Importance of Asking Questions

I have worked in support and help desk positions for the past three years and have learned that asking questions is crucial to getting anything done. Before the company I worked for had invested in any type of remote support software like GoToAssist, or LogMeIn123 I had to try my best to describe to our clients how to maneuver through the management end of their websites so they could edit information on their personal website.

I took a call one day from an older lady, who wasn't to tech savvy, wanting to know how she would edit the information on her personal website. I began my regular routine of asking her to open a web browser, and then enter in her username and password into the website. Then once logged into the management area of the site to select the particular area of the website that she wanted to edit, and after she has edited her changes to click the saved button. She then said to me, "I don't see the save button" I then said, "It's off to the bottom right corner of the site" she then replied, "I am not on your website." I was confused because I thought that she had been following along with my instructions on how to maneuver through the website. What was my mistake throughout all this phone call? I was giving her instructions and not asking questions.

When working in a technical support role you are going to be finding yourself asking a lot of Close Ended type of questions. Closed Questions are those for which there are a limited number of acceptable responses or "right answers."(1) For example asking something like, Have you opened up a web browser?, and Were you able to successfully log into the website? If asking those questions I will know exactly whether or not the person has completed the instructions that I just gave them.

There also comes an important need to listen to your clients and especially listen to the questions they ask you. "Try to give more than a one word answer. No matter which questioning technique customers use, try to answer as though the question is open ended."(2) You now have a great opportunity to share more with your clients about your system so that they will be able to know how to get the most out of using your products and services. This will also lead to building a relationship of trust with the customer because they see that you are willing to listen to them, and are able to answer their questions.

The art of asking questions is something that you will continue to learn over time, and you will need to be able to detail your questions to the specific clients you deal with in different situations. People in technical support positions are often described as very non-commutative, and not very customer oriented. You will be able to get an edge over others in a technical field if you learn to communicate effectively and be able to ask questions to further your fact finding to help someone.

I have noticed with the people that I work with now that they are very appreciative of the service that I provide to them. They comment on how I am able to ask those questions that guide them through the steps on how to get their work done on websites more easily and efficiently. I have come a long way since I very first started in providing technical support, and I know that I will continue to grow as I learn how to communicate with people, and to ask questions so I know what level of service and guidance that I need to provide to them.

 

Bibliography

(1) Blosser, Patricia. "How to Ask the Right Questions." National Science Teachers Association. Web. 26 Sept. 2009. <http://site.ebrary.com/lib/byuprovo/Doc?id=10240824&ppg=4>.

(2) Renee, Evenson. "Customer Service Training 101 : Quick and Easy Techniques That Get Great Results." AMACOM. Web. 25 Sept. 2009. <http://site.ebrary.com/lib/byuprovo/Doc?id=10120166&ppg=67>.

Fishbone Diagram

A Fishbone diagram is a visual tool that one can use to see what could possibly affecting a system. The book Quality: a critical introduction suggests, "that the major categories such as 'Men, Machines, Material and Methods' may provide a useful first set of categories, each of these categories, each of these categories is then subdivided again, the 'fishbones' gaining further rubs and subribs as the whole issue is explored".

In an article in Tooling and Production it gives some helpful hints in creating these diagrams. "The diagram is best constructed by a group that is knowledgeable about the process at hand. The group brainstorms what variables in each category may contribute to the current problem.This exercise stirs the thought processes of the group's members and extracts core process knowledge to identify likely contributing factors." So if you are an outside consultant hired to go into a company to see what you can do to help the company streamline its operations this can be a very useful tool. You may want to gather together those who are in different levels of the "company food chain" to better understand the companies needs to create a better working environment.

The Vanderbilt University School of Engineering has a great diagram that we can look at and then break it down to better understand the fishbone diagram.


The diagram is trying to dissect why a company may have unhappy workers. Listed are four areas where there could be potential problems, environment, workers, management, and machines. We can see that branching off of these areas:

• The environment is to hot
• The workers feel like they have not been adequately trained
• The machines are to old

I'm sure that there are many other reasons why the workers may be unhappy however you can get a good idea on why these workers are unhappy with the information provided in the diagram.

