Regarding my saying you should have the client turn on the system and show you the problem before you touch the system, you said:
On March 1, 2017 at 12:31, goldenzrule said...
You missed when I said this:
"Upon arrival, I always ask what is the system doing, and when"
Well, this doesn't always work. A very wise person with whom you ALWAYS agree had this to say only twelve minutes later:
On March 1, 2017 at 12:43, goldenzrule said...
I had a client call me once because he said that his cable was not working. All he would say is that he keeps trying to watch TV and cannot get it to work. He was not able to elaborate, so I scheduled to go out there and meet with him.
So, you asked the client "what is the system doing, and when," and he was unable to tell you. He would not have been able to put it into words any better if you had been on site at that moment.
Anyway, his issue? He did not know how to use the DVR functions and had set some things to record by pressing record on the remote, but didn't know how to get to the recording shows.
And how did you find this out? Did you walk in, meet him for the first time as you said, and once more "ask what is the system doing, and when"?
Did you turn the system on and show him that everything was working fine, in which case you would still not know what his problem was?
Or did you maybe have him show you what his problem was? That's all I was saying you should do! Start by having the client show you the problem.
THEN you could see that the problem was training. Maybe I should have said that the first step of troubleshooting would wisely be determining if it's a training problem or an operational problem.