As the leading lady on the other side of the Vitech support phone number, I’ve talked to a lot of people over the years, some more than others. Even though my friends joke that it would be so hard to listen to problems all the time, I must say it’s been an absolute pleasure to get to know so many from across our user community. There are some customers that I lovingly call my “repeat offenders” – which usually translates to a power user. Our power users are always looking to know more – calling me with a “how do I,” “what about,” or “where did that button go?”
One of my favorite “repeat offenders” is Space Man D. D is the definition of a power user. He’s been using CORE longer than I’ve worked for Vitech and has even taught me a thing or two about our products. Sometimes when I’m talking to a power user like D I forget he’s human like the rest of us.
Regardless of the software product they are working with, power users (and yes, even D) tend to get stuck in their ways. They’re so good at leveraging the power of the software that their laser focus causes them to act like a horse with blinders. Those blinders can block a lot of sunlight – sometimes the power user forgets about a function that’s been there for years. On the other hand, sometimes the power user is one of the first people to leverage new capabilities. And, sometimes, the power user is the first to dismiss the new capability because it will change their workflow.
So where did we discover some sunlight for Space Man D? We were talking a few weeks ago and he was asking me about how to achieve something. My first response was a passive “well, I’m sure you already tried…” assuming we would be moving to the next level of troubleshooting immediately.
But, he hadn’t tried that.
Space Man D wasn’t aware that capability existed. Or maybe he knew, and just forgot. I had made assumptions about Space Man D – what a great unexpected learning experience for us at the support desk that in order to provide exceptional support to our customers that it’s imperative that we not take things for granted. Even power users don’t always leverage the full capabilities of the tool.
Just as customers are able to learn from Vitech when they call our support desk, we discover every day how important it is for us to learn from our customers. We need to understand what works and what doesn’t work for them because getting this insight from our customers is vital to ensuring that we continue to deliver products and services that meet their needs. Learning is a never-ending two-way street.
So here’s to learning, and to teaching, for all of us, both ways, every day. All of us have something to teach, even when we’re teaching someone we perceive to be more knowledgeable than ourselves.
So who can you teach (and learn from) today?