In conclusion you should try using a fishbone diagram in the next system analysis that you do. It will provide you with a great physical representation of what problems exist in a system so that you can better analyze what solutions will best fit for your company.


Bibliography
Maze-Emery, Elizabeth. "Knowing the cause is half the battle." Tooling and Production
Nov.-Dec. 2008: 28-29. Print. (Beckford, John. Quality An Introduction. 1st ed. New York: Routledge, 2002. Print.

Future Value Equation

Did you know what you can invest smarter with Excel? Its true! Our good friends at Microsoft Office have this wonderful formula in Excel that is called Future Value. How does it work, and how do you use it? Well lets first bring up a situation where you would apply this formula.

Over at Microsoft Office they have a great example situation:

If I invest $2,000 a year for 40 years toward my retirement and earn 8 percent a year on my investments, how much will I have when I retire?

Really you can put any numbers in there, but now we have the situation and its time to show you how to put in that information. The equation for the formula looks like this:

FV(rate,#per,[pmt],[pv],[type])

The break down:

rate: this is the interest rate, so we are looking at in our example it is 8% or .08

#per: is the number of periods in the future for what you are calculating the future value. #per is also the number of periods during which the annuity payment is received. In our example it is 40.

pmt: is the payment that is going to be made each period. In this example, pmt is -$2,000. Why the minus sign? It means that we are receiving money over all.

pv: is for if we were to owe someone money or if we have money in savings. If we owed money then we would simply input it in as $10,000, if we had the money in savings -$10,000. But we right now will ignore this because it doesn't apply to do what we are going so we will just leave this blank.

type: is meaning when a payment is made. You have only two values you can enter 1 or 0. 1 is for if the payment is made at the beginning of the period and 0 is for if the payment is made at the end of the period. If you were to leave this blank then the formula will assume the value should be zero.

If you have made it this far you are a trooper! To put all of that together would look like:

FV(.08,40,-2000,0,0) and the final value will be $518,113.04.

You may now be asking, "Thats great and all, but how do I switch out the numbers easily?" I got you covered! You are able to use cell references so that you will only need to change the value of the cell and not the equation each time you want to do a calculation. The screen shot below will explain:

You will see that we have the cell referenced of B2, B3, and B4. Here you will see that I used semi colons in the formula, this is because I used Open Office to compile the equation =FV(B2;B3;-B4;0;0). In Microsoft Excel it would look like =FV(B2,B3,-B4,0,0).

Now all you will need to do is change the values in the cells and immediately the information will show in the total. If you have any other additional question feel free to leave a comment, or you can Click Here and read the full article provided by Microsoft Office.

One of the great things about attending a LDS Church owned school is that they have a different teaching structure is different then most schools. Here at the LDSBC ( Latter-day Saint Business College) one of the main focus's is teach one another. In this way the students are more responsible for their education then at other college's or universities. As part of the schools mission statment we read:

Teach One Another: Engage in meaningful learning experiences individually and in groups to help you understand concepts and develop skills.

I would like to pose the question, Who learns more then the teacher while teaching? A student may grasp bits and pieces of what the teacher is saying, but when a teacher is prepairing the lesson and then sharing with the students what they have learned, the teacher is in more of an advantage then the students. Why? becuase they have internalized the message then they figured how to share that information. That part is crutial, the ability to be able to vocalize what you have taken in.

From one of the sciptures of the church, D&C 88:78 we learn:
78 Teach ye diligently and my ^agrace shall attend you, that you may be ^binstructed more perfectly in theory, in principle, in doctrine, in the law of the gospel, in all things that pertain unto the kingdom of God, that are expedient for you to understand;

As we teach he will have the help of the Lord, and we will have a better understing of what it is that we are supposed to learn. Now for the application, we need to teach one another the things that we learn. As we teach we learn, and as others teach us they will learn as well.