Objectivity is the name of the game

As a technician, I'm forced to use many different products from many different vendors every day. Whether I'm deciding to recommend Veritas or BackupAssist to a client, or whether I'm going to be remotely connecting to a computer using DameWare, VNC, or Remote Desktop Connection, for any given problem, there can be quite a few solutions. One of the problems I see with technicians today is the rampant 'fanboyism' that seems to be entirely too common.

What do I mean when I say 'fanboyism'? Well by that I mean that there are people out there who line themselves up behind one company and will support it to its death no matter what happens between now and then. While this seems to be most common in the video card (ATI vs. nVidia) and OS (Windows vs. Linux/BSD vs. Mac) arenas, you can find these zealots in pretty much every facet of our society.

Why is this a problem? As a technician, your primary focus should be on your customer. Not your profit margin, but how satisfied you can leave your client. When you start following a certain company or product without regard to actual quality, you are putting your customers at risk. Risk of what? Risk of not having a superior product. It is a case of the blind leading the blind; they are blind because they don't know better, and you are blind because your judgement is clouded by a logo.

When you are making a decision for yourself, you should feel free to purchase or use whatever product you like; by living in a free country with a free market, it is absolutely your right. When you are purchasing on behalf of your client however, this is no longer your purchase, you are simply and intermediary between a purchaser and their product. Your opinions should stay out of the process unless specifically requested (e.g. if you're asked 'which of our options would pick?' then feel free to weigh in.)

If you have data that can back up your statement (e.g. 'if you goto website W, website X, or website Y and look at their reviews of product Z, you'll see that they unanimously agree that product Z is the superior product') that is great and there isn't a problem. The problem arises when people become so attached to a product line or company that they will recommend it solely on name alone, and not on the performance of the product. Just because a product performed great in the past does not necessarily mean that it will perform well in the future.

While I have no doubt that company N has served you well in the past, whenever you make a recommendation to someone else, they are trusting that you are recommending a superior product. To find out which is the superior product, you should be able to provide the research you've done as to why it's the best option. You should be putting yourself in their shoes, and wondering 'if I was this client, what information would I like to know about this recommended product?'

You won't always be asked to provide references. In fact, the times that you are not asked will probably outweigh the times you are asked about 99 to 1. Regardless of how often though, you should always be prepared to cite netural sources, and by that I mean if you're recommending a search engine to a client, citing a report from searchenginedigest.com is good, citing a report from googlesucks.com is not.

So to wrap things up, you are going to be trusted to make a recommendation to someone sooner or later. You can do the irresponsible thing and recommend something on gut instinct, or you can do the responsible thing and do your homework; find out which of your options is the best not because of loyalty, but because of respect for your clients.

Justin Smith
nexxai@gmail.com