Take my job in tech support as an example. At the beginning of the school year there is always a rush of people needing help. It is not uncommon during the first few weeks for me to be trying to help seven people at one time. When confronted with this situation, most customers are helpful and wait for you to get to them. Some, however, demand that you do what they need right now.

What such an attitude fails to consider is that by helping them, I may not be doing the best thing overall. Say their problem is a bit of a puzzler, while the other six people have simple issues. For the sake of the argument, let’s quantify the situation. If six simple problems take 20 minutes to fix all of them, and the difficult problem also takes 20, I can either:

• Work on the difficult problem first. This way the person with the difficult problem is there 20 minutes total and everyone else is there 40 (20 while they wait, and 20 while I work on them). Total time waited by everyone thus adds up to 260 minutes (20*1 + 40*6).

or

• Work on the simple problems first. Thus six people are done in 20 minutes and the person with the difficult problem is there 40 minutes. Total time is now 160 minutes (20*6 + 40*1).

From the numbers alone (260 vs. 160), we can see it is more efficient (to the tune of 100 minutes) to help the people with simple problems first. Of course, not everything can be reduced to numbers, and the example demands ceteris paribus, but I think the point is clear.

The difficulty is one of scope of vision. When we are the ones with the problem, we rarely look at the whole picture. Often the other person involved has a better overview of the situation and knows what’s best. Why do we not listen to them?

Because we are at heart selfish creatures.* Not that this is inherently bad—according to neoclassical economics it is self-interest that makes the world go round—but it is worth remembering. Sometimes we should learn to step back and consider the whole situation; you may be helping more than just yourself. (Or, at the very least, you’ll make some poor service person’s life a little brighter.)

*I realize that this statement leads to another whole debate. For the moment, I’m just going to ignore that and conclude my post.

Me: Computer support, how can I help you?
Customer: My wireless isn’t working
Me: What sort of computer is this?
Customer: I’m sorry, I have a laptop.
Me (in head): What are you apologizing for?
Me (out loud): A windows PC?
Customer: I don’t know… I’m so horrible.
Me (in head): You’ve got a problem, lady.
Me (out loud): Does it have a start menu in the bottom left?
Customer: A start menu?
Me: Is there a button that says “Start” on it?
Customer: Uh… yes…
Me (in head): OK, now we’re getting somewhere…

Lady, just because you don’t understand your computer, doesn’t mean you’re a horrible person. Of course, at least you told me your name, unlike another guy:

“Hi, my name is—well it doesn’t matter.”

I’m sure it doesn’t matter at all, and you’re an absolutely worthless person. But I’d still appreciate it if you’d introduce yourself.

Then there are those who just get a little mixed up…

I recently changed my ISP from IE to FoxFire…

By “ISP” you mean “web browser” and by “FoxFire” you mean “Firefox.” Luckily, I speak customer-ese. I don’t however, always understand:

Customer: The link in the web browser doesn’t connect to everybody’s email. Do you know what I mean?
Me (in head): I have absolutely no clue.
Me (out loud): Not entirely.

And those who both get a little mixed up, and try to self-diagnose the problem:

Customer: I think I’ve got a virus.
Me: OK.
Customer: You know, the one everyone’s getting. It started happening after we installed that thing on our computers?
Me: What thing?
Customer: You know, in the corner, that little triangle…
Me: You mean, the blue shield?
Customer: Yeah, that! I think in gave me a virus.
Me: Well, that’s Sophos Antivirus, so if it gave you a virus, we’ve got problems. Let me look at it.

Of course, perhaps I should be happy that they’re trying. It’s better than the oh-so-common problem:

Customer: My computer has problems.
(Pause)
Me: What sort of problems?
Customer: Well, you know, the program doesn’t connect.
Me: Why don’t you explain to me what you’re trying to do.

So that is what I mean by the joys of tech support. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to mock our customers. I understand that I just happen to know more about computers than they do. When I try to talk to the mechanic about my car, he probably laughs at me. And that’s the point—sometimes you just have to laugh.