Archive for January, 2011
Thursday, January 27th, 2011
Hey Everybody in Portland Computer Repair Land,
We are hiring again, and this time we’re hiring our first entry level train-’em-from-the-ground up position. This post is directed at those applicants who are coming in to interview with us next week, to give those who do their homework (and do things like read this blog before coming in!) a leg up.
1) You will probably be nervous. That’s okay, be nervous. I am nervous also.
2) Be on time. Please note that we do not interview candidates who come late. 3:01 is late for a 3:00 interview, and we will send you away.
3) Do not be early. Nothing is worse than being late, except being early. The candidates who show up 30 minutes before their interview while we’re still interviewing the guy before. It’s just awkward. 2:50 is the earliest you should darken our door for a 3:00 interview. Sit in your car. Get some coffee. Read a book.
4) Be aware that my interview style is aggressive. This is intentional. In this job you will constantly be under pressure from customers and deadlines, sometimes people will yell at you, I need to know that you can remain collected under fire.
5) Come prepared with questions. If I ask, “what do you want to know about the company and this position?” and you stare blankly, that tells me that you are here because its a job, not because you want to work for Happy Hamster. We are not hiring somebody who wants a job, we are hiring somebody who wants to be a member of the Happy Hamster team.
6) Dress nicely. Its okay to be over dressed, its almost an expected part of the interview. Candidates who show up in t-shirts and jeans set my warning radar going.
7) Be prepared to demonstrate any skill listed on your resume or application. If you say you can do X, I’m going to ask you to do X. I am in fact going to pick the most obscure, esoteric X on your entire application.
Say “I don’t know” if you don’t know. This might sound obvious, but you’d be suprised.
9) Know that I will ask why you left each of your previous jobs, have full answers to that question.
10) Be aware, this interview is not the end of your world. There will be other jobs, if this isn’t right for you, another job will be.
Thanks everybody, good luck apps!
-Zac
Sunday, January 16th, 2011
Hey Everybody in the land of Ports who loves Computer Repair!
I want to take a minute to step outside our usual discussion of home user problems to introduce you to our business class service. Not everybody knows it, but IT Assurance, Portland’s premier managed services company, is actually a subsidiary of Happy Hamster. (Originally it also had a fun name, but too many businesses owners had a hard time with it, so we went with boring.)
IT Assurance works in a completely different way than Happy Hamster. With Happy Hamster, you have a problem, and then bring it to us for a solution. For business customers, we operate on something called a managed services model. This model reverses the traditional paradigm, instead of you having a problem, and paying us to fix it, you actually pay us to anticipate your problems, and stop them from happening. All IT Assurance managed services clients pay a flat monthly rate that covers 100% of their IT needs. This incentives us to be really good at what we do, because if we need to make 10 visits to your company in a month or 1 visit, we still get paid the same amount. Since problems are more easily solved early on, we put an enormous amount of work into finding issues before they pop up, and squashing them before they become a big deal.
This works out really well for the customer in a few ways.
First, downtime is dramatically reduced. The average IT Assurance customer sees an almost immediate productivity boost of 3 – 5% across their organization from computers that run better, faster, and longer without problems. Our incentive, again, is to make sure everything works as well as possible, which means we remotely touch every single computer in your business several times a day to look for any budding problems and to keep them running top speed.
Second, costs become fixed, making the budgeting process much easier. We had a client who previously worked with a company in an hourly environment. In the month before we took over their service, they got a $5,000 bill from their previous provider for emergency services when their e-mail system went down on a weekend, and they were charged triple time ($600/hr) because it was after hours weekend support. This blew their entire January, and turned a profitable month into a loss for them. In a monthly environment, you pay for us to keep your stuff running, if it’s not running, that is our problem, not yours.
Finally, we take no profits on parts, so when we recommend you buy something, its the thing we think you should have. We’re not recommending a $5,000 server because we make $2,000 if you buy it (pretty typical industry markup) we’re recommending it because it will best meet your needs.
Anyways, if you have any questions about our business support, feel free to check out the website (a work in progress, bear with us!) or give us a call with your questions.
Thanks everybody,
-Zac
President
Happy Hamster Portland Computer Repair
Tuesday, January 4th, 2011
Hey Everybody in Portland Computer Repair Land,
Need you all to keep your eyes peeled for a new virus. This new virus sends out an e-mail that says it is a Microsoft Update, and requests that you download an attachment. DO NOT DOWNLOAD THE ATTACHMENT. Microsoft will never distribute updates by e-mail, and this message is simply a virus carrier.
You can read more details here.
