Do you tell? 1

[LadySlinger]

I'm sure you've run into people like this at your office.

I have one guy that calls me after something happened on our network. (I.e. the INternet goes down, it's the ISP's issue) and he WANTS to know what happened.

This guy is a Sales person, not my boss or anyone from upper management. You know he just knows the terms by talking to him, but he doesn't fully understand what he's talking about.

How do you respond...especially if its something a little more indepth than the ISP going down?

Sometimes I throw a bunch of acronyms/initialisms at him to go way above his head in hopes to deter him from asking me again. Which doesn't work. He'll sit there totally confused by what I said try to clarify with me and half the time I cut it short by agreeing with whatever he said.

I to try and stay aloof by saying "Oh the computer/router/whatever" had a brain fart". Unfortunately then he starts to ask more questions.

I personally only like to share information such as incidents like firewall rules issues, DNS issues, anything more indepth than a problem at the ISP on a "need to know basis": my boss may need to know, the upper management may need to know, but the sales people don't need to know.

So, how do you stay aloof? Or do you tell all?

 

[TomKane]

Hi,

Don't tell all. You have to wonder what the other person's agenda is.

In fact I'd put him off by saying something like, "We're doing some investigation at the moment as to reason and so it's too early to say at the moment".

Then I'd go to your boss and ask him how he wants communication to be handled - his version of events and yours may be open to different interpretation.

Regards,
Tom

 

[KornGeek]

Simply give the briefest of explanations, followed by a brief description of why you're too busy to talk about it right now. Such as "The firewall had an issue, and I can't talk right now because I'm working to resolve it." or "It was the ISP. Sorry, I can't talk right now because I've got to [insert task here]."

Alternatively, you could turn it around on him. "It was the ISP. How are you coming along on your sales quota?"

 

[sleipnir214]

I agree completely: information about the specifics of problems on the network are to be given out on a need-to-know basis only. And users, by definition, cannot demonstrate a sufficient need to know.

Tell him that if he thinks he really needs to know, he should put in a request for that information through official channels.



Want the best answers? Ask the best questions! TANSTAAFL!

 

[flapeyre]

More dangerous than a user who doesn't know anything, is the user who thinks he knows everything. We have a few of those here.

Ask him, "Why do you need to know?"

If it does not concern him directly, then refer him to the next level (after forewarning them, of course. Make sure your supervisor is kept in the loop).

Feles mala! Cur cista non uteris? Stramentum novum in ea posui!

 

[MDXer]

I agree and disagree with the tell don't tell attitude. Especially when it comes to sales people, part says don't say anything because they don't understand or won't understand, but also when it comes to sales if they are commissioned sales then time actually is money. A sales persons income can be affected by downed time. If connection goes down at 2pm and they need to have a 100K contract emailed to customer X by 2:30pm or they risk losing the sale then this causes a problem for 1) The customer 2) the sales person 3) your companies revenue.

Currently working for a small extremely sales driven company I am in the middle of this quite often and I am not even in a position where I have anything to do with the systems or network, but the sales people know I am the most knowledgable person in their location. Is it a pain? yes. Is it always an emergency? no. Has it ever been an emergency? yes and without the ability for our sales to adjust and communicate with the client a huge sale could have been lost.

They don't need all the juicey details of what is wrong or going on but enough information to allow them to compensate or plan ahead is most definately needed.

Shoot Me! Shoot Me NOW!!!
- Daffy Duck

 

[LadySlinger]

Thanks for the suggestions. May I should start investigating on him and like KornGeek said, turn it around on him.

"So I hear you lost a customer. Why?....I don't understand, can you fully explain it to me?"
LOL

This guy isn't so much as suspect for wanting to know. I think he's trying to stay "hip" to the computer world to help his sales. I.e. we've had to put several measures in place to prevent him from sending tons of emails to his customers. Plus he wanted to implement a tracking software to see where his emails are going after being read by the recipient (is the attachment forwarded to someone else? Or id the email just get deleted?).
Plus I think he wants to be friends with a lot of computer people so he's trying to learn the lingo.

I just asked another person what he use to do with that person. He said the guy stopped bothering him after he told him to shut up one day.

 

[Maugwa]

More than likely you're correct with your assumption. I know our sales people here would try to use this as an excuse for not getting a sale or for losing a sell. I found that our sales folks like to use technology as an excuse for the decline in sales revenue and most times it's not because of technology, but because of their laziness. Can't say that this is the case in your company, just know it happens here and I'm constantly having to cover my ass with the CEO.

 

[paterson]

I should start investigating on him and like KornGeek said, turn it around on him.

"So I hear you lost a customer. Why?....I don't understand, can you fully explain it to me?"

I was just about to say the same thing. Personally, I would just say something to the effect that they need to go through proper channels for that information.


**************************************
My Biggest problem is that I almost always believe what I tell myself.

 

[LadySlinger]

Unfortunately its the family-owned small business. He's not a family member, but I find that the smaller the company the nosier people are about what I do.

