Posted on by Fuzzy Curmudgeon

Sheesh.

I don’t normally write about work here. But sometimes I think something has a universal moral and needs to be written about in general terms because it generally applies throughout the industry.
HelpDeskSetYouOnFire.jpg
We had someone get huffy today because, when doing a search through our web-based search facility, an end user did not get consistent results because his search turned up so many hits that the web interface kept timing out. Which is normal because you don’t want the main program process churning on one search to the detriment of everything else it needs to do.
The admin who got huffy said that he’d inform his user that the web search was broken and he’d be better off to do his search by sending an email command (which is true in the event, but read on).
Conversely, I’d have to argue that if you are getting thousands of hits (the admin reported that his user was getting 25,000 more hits every time he hit reload after the timeout was increased to 25 seconds–which is absolutely insane) on any kind of search, either by web or by email, you’re not doing it right. The point of doing a search is to find things you need quickly. If you do a search and get thousands of hits, ipso facto you need to narrow your search. Otherwise, you could just read the material you are searching sequentially and probably find what you’re looking for just as fast. (Yeah, that’s hyperbole, but not by much.)
Poor construction of the search terms on the part of the end user isn’t really the vendor’s fault. We provide a perfectly serviceable search interface that simply expects the user to have a good grasp of what he is searching for, and to have enough sense to narrow his terms if he gets too many hits.
The sad thing is, as a colleague and I were bemoaning the other day, the average intelligence level of both our customer contacts and their end users has been dropping like a stone since the late 1990’s. And we can both say that with authority, as both of us have been using, managing, and supporting the software in question for nearly half of our lives. (Scary thought, that.)
To be sure, in this particular case I think Google is to blame. They make it too easy with weighted searches that sort the result set by “most likely match”. We don’t have that luxury.

3 Replies to “Sheesh.”

  1. I’d blame this on several factors beyond lack of intelligence:
    1. Across sites/applications search boxes look alike but behave inconsistently (e.g., how-or if- they accept quoted strings, ability to exclude terms – and the operator(s) necessary to do so).
    2. Lack of search help, or “advanced search” for most programs/sites. After a while people stop bothering to look for it. (Is there a HELP button next to the search box? Does it lead to a “Help, I’m getting too many results!” FAQ? Does that FAQ pop up automatically if there are more than 50K hits?)
    3. Poor training/lack of user knowledge. *You* (or the guys on the helpdesk) are not a good benchmark for comparison: You’ve been witness as the technology has grown up, and have absorbed information along the way. Now you “know things” that you don’t “know that you know.” Somebody new may never have been told that_you_CAN/how_to limit a search. (I’m reminded of the thread over at Bobbie’s about what happens when youngsters are confronted with a dial telephone.)
    4. Rational ignorance. They just want to get their job done, not become an expert in constructing search queries. Why spend time learning a seldom-used skill when it’s easier to ask/bitch?
    5. Work avoidance. “I can’t make the search work” passes the problem on to somebody else. As does “I can’t do anything because I’m waiting on an answer.”
    5. Non-linear thinkers. I’ve known some extreme right-brain types who just can’t absorb the concept.
    All of these manifest as “stupid user” at the helldesk level, but IMO for customer satisfaction it’s extremely important to have a way to differentiate between “stupid,” and “ignorant,” or “lazy.”

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