Unpopular opinion: I still let customers watch me work on their PCs

I know a lot of techs hate having someone stand over their shoulder, but I actually prefer it after a bad call last March. I was doing a data recovery at a small law office in Cleveland and the owner kept pacing outside the room, getting worried I'd mess up his files. I stopped what I was doing, showed him the cloning process on the screen, and walked him through why I needed a clean image first. He calmed down completely, and he even referred three other clients to me that month. Since then, I figure a little transparency upfront saves me from explaining every step later. Has anyone else had a situation where letting a client watch actually made the job smoother?

3 comments

3 Comments

martin.riley1mo ago

Yeah, but I've had the opposite experience more times than not honestly. Too many clients just don't have the technical background to understand what they're seeing, so they get nervous about stuff that's totally normal. I find it's better to just give them a clear timeline and a quick update when I'm done.

logan5251mo ago

Used to be firmly on the other side of this, but a few months back a kid was watching me fix his gaming rig and pointed out a loose cable I almost missed. Totally changed my view on it.

the_hayden1mo ago

Man, that's exactly what happened to me last year. A buddy's kid was watching me swap out a power supply and he just casually goes "isn't that wire supposed to be plugged in?" I'd completely missed a SATA cable that was hanging loose behind the drive cage. Would've been a real headache to figure out later. Kids these days grow up with this stuff, they see it different than we do. It's like they have fresh eyes for the little things we take for granted.