 

[Ed2020]

What about taking the opposite action - tell him *everything* about *every* problem you're sorting during the day, in the most in-depth technical detail you can manage. My guess is he'll stop asking soon enough.

Ed Metcalfe.

Please do not feed the trolls.....

 

[aarenot]

let his calls go to voicemail. ask for his verbal inquiries to be via voicemail, or email. then forward them to your boss for response, or allocatiing of time to respond at the bosses direction, and discretion. unless ofcourse you are a customer, internal or external facing person with duties including dealing with incoming requests for work, or information. then anser the phone, and request the same proccess to him to request work, providing info is work.

 

[Dollie]

I could have typed this EXACT same inquiry. I have to deal with this daily. I have a new weapon that just went into effect this morning:

"Please submit your support questions through our new ticket system at

http://www...."

 

[aarenot]

i may also record the time, and bill it to the department which the person is from. this usualy lets their boss know they need to control their people, or accept my time billed to their projects, budget, or sales quote.

 

[Lunatic]

LadySlinger,

Are you the IT Department or the IT Department supervisor?

***************************************
Have a problem with my spelling or grammar? Please refer all complaints to my English teacher:
Ralphy "Me fail English? That's unpossible." Wiggum

 

[gbaughma]

I usually ask them "Do you want the technical answer, or the simple answer?"

My boss will usually say "The simple answer."

I tell him "It broke, I fixed it. It shouldn't happen again."

Sometimes he'll laugh, and say "OK, a *little* more technical than that..."

Then I'll tell him "It was an issue with our provider, they had a bad route, which is how internet traffic gets from one computer to another. They fixed it, it should be good to go now."

I almost *never* get into "we had an issue with (isp name), their router had a bad ARP table which had to be flushed..." because then his eyes glaze over.

Nobody here at my office *really* understands what goes on, and I'm never the hero for keeping servers running 24/7 for years. I'm always the bad guy when an 8 year old hard drive craps itself and something goes down. Heck, I'm the bad guy if I have to take a server down for an hour to vacuum the dust rabbits out of it. But, that's part of the job. An "unsung hero", if you will. I know others here go through exactly the same thing.

My advice? Ask them "Do you want the simple, or the technical answer". If, in the case of your sales person, says "Technical", then let him have it. Exactly; down to the details "We think that a bit of the cat-5 was picking up low frequency inductance from flourescent lighting, causing packet loss and continual retries on our switch, until the switch buffer overflowed and had to be rebooted." If he protests, hand him a technical manual. He'll ask for the "Simple answer" next time.



Just my 2¢

"What the captain doesn't realize is that we've secretly exchanged his dilithium crystals for new Folger's Crystals." -- My Sister
--Greg

http://parallel.tzo.com

 

[LadySlinger]

Thanks for the suggestions.

Greg - I use to do that too and got the same response "A little more technical than that" LOL.

Lunatic - Yes I am THE IT Department.

Aarenot - I *wish* the people used phone system more effectively. We just page each other. No ring, or option to pick up(other than totally freeze and hope you don't make a sound that lets them know you ARE there). No allowing things to go to voicemail.

 

[Lunatic]

Since you are the IT department, I would recommend speaking with his supervisor. Let his supervisor know that any time you spend trying to explain techincial details to him that he doesn't understand takes away from your time/ability to:
1) Resolve the issue; or
2) If the issue is out of your control, your ability to work on other necessary tasks.

You may also suggest that if the guy really wants to know what is going on, that his supervisor pay for an introductory networking class so you don't have to try to explain all the details every time for someone who doesn't truely understand them.

You can also offer to provide a brief e-mail, upon request, of the general problem, what is being done to resolve it, and what the expected time frame is. Anything beyond that though, refer back to 1) and 2).

***************************************
Have a problem with my spelling or grammar? Please refer all complaints to my English teacher:
Ralphy "Me fail English? That's unpossible." Wiggum

 

[NickFerrar]

Well IT's there to support the business including the sales team so they have right to explanations if something in IT has failed that's impacting them. In those situations I just tend to target my replies depending on the person (usually just brief explanations unless I know the person prefers a more in-depth technical response). If the issue in no way affects the person asking and I'm busy I'll just flat out ignore the request (email's a wonderful thing ).

 

[IT4EVR]

Remember, sales and IT work on the same team, not against each other as rivals. Giving the guy a smart ass answer may be good for the ego, heck it's self-satisfying, but doesn't foster teamwork.

I agree with Nick and MDXer that it's good to support the sales department. Oftentimes, I see sales and IT battle it out against each other needlessly because of turf battles.

Remember, you're on the same team. I like to think of other departments in the company as customers.

Now it's a different story if this guy bugs you relentlessly. But if it's an occasional phone call, just give him a succint spiel that the network is down and that 1-it's fixed or 2-timetable for fixing it. Kind of like a name, rank and serial number deal.