Comments on: Don't Overestimate the Tech Savvy of Your Clients

By: RevenBlog | web knowledge workers » Easy Client Questionnaires: 3 Free Tools You Can Use

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 22:22:00 +0000

[...] as Google Docs? First of all, I find that the clean and minimalist interface is more reassuring to clients who aren’t tech savvy. They aren’t worried about clicking the wrong buttons since there’s only one [...]

By: Darklg Web (darklgweb) 's status on Sunday, 08-Nov-09 20:42:24 UTC - Identi.ca

Darklg Web (darklgweb) 's status on Sunday, 08-Nov-09 20:42:24 UTC - Identi.ca — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 20:42:37 +0000

[...] http://webworkerdaily.com/2009/10/26/dont-overestimate-the-tech-savvy-of-your-clients/ a few seconds ago from web [...]

By: Pamela Poole

Pamela Poole — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 17:40:32 +0000

Hi Tim.

I agree! Maybe it was a little unclear, but I meant for “A, B and C” to be replaced with their business processes, like “lead follow-up” or “employee leave management” etc. Sorry if it wasn’t clear!

By: Tim

Tim — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 16:32:51 +0000

One Minor disagreement: Avoiding a yes or no question and asking what the client has done in the past with a specific piece of technology, makes the client feel as though they *should* know what that is and feels bad that they are so “behind the times”.

Whereas a yes or no question gives the client a black and white chance to essentially say “could you explain to me what that is?”, rather than skirting the issue and trying to pretend they know what you’re talking about. This results in a potentially misinformed or incompletely informed client which could cause issues later on.

Just my 2¢. :-)

By: How to Solve Tech-savvy Shortfalls

How to Solve Tech-savvy Shortfalls — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 20:01:14 +0000

[...] (1:00pm) Georgina Laidlaw No CommentsTweet This We’ve talked a lot on WWD recently about the tech-savvy of our clients, our site’s users, the public, and, well, everyone … except [...]

By: Pamela Poole

Pamela Poole — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 14:15:00 +0000

You’re right! I’d forgotten all about AOL…

By: James NomadRip

James NomadRip — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 12:39:04 +0000

25% for Facebook isn’t that bad. Remember not too long ago , AOL was their only contact with the internet :-)

By: Most people haven’t been assimilated. Yet. « Pamela Poole

Most people haven’t been assimilated. Yet. « Pamela Poole — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 10:00:38 +0000

[...] Don’t Overstimate the Tech Savvy of Your Clients [...]

By: Pamela Poole

Pamela Poole — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 08:22:33 +0000

Hi Vincent. 25% ??!! Wow. As for the rest, it’ll probably change with time. Maybe it’ll be the address bar that will go the way of the dinosaur! Ya never know. That’s part of what makes it all so exciting. :-)

By: Pamela Poole

Pamela Poole — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 08:15:02 +0000

Hi Wellington. Glad to help, and thank you very much for letting me know!

By: Pamela Poole

Pamela Poole — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 08:13:55 +0000

Hi James. You’re right, and like Laura said, sometimes we forget. It’s often pretty amusing to watch people on TV trying to explain Internet-related things like the Twitter phenomenon. There was a period earlier this year when it was a hot topic on all the French media, and some of them were really struggling to understand and explain it. And then there was the moderator on a serious political/social talk show who said the iPod nano was dangerous because it used nano technology…

By: Pamela Poole

Pamela Poole — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 07:57:31 +0000

Hi Laura. It is VERY easy to forget! It sometimes seems like there are two separate worlds existing in the same space; parallel universes even… And that there’s a struggle for domination!

By: Pamela Poole

Pamela Poole — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 07:53:31 +0000

Hi Amber. The Mom strategy is a good one! My husband and his partners in a project do pitches to investors, and their operating principle is that the investor should be able to go home after the presentation and explain the concept to his/her spouse. Or Mom!

And it’s true that when people have little understanding of a topic, they don’t even know where to begin asking questions. I’ve been in that position myself plenty of times. And then they may be too embarrassed or shy, as you said, to ask you to repeat or explain.

By: Vincent

Vincent — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 07:50:53 +0000

Facebook accounts for 25% of all pages viewed in the US. For a lot of people, Facebook IS the Internet.

Similarly, a lot of casual Internet users have NO idea that they can bookmark sites in their browser, call the bookmarks or type a URL in the address field. They just use Google (the web page, not the built-in field in Firefox or Safari). And yes, every time they want to access the NYT or Le Monde, they google it first. And when you show them there’s a quicker way, they thank you, and ignore it.

Puts things in perspective…

By: The Zaq Stavano Blog » Blog Archive » links for 2009-10-26

The Zaq Stavano Blog » Blog Archive » links for 2009-10-26 — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 06:02:23 +0000

[...] Don’t Overestimate the Tech Savvy of Your Clients (tags: customer resource business) [...]

By: Wellington Grey

Wellington Grey — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 02:46:02 +0000

“For example: “I think a content management system would make sense for your project. It would make it easier for you to do A, B and C. Can you tell me how you’ve handled A, B and C in the past?””

This is why I love WWD. That little suggestion just made all of my client interactions from here on out so much better.

I’m constantly having to introduce people to technology that will make their days more productive — this is a much better way to do it than what I’ve been doing (yes or no questions)