Teach me please!

[overburnz]

I do a lot of teaching with my jobs with Outlook, I can tell the tech savvy ones want to learn the most, and with that, comes more hourly work for me. I will go slower, make them take notes, do it themselves, etc. I don't mind, none want to become experts and take over google and do my job

If they want to learn, just say you go really slow and your teaching rates are triple. That will stop that probably.

yeah but the thing is: they want to be taught but don't want to pay you anything!

As if... lolol i (and certainly most of us) invested lots of time and money to know what i know now and still do!

 

[Diggs]

since last november i became team leader on my shop, the previous one gave a lot of his time to a LOT of elderly customers, and did not charge one cent!

I can't imagine what it must be like for them. So many are totally lost as they have no previous experience to help them with computers. I donate time at the local retirement homes to answer questions, help and support their efforts at PC use.

 

[GTP]

I can't imagine what it must be like for them. So many are totally lost as they have no previous experience to help them with computers. I donate time at the local retirement homes to answer questions, help and support their efforts at PC use.

I've got no problem helping elderly persons with questions or advice. It's when a person that can easily pay, tries to beat you down and make you feel guilty that ticks me off!
When I was a teen I worked at a service station pumping petrol, checking tyres, cleaning windscreens etc. I remember my boss going on the warpath one day about the little "overruns" on the bowser. You know - the customer wants $10 worth of petrol and you overun and give them $10.03 cents.
His accountant told him he was losing up to $5,000 per year!
It's the same thing here where "it only takes 10 minutes" but it's billable time which you lose if you don't charge!

 

[overburnz]

Worst! I had one that came to us for a full system install (wich he didn't pay) and then went to another repair center (where he payed 150$) they f**ed up and then he came again for us to redo everything for free!!

 

[glricht]

yeah but the thing is: they want to be taught but don't want to pay you anything!

And that's the problem with doing teaching. For some reason, people don't want to pay for it. I used to do teaching, but the $ return just wasn't worth the time.

Fortunately, there's a company located in the next town that specializes in all kinds of computer-type education. They put on classes at their location or come onsite if you wish. When people ask me to "teach them", I just tell them them to contact the other company. And the other company refers us to their customers needing work done -- a win-win relationship.

 

[mikeroq]

The only form of "teaching" we do is a service call for $60/hr.

 

[Blues]

I teach people to use what they have and I really only teach on site and its billable time. I don't really teach them how to use the tools and dig in to the system. I would say the nearest thing to that I have taught is in regards to backing up data because it is better they know how to protect their data than to have me tell them the drive is dead and data is effectively gone.

 

[callthatgirl]

And that's the problem with doing teaching. For some reason, people don't want to pay for it. I used to do teaching, but the $ return just wasn't worth the time.

Mine pay because I'm fixing something for them and they want to learn while I'm fixing. Adds on billable time and if I'm available, not a problem

 

[TechLady]

I get asked to teach/tutor all the time. I wish I had time to do an actual class.

It really depends on the situation but a lot of times I will direct them to a youtube video on how to do whatever it is they're interested in. That's exactly what I would direct them to if they said they wanted to learn how to reload OS X. "No, that's my trade secret" has a really bad vibe to it. Just direct them to a video and relax because there's two huge benefits to doing this:

1) If it's really a small thing, it shows them how to do it and YOU can continue working on jobs that actually pay better than the five or ten minutes it would take to show them
2) If it's a big complicated thing, they will also see that and usually decide to have you do it. And if they go ahead anyway (rare) and mess it up, again, you have paying work.

You can't lose, really.

And let's be honest, half the time they say they want to learn to do something, they actually don't. They just don't like feeling dumb. AND they usually forget whatever it is you tell them (kind of like when somebody rattles off the steps to a recipe they think I need to try. I don't really like cooking and I forget it immediately). They are not suddenly going to become computer science majors because you showed them how to change the default printer. They will need your help again, and they will call, and you're not really losing anything. I personally don't think acting like a magician that needs to hide "tricks" gives off the vibe we want as businesses.

 

[SAFCasper]

Usually say something like "We don't provide structured tuition, and I'm not a teacher, but I can sit with you and give advice/pointers on things you're struggling with"

Basically I sit and watch while they do basic things like formatting a word document, importing photos from a SD card, attaching photos to email etc. Give them advice and answer questions along the way. A lot of older clients really like this service and even book regular sessions.

Nice change of pace to be honest. Getting paid to drink tea and answer basic questions.


Just to clarify - don't provide tuition actual repairs like virus removal, re-installs etc.