Keep safe out there, and remember, Microsoft will only distribute updates through Windows update, never through e-mail.
Thanks!
-Zac
President
Happy Hamster Portland Computer’s and Repair
Monday, January 3rd, 2011
Hey everybody in Portland Computer Repair Land,
I’m going to do another one of those “stuff I probably shouldn’t say on the company blog” blogs, so I hope you all enjoy it. Today we will cover the four things you must do to achieve your customer service goals, even if the facts are against you.
I want to start by defining my terms. There are two kinds of customer service situations – situations in which the facts are on the customer’s side, and situations in which the facts are on the store’s side. In any situation where the facts are on the customer’s side “I’m still under warranty”, “this is not the price you wrote down on my estimate”, “my invoice said it would be done Tuesday” the store will work diligently to resolve the problem. The store will do this even if you are being mean, hostile, or rude, because the facts are on your side, and it is the right thing to do. In situations where the facts are on the store’s side, “your warranty expired 6 months ago,” “That’s not what you paid us to do,” “You signed paperwork saying you would pay this much” you can often still get what you want, but you have to be willing to work for it. In these situations, the way customers present themselves and their goals can make all the difference between getting whatever you want, and getting absolutely nothing.
1) Know if the facts are on your side
A woman came into the store about 3 weeks ago, very, very upset because a computer that we had cleaned of viruses got a new virus. She demanded we fix it for free. I checked her paperwork, and saw that we did our virus removal 62 days ago, in October. We offer a 30 day warranty on all of our virus removals, so she was long outside the warranty. Still, to be nice, I offered to do a virus removal for 50% off, and only charge her $75. She refused to accept that solution, and kept insisting that she had only used the computer for 30 days of the last 62, so the warranty should still be valid. I tried to explain that’s not how a warranty works, but got nowhere, and the customer left the store in a huff.
This is a classic example, which will occur two or three times every year, of not knowing if the facts are on your side. In this situation, the store had a piece of paper that the woman had signed which explicitly stated her virus removal came with a 30 day warranty, so the store had the facts and the customer did not. I put this item first because more customers will make this mistake than any other. Know the facts, know if they are relevant, and know who has the power position in the situation.
2) Ask questions
A customer had us out to his home to do an on-site wireless network install and three months later sent me an e-mail message. The e-mail message said that his computer could no longer connect to the wireless, and he couldn’t print to his wireless printer anymore. Further discussion made it clear that his computer had been infected with a virus. His e-mail ended with something like the following –
“So you have two choices here. You can either give me back all of my money from the wireless setup, or you can send out a technician, for free, to work as long as necessary, to fix these issues for me.”
Presenting a black and white choice will net you only black and white answers, particularly the answer, “no.” In this case the facts are clearly on the store’s side. The customers warranty has expired, and regardless, wireless network setup and virus removal are not related items. However by asking questions instead of making demands, the customer could create some wiggle room to allow for creative solutions. An open ended question usually works best, “Is there anything you can do to help me with this situation?” Or if you have a specific goal in mind, phrase it as a suggestion, “I think it would be really great if I could get an hour of somebody’s time on the phone to walk me through some possible solutions, is that a possibility?” By phrasing a request in the form of a question, the customer leaves open many more possibilities for achieving a resolution, and make it much easier for the store to offer assistance.
3) Have a discussion
A customer called in late December and demanded a full refund for services rendered last March. When I demurred, March being 9 months ago and his virus removal warranty being 30 days, he immediately threatened to sue, file a report with authorities, write up a rip off report, tell all his friends, and destroy my business. I apologized profusely that he was so upset, but informed him that a warranty is just that, and unfortunately we would be unable to fulfill his request.
Nothing on this earth bothers me more in this job than bullies. Even assuming a customer can do what they threaten to do (my favorite is people who tell me they are going to have me fired), I would rather go out of business than give in to bullying. To achieve real results as a customer, anticipate a discussion with the store. Plan to lay out the issue, talk about it, and work together to get to the answer. Trying to use aggression and fear tactics to achieve a goal will never be effective.
4) Schedule a time
I want to end on the most mundane, but also possibly one of the most valuable tools in customer service. Scheduling an appointment to discuss a grievance will make the case much stronger. It shows that the customer is not just impulsively complaining, but rather that they have gathered their opinions and want to sit down and talk about the situation. It further gives the person on the other side of the phone a chance to gather notes, talk to the involved parties, and come to the table fully informed about the problem.
Long and short – Be gracious in the the power position and humble when not in order to net the greatest rewards.
Thanks everybody,
Zac Cramer
President
Happy Hamster Portland Computer Repair
