How to deal with unrealistc client , suggestions ?

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gcorgnet

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#2188683 28-Feb-2019 10:40

It sounds like the person, not the system needs fixing. I think education is key here.

Make them understand once for all that IT and computers are not magic and that laws of physics still need to be abided by.

Updates are important and need to happen.

alasta

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#2188685 28-Feb-2019 10:44

As an end user who IT people consider to be 'stupid', maybe I can give a different perspective.

Firstly, make sure you understand the user's role and use case. What do they use the computer for? Why is the five minutes such a big deal? Is it because they're under a huge amount of stress? If so, are there any other technology related solutions that could ease that stress? Could you set them up with some sort of mobile device to use while they are waiting for their main device to update/restart?

Secondly give them options, even if you think none of them are viable. "These solutions will all make the computer go faster, but this one will cost more money, this one will affect reliability, this one will cause you to lose xyz functionality". Even if you know they will reject those options it will at least make them feel more in control and accept that they have to compromise.

cyril7

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#2188688 28-Feb-2019 10:47

Doing out of hours updates definitely sounds the go, there are a number of tools to assist with this. As he is the boss and not a minon then clearly if you want to keep the contract you need to mitigate anything that seems to be adverse to him, along with some education, unfortunately if he has already torn strips off you such that trust and the relationship has deteriorated then you may need to get some outside help to assist realign his expectations.

Cyril

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#2188689 28-Feb-2019 10:47

alasta:
As an end user who IT people consider to be 'stupid', maybe I can give a different perspective.

Firstly, make sure you understand the user's role and use case. What do they use the computer for? Why is the five minutes such a big deal? Is it because they're under a huge amount of stress? If so, are there any other technology related solutions that could ease that stress? Could you set them up with some sort of mobile device to use while they are waiting for their main device to update/restart?

Secondly give them options, even if you think none of them are viable. "These solutions will all make the computer go faster, but this one will cost more money, this one will affect reliability, this one will cause you to lose xyz functionality". Even if you know they will reject those options it will at least make them feel more in control and accept that they have to compromise.

This is gold!

networkn

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#2188866 28-Feb-2019 14:18

MurrayM:

Dynamic:

Put a price tag on it. Yes we can make this problem go away by doing ___ and it will cost you ___ for this level of service. If you offer a solution, and they don't take it up, that generally reduces the grumbling in my experience.

The only problem with this is that you have to be damn sure that your solution will definitely fix the problem (not just improve the problem, eg updates go from 5 minutes to 2 minutes), otherwise they'll still whine AND they'll also complain that you're ripping them off by charging for solutions that don't fix the problem.

Right, almost goes without saying right? IF you aren't sure that a solution will work as expected, then that needs to be communicated or a Proof of concept offered.

networkn

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#2188869 28-Feb-2019 14:21

alasta:

As an end user who IT people consider to be 'stupid', maybe I can give a different perspective.

Firstly, make sure you understand the user's role and use case. What do they use the computer for? Why is the five minutes such a big deal? Is it because they're under a huge amount of stress? If so, are there any other technology related solutions that could ease that stress? Could you set them up with some sort of mobile device to use while they are waiting for their main device to update/restart?

Secondly give them options, even if you think none of them are viable. "These solutions will all make the computer go faster, but this one will cost more money, this one will affect reliability, this one will cause you to lose xyz functionality". Even if you know they will reject those options it will at least make them feel more in control and accept that they have to compromise.

I had a meeting so missed being able to post something very similar.

In my view there is a NON IT component to this end users IT complaints. Identifying this, is the difference between an OK IT Person and someone *really* good.

Our guys are specifically trained to look for these type of solutions. It makes a huge difference to customer relations.

Bottom line is, be as nice you like, some people just won't like you, but in those cases, I work extra hard to keep those people happy as a point of personal development.

BlinkyBill

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#2188877 28-Feb-2019 14:28

Move them to a Mac

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frankv

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#2188900 28-Feb-2019 15:06

BlinkyBill: Move them to a Mac

You beat me to it... Upgrade to Linux.

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#2188903 28-Feb-2019 15:13

networkn:
alasta:

As an end user who IT people consider to be 'stupid', maybe I can give a different perspective.

Firstly, make sure you understand the user's role and use case. What do they use the computer for? Why is the five minutes such a big deal? Is it because they're under a huge amount of stress? If so, are there any other technology related solutions that could ease that stress? Could you set them up with some sort of mobile device to use while they are waiting for their main device to update/restart?

Secondly give them options, even if you think none of them are viable. "These solutions will all make the computer go faster, but this one will cost more money, this one will affect reliability, this one will cause you to lose xyz functionality". Even if you know they will reject those options it will at least make them feel more in control and accept that they have to compromise.

I had a meeting so missed being able to post something very similar.

In my view there is a NON IT component to this end users IT complaints. Identifying this, is the difference between an OK IT Person and someone *really* good.

Our guys are specifically trained to look for these type of solutions. It makes a huge difference to customer relations.

Bottom line is, be as nice you like, some people just won't like you, but in those cases, I work extra hard to keep those people happy as a point of personal development.

My friend's classic complaint - she has meeting notes to type every Thursday at 10 am and her windows PC would do an update and restart without warning at 1030. I think it was Windows server OS. No warning! So she makes sure the minutes are completed by that time! (I did ask her why she didn't inform the IT guys but I can't remember the answer to that. But I recall the restarting issue!)

loceff13

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#2189040 28-Feb-2019 19:23

The joys of supporting an OS pulled from retail over 5 years ago and preinstalls 30 months ago.. PEBKAC

Technofreak

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#2189090 28-Feb-2019 21:28

You have to find a way to reason with him.

Find an example in an other area that he is familiar with and compare it to what he's asking you to do.

For example if he were a car dealer with a service department explain how what he is asking of you and his computer is akin to you expecting his workshop to do a full service on your car in 15 minutes or to counter his switching the computer off part way through an update is like putting the new oil in the car before the sump plug has been replaced - not only does it not achieve what is required it takes longer and causes more grief having to clean up the mess of the oil flowing onto the floor.

If possible try and find an example from the industry he is in. e.g an accountant, like dropping in a years worth of accounting details at 9 am and expecting the annual accounts to be ready at 9:30.

If you can't find a way to get through to him is there any way of engaging with the other owner(s) to get them to intercede?

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gzt

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#2189100 28-Feb-2019 21:36

Basically , they will not wait the 5 minutes or so after a windowsupdate restart .

This can be a lot longer than 5 min depending on the component updated. The other thing is, after this kind of treatment once or several times, it's possible there is some corruption/additional entries in the catalog causing updates to regularly take longer.

You could reinstall clean from a latest slipstreamed media.

This won't stop it happening again at any time for any random reason.

lxsw20

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#2189160 1-Mar-2019 00:02

1101:The only way I can see around this is me remoting in after hours to do Windowsupdates , with remote restarts afterwards .

This can be automated. Have they got WSUS in place? If not you could probably do it with a PS Script or group policy.

rphenix

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#2200538 18-Mar-2019 08:36

Well you could always tell the user you will apply any updates and reboot the machine at X time (etiher each night or once a week).

There are many other better ways manageengine etc but for a single machine running windows 7 using something free you could always try this old script (test as I haven't used it in years):
https://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~harry/wsusupdate.vbs

make a bat file like so:
cscript path:\wsusupdate.vbs

then make a scheduled task run the bat file and reboot. You can catch the exit code and selectively reboot based on the code if you wish but I wouldn't bother just tell them it reboots at X time.

Or better approach with powershell:
https://marckean.com/2016/06/01/use-powershell-to-install-windows-updates/

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