Makes You Yearn For A Real Bullet
(I am the only IT person on site, supporting about 50 users of varying skill levels. This user is about 50 years old, and is very nervous around computers. I’m helping him prep a document for a meeting.)
Me: “Okay! And now, if you want, you can simply copy and paste the text from that email into this PowerPoint slide.”
User: “I want to keep it the same.” *indicating formatting, such as bullet points*
Me: “We can totally do that. When we paste, we’ll tell it to copy the formatting.”
User: “But I don’t want all those dots.” *tapping the screen where the bullet points are*
Me: “Okay. We can tell it to just paste the text then, instead of formatting.” *we do so*
User: “Where did my dots go?!”
Me: “The bullet points? I thought you said you didn’t want them.”
User: “I don’t. I just want the dots in front of the words.”
Me: “Those dots are the bullet points.”
User: “No. I just want the dots.” *again, indicates the bullet points*
Me: “All right. Let’s change that, then.” *two quick clicks and the bullet points are restored*
User: “NO! I don’t want those! Just the dots!”
Me: *running out of patience* “Which dots?” *I highlight the bullet points* “These dots?”
User: “Yes! Is that so hard?”
Me: *silently cursing my decision to enter IT* “No. I’m sorry for misunderstanding. Does it look okay now?” *indicating the PowerPoint slide with the bullet points*
User: “No. Take those things away! I told you I don’t want them.”
(I change the style of the bullet points from small dots to squares.)
Me: “How about this? Is that better?”
User: “Yes. Finally. I don’t know why that was so hard for you.”
Question of the Week
Tell us your story about a customer who couldn't understand the most simple concept.
