My computer froze. Does that mean I freeze too?!
As an avid user of technology, I could not imagine life without it. In 2015, cyberspace is where everything lives. I constant talk on and on about how there is no longer any use to try to compete with technology. We must embrace it! But what happens when your computer operating system doesn't support the newest program, website, or flash?! This is something I deal with on the regular and it can be frustrating. We have developed a strong dependency on technology and can not do anything in the case of a blackout or computer malfunction. Being a millennial myself, I am terribly guilty of being glued to my phone. I ditched my old school book keeping for Mint.com and traded in my bulky planner for Google Calendars. But upon the moment I found myself with no WiFi or reception, I panicked. How am I supposed to schedule my phone interview or know if I have enough money in my bank account for this latte? As much as I keep promoting technology as the future, we have to remember how to do things sans technology. Today, I sat in the office trying to get our lead tracking program to let me respond to emails but it kept having server errors. The program was down on every computer and I was at a stand still. On average, I send about 60 emails a day and respond to 40 voice mails but today I felt like I had my hands tied. I could only reach the phone numbers provided to me on paper and was not able to immediately send a follow-up email I promised. I did all the mundane projects I could while I waited for the computer to reboot. I felt helpless. I felt as if I was losing leads and traffic just because I couldn't respond to the emails sitting in the queue. The blinking blue subject lines were just staring at me and I could not get to them. It is every sales person's nightmare. What could I do to prevent this from ever happening again? 1. Work with what you got. Normally, I enter all information into the system but since I couldn't I had to scribble everything down on paper. Paper guest cards are obsolete but I had to put down their infor
mation elsewhere so that when the program works again, I could immediately input them. 2. Be honest. Everyone knows that technology can be faulty. Instead of making empty promises, explain to the customer the situation and tell them that you will assist them the best they can and that you will be ready to help them when you can access their files.
3. Keep trying. Don't give up on your poor robotic friend. Try your best to solve it. Try restarting the program, the computer, and the surge protector. You never know what might have triggered the error. With that being said, don't spend all your time fixing it because you could be missing other opportunities.
4. Circumvent the situation. If your program isn't working, try to work on different platforms. If email isn't working, call or text the client! Use all the resources you are given to be productive. I ended up posting Craigslist ads during my time because I couldn't access any emails.
5. Use this time to just relax and plan for tomorrow. When all else fails, take a breather. Relax and plan on how you can utilize your time to prioritize and plan for tomorrow. Don't stress because it is not your fault. It happens to everyone. Does anyone else have other ideas on how to survive technology malfunctions in a technologically driven world?
