate Geek
For more than 40 years, Don Crawley has worked with technology, from broadcasting to automation systems to data networks. A former IT trainer and consultant, he is an award-winning conference keynote speaker and the author of eight books for IT professionals including The Compassionate Geek. He’s especially good at helping IT teams work together so they can get things done for customers and your team.
