Strange user complaints and how to respond to them.

[Wayner]

HI all of the people banging there head against the wall.

I am sure I am not the only one that has this problem but I am looking creative ways to respond to end users that send in reports with no way to troubleshoot it

I have many retail sites across Canada. I get a email from a location that the wireless is bad. That is the entire complaint. after i do a lot of digging and chasing people I find out that 1 website they use is slow but everything else is good. this issue is not the internal network. the other one I get is the wireless was slow last Monday or Tuesday can you look into why.

I don't even know how to respond to this without getting into trouble

[kYutobi]

If they say the wireless is slow Meraki has a bunch of tools for testing the wireless. Things like Wireless Health, RF, and you can even check a client's signal to see if there are any issues. Also you can run speed tests to prove it's not the wifi speed. 

[cmr]

This is totally normal, all we always respond with is something like. 

Following a compliant that the wireless was slow at site x, we checked the configuration and monitored the performance.  After extended investigation, it turned out that it was actually one public website that was slow and all other sites were performing as expected. 

In order to facilitate a faster resolution to any future issues please include as much detail as possible i.e. Website a is slow to respond from device b at time c from location d

[SJones]

Do you have any kind of ticketing system?  A template that leads them through the what / when / who / where questions you normally have to follow up with could be helpful.

If not, try to find a couple 'champions' at each location and get them to be your technical point of contact there if possible.  These are normally people that are at least a little tech savvy and understand that you don't take your car to the mechanic and only tell them "It makes a 'whomp whomp whomp' sound"

It can take awhile.  There's a certain type of person that likes to just throw problems over the wall.  If you can explain that a little more information will help you both and get it resolved a little faster, they're usually on board with that.  If not, you can always give them a log to fill out for you - day/time, device, and what they were trying to do.  Tell them once they have 5 or 6 entries in the log to send it to you.

[merakichamp]

i totally share the same thoughts with @SJones @cmr and @kYutobi  that meraki has comprehensive tools to troubleshoot the wireless issues and again you need to get comprehensive information of what is happening is it a recurring issue ,check the wider scope of the public internate drill it down to the client who are using now your  meraki network.

[QLSteve]

Like most we see the same things...network is slow can mean so many things.  We use the monitoring and post the results in the ticket but another thing is use iperf3 to get direct throughput results if they are attempting to reach an internal service/app.

[randhall]

I'm sure everyone shares  your frustration. WE know that it's probably not a wireless problem but the user generally doesn't understand everything else that goes on.

My two standard diagnostic questions in cases like this are:

How did you come to that conclusion? (Give them the benefit of the doubt that they've actually taken some evidence, processed it, and made a conclusion. It's a more graceful way to say, "Um, some details would be nice.")

What do you mean by <word or phrase used by client>? (Again, eliciting more details and clearing up differences in vocabulary..."I speak boy. You speak girl.:)

[QLSteve]

I am definitely going to use that graphic!  But great points on drawing out info from the person.  Gets them involved/thinking about whats going on, not just blame 'the network'. 

Very helpful!

[Wayner]

Sorry I guess I was not clear in my question

I was not looking for troubleshooting advice but end user management. how to tell them nicely that they are idiots

[RussR]

can you approach the branch manager? or your boss?

just need to get someone to give them a demonstration, and I'm sure there's someone higher up who can help