 

[OaksLabs]

It's kind of annoying how the better and faster you get, the less people are willing to pay

This is very true. At my last job I got the office moved to image based restores for OS reinstalls, and we'd get small systems done so fast that we'd put it on the shelf and wait until the next day to call the customer so they wouldn't come to expect same day turn around for reloads. It also helped us avoid the whole conversation about price vs. time.

 

[frase]

I do a lot of teaching with my jobs with Outlook, I can tell the tech savvy ones want to learn the most, and with that, comes more hourly work for me. I will go slower, make them take notes, do it themselves, etc. I don't mind, none want to become experts and take over google and do my job

If they want to learn, just say you go really slow and your teaching rates are triple. That will stop that probably.

Damn I had to goto a specialist Dr appointment the other day, was in there 5 minutes cost $180.00

Had a few tyrekickers this week - so how much can you install windows for ( running Vista)

• LOL:Can get you Install WIndows 7 from Vista and backup and restore my files
• LOL:I have someone else I am getting a quote from as well, your price seems very high
• MEH:Cant help you sorry, the person whom under quoted us is obviously installing a pirated version of the Microsoft Operating system - these can be tracked. Have a nice day.

Know what you mean, was a teacher myself in a past life as well. Individuals are as they are and they also have different learning styles

 

[G8racingfool]

This is very true. At my last job I got the office moved to image based restores for OS reinstalls, and we'd get small systems done so fast that we'd put it on the shelf and wait until the next day to call the customer so they wouldn't come to expect same day turn around for reloads. It also helped us avoid the whole conversation about price vs. time.

Ah the old "let it ripen" bit. I used to do that all the time until one of my customers realized that I put the 'finished' machines on a different shelf from the new arrivals. That was a bit of a red-faced moment.

Damn I had to goto a specialist Dr appointment the other day, was in there 5 minutes cost $180.00

Know what you mean, was a teacher myself in a past life as well. Individuals are as they are and they also have different learning styles

I know when it comes to comparisons most of us are more like general practitioners than specialists but damn.... if we could charge the money that doctors do, there'd be world peace*.




*Or at least, peace in my world, because I'd buy my own island and retire there.

 

[Krynn72]

I know when it comes to comparisons most of us are more like general practitioners than specialists but damn.... if we could charge the money that doctors do, there'd be world peace*.

$180 isn't much. Some techs here probably have a similar minimum charge.

 

[overburnz]

yesterday had a customer that felt that i was robbing him when i said that he had to pay me for the email configuration on his macbook (which he knew how to do, -.- , because he already had it synced on his iphone and ipad...) when i said that there was a fee for my work he promptly laughed and said "ok so i'll show you my problem, i'll try to configure it now and if i'm doing anything wrong you tell me", my reply was "no sir, i don't teach i do the work myself and i charge for it" he left and didn't see him again lol

 

[brandonkick]

I "sorta" don't mind educating people. But I don't like educating people who I suspect might try fixing others stuff for money... now that they "know" how to do it. I'll give little tid bits.. here and there, as the circumstances are proper.

I won't teach someone how to reinstall their machine, backup data before hand and transfer it back over after, reconfigure everything and so on after they get bombarded with crapware and viruses. I'll teach them how to do their best to not wind up back in that situation... but I won't teach them how to fix it. That information is available, if you want to learn bad enough. I've self learned a lot of this through research, hands on experience, and following others either on message boards or youtube.

I love the "but all you did was...." comments. LOVE IT. As someone said... if "all I did was"... then why didn't you do it yourself and save all this money? In my case, I've been learning this stuff for nearly 20 years now. I've a paid education, that wasn't cheap (not directly applicable... but a computer science education)... I'm not showing you how to fix your own problems for free. That takes more of my time away to teach you, and it takes money out of my pocket since your going to try to do it yourself. No thanks.

 

[GTP]

Damn I had to goto a specialist Dr appointment the other day, was in there 5 minutes cost $180.00

Pretty cheap when you remember that a Doctor can make decisions to save your life.
While you just make decisions on saving data etc.

 

[frase]

Pretty cheap when you remember that a Doctor can make decisions to save your life.
While you just make decisions on saving data etc.

True, I dunno what was wrong me last night was annoyed with everything.

 

[AML]

I use it as a revenue stream, we are a full retail/service centre. We have a classroom that we use for one on one training. If they want to learn anything from building a computer, how to copy and paste, how to burn DVD's etc. We will teach them. They pay our hourly shop rate and we charge a minimum of 2 hours.

 

[gikstar]

"Tell you what, purchase a desktop or laptop from me, we'll get it hooked up to the internet and I'll show you how you can use Google to search for answers to your questions. Which do you prefer, a desktop or laptop?"