August 2000: Fellow Consultants, Respect Your Clients!

by Aaron Schacht, President of Aerdyne Microsystems

I constantly hear my clients complain about their previous computer consultants.  These complaints seem reasonable at the very least. Clients feel belittled, insulted, and sometimes attacked by their computer consultants.  Now it's true that some of our clients (and/or their employees) don't know computers from tofu, but we have to understand this and realize why they hired us!

We sometimes get frustrated when our customers don't know, for example, the difference between Windows Explorer and Internet Explorer, or where the Start Menu is.  No matter what our clients know or don't know about computers should have no effect on the way we treat our clients — with absolute respect.

For you computer consultants out there who disdain your clients — please send them to me.  I'll take the business.  We don't know everything about our clients' businesses, so why should we expect them to know about ours?

I get angry when I feel "talked down to" by an all-knowing accountant or attorney who talks to me like I am some incompetent child.  No, I don't know law, and I am certainly not a C.P.A., but I know my computer business and that's fine with me.

As consultants, we have to learn that computer expertise requires a certain aptitude in the technological arena, and expecting our clients to have the same aptitude is simply unreasonable.

Sincerely,
Aaron