Great. Ok, so my library has a techie problem with Pinterest. It screws up links from our catalog. Other places read them fine, but not Pinterest. So I thought “hey – I’ll try out Pinterest support,” and see what happens.
Well.
My first attempt wasn’t a good one. I submitted my ticket, and was immediately sent a link to the “here’s how to create a PIN, dummy” link (ok – they didn’t really say “dummy” – but they might as well have said that). Then they added this: “If you’re writing about another issue, please submit a new ticket under the right topic to get help as quickly as possible.”
Again, assuming I’m the dummy who posted my support ticket in the wrong place. Hmm.
Not terribly helpful, but ok. So I just tried again. This time, they immediately emailed back with this:
“A list of known issues we’re already working on is available here” …Â And guess where that link took me? Yep – you guessed it. To the page in the screenshot above – a 404 error page!
Moral of the story (a couple of them):
- Do better tech support than Pinterest (this will not be hard).
- Don’t call your customers dummies. Implied or in-their-faces.
- If you automatically email a web page with support info to your customer, make sure the link actually works.
Yikes!
Please post a follow-up if you get an answer. I’ve encountered problems sharing to Pinterest from our PAC, too. There’s a work-around, but it’s time consuming. Thanks!
This is ironic. I work in a library, and our tech team’s first response is a dummy reply. “Did you try rebooting?” or did you use the solution recently emailed by someone else from your department. Um, yeah. I read my email and I know the easy stuff. If I’m calling, please assume I need advanced troubleshooting.
So for me the moral to this story is, take a look at the way your library handles tech issues:
1). If you are an IT manager, do you talk to your tech team about the way they communicate and help staff members–maybe by having training sessions on communication, one on one discussions, cross departmental meetings or in-house surveys?2). If a patron has a problem using your digital content, do they have a direct and easy way to communicate with you tech team?
So a suggestion for the IT employees and managers reading this, try a less condescending initial question–what troubleshooting methods have you used already? It’ll speed up the interaction without annoying your librarians.
That’s really interesting… and I generally agree with you, most definitely. IT needs to NEVER be condescending.
At the same time, my first answer (depending on the question of course) when I take a helpdesk call is “have you rebooted?” And a good 90% of the time the staff member has not, and the reboot fixes the problem.
I think there’s probably a balancing act there somewhere!
90% of your librarians don’t use basic troubleshooting methods? It sounds like you need to give some basic troubleshooting classes to the library staff. I don’t know whether to be jealous that they aren’t required to know anything about computers or to be disgusted by the lack of professionalism. A quandry to be sure.
Well, if that’s true, apply this 90% rule to Pininterest. If 90% of the questions Pinterest recieves involve not knowing how to pin, their reply will most likely fix the person’s problem. It’s not a dummy response. You are just frustrated like me that the system for help doesn’t expect your level of competency since most of it’s users need basic help.
One last thing to think about. Are your tech support staff and Pinterest support staff teaching your clients not to expect help for advanced troubleshooting? After all, did you continue to try to receive help? Is it possible that competent staff members at your library have been taught to not call for help because it’s a waste of time? I’d be interested in what other IT managers think.
“did you continue to try to receive help” – Yes, actually I have. Via a couple more emails (using their tracking system). Now I’m waiting for a response from them.