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What's In a Name?
by Aaron Smith on Thursday, May 31 2007Being a support specialist means having the answers when others have questions. If left unchecked, the relationship between knower and knowee can become full of friction, to the point where customers don't ask questions because they don't want to deal with an elitist response. It is important to remember that people are asking questions because they lack knowledge, not because they lack intelligence. I think Mike, Raul, and I do a pretty good job of remembering that throughout the day. We're not perfect, but we're the best in the business.
That being said, I have a complaint to lodge against a few of the people who call us. Don't worry; names will remain withheld. My complaint deals not with the content of the questions being asked, but with the language being used, specifically our company and product names.
We are GW Micro, sometimes abbreviated to just GW. We are not Microeyes. We are not GW Eyes. We are not, nor will we ever be, GW Microsoft. Our flagship product is called Window-Eyes, not Windows Eyes, not Windoweizer, not Micro Eyes. And, while I'm at it, Raul's name is Raul, not Rollo, nor Ralf.
There's one sure fire way to make any tech support specialist from any company moan, groan and roll their eyes (literally or figuratively), and that is to completely mangle the name of the company you're calling, or the product you're calling about.
As I mentioned before, we do our best to provide the same high quality answers in a professional manner, regardless of how the questions are asked. But if you go around mutilating company and product names, you can bet you'll be the subject of some pretty good bantering among the support staff once the call is over. Sometimes calls are logged, and you'd hate to be forever known as one of "those" people.
Show respect for the companies you call, and the products you call about, and you'll get respect in return. If you call up GW Soft, and ask about Micro Eyes XP, Rollo is going to come after you.
