The MOUSE Squad Wire

There are all sorts of explanations out there about how to make the most of “Web 2.0″ technologies. One of the most exciting developments on the Web is the ability to have information from websites come to you instead of you going out to websites to see what’s new. I use Google Reader to keep track of about 40 websites–not just the sites themselves, but sections that interest me. For example, I get headlines about Education from the New York Times, eSchool News, and the Chronicle of Philanthropy and my tech news from the Unofficial Apple Weblog and the Official Google Blog. My point? It’s like your own personal daily newspaper–but better, because from within a single website, I can email things to friends, save clippings and post to my own weblog. Here’s a great video on how to set things up. Are you using RSS? A fan? Afraid? Sound off in the comments, oh and of course, you should subscribe to the Wire’s feed.

This customer service gem comes from Raymond Chen’s Old New Thing. You might consider this approach when working with a teacher, administrator or peer.

“Sometimes you’re on the phone with somebody and you suspect that the problem is something as simple as forgetting to plug it in, or that the cable was plugged into the wrong port. This is easy to do with those PS/2 connectors that fit both a keyboard and a mouse plug, or with network cables that can fit both into the upstream and downstream ports on a router.

Here’s the trick: Don’t ask “Are you sure it’s plugged in correctly?”

If you do this, they will get all insulted and say indignantly, “Of course it is! Do I look like an idiot?” without actually checking.

Instead, say “Okay, sometimes the connection gets a little dusty and the connection gets weak. Could you unplug the connector, blow into it to get the dust out, then plug it back in?”

They will then crawl under the desk, find that they forgot to plug it in (or plugged it into the wrong port), blow out the dust, plug it in, and reply, “Um, yeah, that fixed it, thanks.”

(Or if the problem was that it was plugged into the wrong port, then the act of unplugging it and blowing into the connector takes their eyes off the port. Then when they go to plug it in, they will look carefully and get it right the second time because they’re paying attention.)

Customer saves face, you close a support case, everybody wins.

Corollary: Instead of asking “Are you sure it’s turned on?”, ask them to turn it off and back on. ”

I came across this today while reading Joel Spolsky’s excellent essay on “Seven Steps to Remarkable Customer Service.”