0034: Want Better Answers? Ask Better Questions.
Video:
Audio:
Show notes:
Hey there, hero!
I’m a huge fan of helping people out, but damn, some people make it next to impossible.
It’s not just the people who don’t really ask a question, like the user who dismissively writes me a support request of “This stupid software doesn’t work! Help!”
It’s everyone who asks a question that isn’t the best question to ask…or even a better question than the one they do ask.
If you’d like better answers, I’ll give you 2 big pieces of advice in this video.
Raw captioning:
well hey there hero my name is david h
lawrence the 17th and i
love answering questions i really really
do
but sometimes people
i can’t help them because they ask
really really bad
questions if you want better answers my
advice to you
is ask better questions and i’ve got two
big pieces of advice for you in this
episode
of the vo heroes podcast
i answer questions a lot in fact
i spend a lot of my time first thing in
the morning and at the end of my day
answering tech support questions for the
voice over talent and the actors that i
train
and also the people that purchase uh
rehearsal pro
and now audio cupcake and just basically
everybody who sends me
a support ticket for any of those
avenues i try my very best
to help but sometimes i i have to ask
myself
what are you thinking somebody sent me
a tech support question today that said
your stupid software doesn’t work
help what
okay first of all i’d never sell a copy
if it really
didn’t work and i’ve sold quite a few
copies
but the important thing is making it
easy on yourself to ask a question
doesn’t make it easy on me
to answer that question
the first piece of advice that i have
for you is be as
complete as you possibly can you never
know
what little detail you give me when you
ask a question is going to help me solve
your question help me solve your problem
so give me screenshots give me
recordings give me videos
give me complete sentences you know i
get that some people just want to talk
into their phone one sentence get it off
and then have me kind of discern
by you know mentalism uh what it is that
they’re
experiencing what they’re suffering from
what they really want to have happen
i need to know what you expect to have
happened and what really did happen
because maybe what you expect isn’t
something that
the app can do anyway or when you ask me
a question about voiceover maybe your
perception of our industry
is a little whack is a little off base
maybe you got
you know some sort of advice from people
who didn’t really know what they were
talking about
and you’re expecting that to be the
truth but it really isn’t the truth so
first piece of advice of the two pieces
of advice i have be
as detailed as you possibly can when you
make a request for support or just ask a
question
in general don’t just dash off something
quickly
give me details be as complete as you
possibly can
and then the second thing is really up
your game
in terms of asking questions instead of
asking questions like
what or which or
who how about asking why
or how in other words instead of
what mic do you use how about why do you
use the mic that you use
why do you recommend the at2020 usb plus
um instead of uh you know
audio cupcake uh why do you recommend
audio cupcake or what is audio cupcake
or
what do you do how about how does it
work what does it do
or when you have a problem with it why
is it doing this
why this is what i’m feeling this is
goes back to being more
detailed and more complete but asking
questions the way an interviewer would
ask questions and i get
that this is more work i get that it’s
easier to just say this stupid thing
doesn’t work
and leave it at that and expect that i’m
gonna go oh i know what he’s talking
about
you know because my stupid thing doesn’t
work
take a moment really think to yourself
if i knew nothing about
what is going on here what would i need
to give someone who was going to give me
help
and then i’m likely to be better
at answering your questions so if you
want better answers
ask better questions and i want to take
a moment to give a shout out to diane
kennedy who is a cpa
tax consultant who uh actually brought
this to my attention
i’m a member of her newsletter and she
kind of basically had the same kind of
message when it came to
tax questions you know i get tax
questions all the time that are just
like
very simple but i need a lot more detail
so
i wanted to share that with you today
and i’m wondering if you have any tips
or tricks for people that have really
gotten you great results
when you’ve talked to tech support or
when you’ve asked questions of people
when you’ve asked for advice
what has shown you to get better results
what what have you done
when you ask questions please scroll
down below this video
and and give me your comment your
question your your tips your tricks
below this i’d really appreciate that
and thank you so much
i’m david h lawrence17 thanks for
watching thanks for listening
and we’ll see you next time.
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I’d also add to that, “Don’t tell me what you think the solution is”. When I sold guitars for a living, I also took in a lot of guitars for repair work. A lot of customers wouldn’t tell me what exactly the problem was, but would tell me what to do to fix it. I’d stop them as they got into those explanations and say to them, “Just show me the problem.” if you tell a repairman to look at one area to fix a problem, that’s all they’ll look at. Once I could see/hear what was going on, I could let the repairman know what was wrong and he’d look at all possible areas to find a solution. More than once our repairman said to me “You’ve got ‘grasp’.” I just knew how to listen.
Well said, David. I’ll add precise “economy of words” to the advice. So often people ramble.
Think of what you always hear when you call tech support. Did you close the application and try to restart it? Rebooting the computer after installing software is often a requirement for the software to work (correctly)…is the computer plugged in? did you hit start? it is surprising how often these very obvious questions fix things, that’s why they ask those type of questions up front. I studied computers a few decades ago under a guy we called E.Z. Bruce. Easy because he always asked these fundamentals first when troubleshooting, amazing how often one of these fixed the problem…walk away, have a cup of coffee or water…take a deep breath…look with a fresh eye…then take advice from EZ Bruce.
What works best for me when I’m frustrated and need assistance/answers is taking a few minutes to pause and reset my mood before contacting support. I have GAD so even the smallest tech issues can get me really ramped up which makes it even more difficult for me to process any information I’ve been given. This just makes things more frustrating for everyone involved. I’ve found that taking a break before leading with compassion, kindness and honesty helps both of us and leads to a much better and more positive outcome for everyone.
My favorite question in bookstores or the library I manage is: “Do you have that book? It’s got a red cover?”
Here’s my big tip: The nicer you are, the more likely it is that someone will help you. When I was a restaurant manager (30ish years), the people who were nice about something being wrong were much more likely to have me fix it or comp it. The nasty people would sometimes be told “I’m sorry, that’s how you ordered it.”
This also goes along with “Be nice, until it’s time to not be nice.” – Patrick Swayze as Dalton -in Roadhouse.
The customer is NOT always right, but they deserve to be heard – in fact, sometimes that is all they really want.
“Economy of words” is a great way to put it. Be brief and concise.