Bringing Guests on Service Calls

[jimmm33]

One of my clients is a non profit that helps handicap people find work. They are a good organization and I admire what they are doing. They are also a good client.

They have asked me to help them out by allowing a couple hearing impaired people to tag along with me for a day to see what the job is like. I'm not so sure this is a good idea. I have a service call there in a couple of days and I told them I would talk to them about it then.

I don't even know if my liabilty insurance would cover this kind of thing. Some days I'm very busy and I think they would slow me down. Other days I just go to the bank and post office.

I leaning toward not doing it. I don't want to seem insensitive.

Should I bite the bullet and try to do some good for the community?

[gazzak]

One day wouldn't hurt. You might enjoy it. Two of my old customers were completely deaf and could only communicate with me by hand gestures and nods or shakes of the head. Eventually they were the two I enjoyed seeing the most, and we actually had some very good laughs. I think you'd be surprised at how quickly you'd adapt to these two and how easy it is to communicate with someone who has little or no hearing. I think it would be as beneficial for you as for them.

[nunob]

I have a customer who is Welsh last year I showed up at the agreed upon time with a new employee I hired and she was extremely angry and quite vocal about it. I tried to explain he was an employee but she was not having it so now if I want to take someone with me I call and ask my client if it would be exceptable ahead of time. Also I try to explain to anyone I take with me a few conduct codes before they can go with me.

[3fingersalute]

If it was a one time thing, why not? I take one of my children with me each year on "Bring your child to work" day, and have never had any issues!

[InTheWayBoy]

For the ride-alongs I've done I typically make them work around my schedule so that I can take them on a day that looks to be easy enough...I get one or two of those a month

In the end the little bit of pain you might have during the day could pay off in great word of mouth advertising...just something to keep in mind if you stand to profit from more sales!!!

As far as insurance goes...that's tricky. I would assume their own pre-existing insurance would cover them, but that don't mean you couldn't get stuck getting sued! I think that most business class insurance plans include some form of protection against this very topic, but triple-check just to make sure!

[Radical Dreamer]

Do it, if people dont understand what you are trying to do after explaining it, they are *******s you dont want for customers anyway

[corturbra]

We do it occasionally with some work experience peeps. We always check with the customer first that they're happy that someone else will be tagging along to learn something.

Trouble is once most of them realise computers are not about glory they change their career path...

[arch0nmyc0n]

Co-op kids follow me around all the time... they're good gophers... even had a mute working with us for a bit... nice kids... genius with computers... obviously had problems tell us how he fixed stuff

[Outcoded]

Might also be useful if you learn basic sign language. I can do a fair bit of BSL, but a bit of basic finger-spelling should take you a long way. I see you're in the US, so the finger spelling used over there will probably be different to what I know. This - http://www.clearyschool.org/finger_spelling.htm appears to be the US standard, but I'd check with someone in the know.

To be honest, I can't see anyone having a problem with it, but as said above, do check about the insurance, and with individual clients.

[gizmo1_1]

I have a Wife and five children, because in my business I travel alot, often leaving them without seeingme for days at a time. On days when they are not a school, I usually take two of them along with me. The clients never seem to mind and often find it entertaining.
Plus it helps the children learn interaction with the outside world in a controlled environment.

[Tekboy]

Just remember that there ARE liability issues when you take people with you on a service call.

Better to let them observe you working at the bench, imho.

[jimmm33]

Ideally, my guests would travel to the client on their own. I don't know if we can arrage that yet. I might recommend that they contact my former employer. They have a shop with a lot of machines going in and out. It is a more controlled environment.

[Tekboy]

Ideally, my guests would travel to the client on their own. I don't know if we can arrage that yet. I might recommend that they contact my former employer. They have a shop with a lot of machines going in and out. It is a more controlled environment.

If you have a good working relationship with your former employer, this sounds like the right thing to do. There is a "trust" thing that goes along with onsite calls. I have a difficult time putting it into words, but I suspect that some people think the personal data they have on their computers might be as important to others, While they find a way to trust YOU, they are being asked to trust even more people if they come to observe.

This is my experience, at any rate. I make LOTS of onsite calls. YOU may have lots of customer service skills that you don't even think about, but the observers won't. Thus, let them observe bench work. A good bench tech working on multiple machines will be more fun to watch.

[bookmarkmns]

I'd think about these things -
Do you want to do this?
If yes then see if you can do it.
If not then don't do it
If you aren't happy then your guests won't like it.
Do it because it will be enjoyable for you and your guests.
Check your insurance.
Check your customers are OK with it and explain what you are doing.
Make sure you know your guests before you go out.
You'll learn a lot!
Enjoy and good for you for doing it and posting here!