When you’re running a business, having to deal with people who are scared of technology can make your life very challenging. They may not understand how to deal with the resources which you give them, struggling to open files or go to the right places when you have something for them to do. Of course, over time, the amount of people like this in your field will get lower and lower, as younger users tend to have an easier time in this area. For now, though, you need to find some ways to connect with the technophobic, and this post is here to show you how to achieve this goal through the most unlikely of means.
Keeping It Easy: While the people you work with will be very smart and good at their jobs, being thrown into a complex piece of technology may not work quite so well with their brain. When you’re dealing with someone like this, you need to make sure that everything is as simple as possible. Buttons needs to be easy to find, prompts have to be written in simple English, and the whole system should be based on intuition, rather than forcing them to learn.
The Right Platforms: There are a lot of platforms out there which make this sort of work possible, and you should always be working towards using the simplest for your client. This will often be the option which they’ve been using the longest, forcing you to look for services around the web which can replicate these old methods, all while keeping your side of the work completely online.
Accessibility: Making something like this accessible is very important to a lot of people. File formats, download locations, and all of the other aspects of this need to be easy for your clients and partners to get to, even if they hate computers. One of the best ways to achieve this is through the power of video. Not only does a format like this enable you to talk directly to people, but it also makes it easy for them to see what is going on, and this will make things far less daunting for them.
Getting Feedback: This is something which you will have to adapt over time, working hard to make sure that you’re always pushing in the right direction with your digital work. As a big part of this, collecting feedback from those using your new systems will be a great way to make sure that you’re going down the right route. Of course, this will also make the people you work with feel as though you care about their opinions.
Offering Options: Knowing what to offer someone when you first start working with them can be a real challenge. You won’t know what they struggle with or find easy, and this can create a big challenge when connecting with them. To get around this, offering a range of different options in the beginning will be a great idea. For example, giving them the choice between paper or digital documents will be enough to cater to everyone’s needs. As time goes on, you can learn what works best of the people surrounding your business.
Methods They Know: One of the hardest things about technology for a lot of people is the rate at which it changes. Just as you get used to something, it will adapt into something else, and this leaves loads of people chasing after simple knowledge which they shouldn’t have to keep relearning. To avoid this, tools like fax over VoIP can give the user you’re working with the same experience that they’ve had time and time again, making it far easier for them to accept your documents. Of course, this is something which will take some research.
Make Some Tutorials: While a lot of people will struggle to find what they need on their own when using a computer, having a little bit of help in the form of a tutorial can make things far simpler. If you decide to write something like this, you need to be careful to detail each stage exactly how it comes. When a button is in the bottom right of the screen, for example, you need to let them know where it is, even if it has a label on it. This will ensure that they are always going to the right options when you’re helping them.
Use Smart Formats: Some formats are far better than others when it comes to making life easy for your clients and partners. Video, for instance, is one of the best ways to convey information in a way which is impossible to get confused about. Of course, it will take some work to produce something like this, but basic screen recording tools can be found for free, and a clip like this won’t have to have any editing done to it if you’re able to be concise in on shot. A lot of people ignore options like this when they’re trying to connect with the technophobic.
Stay Consistent: As mentioned above, change is one of the key factors which makes tech hard for a lot of people. When you’re changing the tools you use on a regular basis, it will be impossible for someone who isn’t tech-savvy to keep up, and this will make your communications confusing. Keeping consistent is a simple matter of using the right tools at the right time, without changing your methods without having a good reason to do it. If you’re able to do this for a couple of years, people will get very used to working with you.
Assess Their Needs: Keeping the needs of your customers in mind is incredibly important throughout this entire process. You could have someone working with you who finds it impossible to use a computer, and needs to have documents sent in the post. Or, in another case, you could have someone who is find with computers, but can only use one or two pieces of software. Dealing with this can be a challenge, but it will be easy to control if you focus on the type of customers which you have.
Find Inspiration: Even when you’re new to the world of business, you will probably have companies in mind which you want to reflect in the future. When you have things to aspire to, it will be far easier to achieve your goals, and this makes it worth looking for role models which have long been serving their customers using methods like the ones in this post. Some businesses will even be happy to offer some advice when you’re going down this route. While this sort of work is competitive, people still like to help each other out.
Constant Improvement: There will always be ways in which you can improve this sort of work. Whether you have access to services which can make things easier, or you have found a better way to teach those working with you, it will always be worth thinking about improving your connections with the technophobic. While tech is essential to a lot of businesses, people are also very important. You can’t change the way you deal with something digital to give it an easier time, though, and this is something which is easy with a person.
With all of this in mind, you should have a far easier time of communicating with people who don’t understand technology. This field can be very complicated, and this makes it daunting for those who don’t have the experience to know what’s going on. Of course, though, you have the power to take away this stress. Instead of giving people tasks which they simply can’t handle, you can work towards building a series of systems which take away this pressure, ensuring that you never leave someone in a position which makes them feel bad.
