Women More Likely to Call Tech Support, Survey Shows
The survey of 75,000 calls received between September 25th and October 23rd reveals that 64-percent of male callers had not read the manual prior to placing their SOS phone calls, compared to just 24-percent of women who had bothered to put up instructions before dialing out. Furthermore, 12-percent of male and 7-percent of females just had to plug in the device in question to solve their problems. The majority of the questions revolved around syncing devices up with each other, as well as newly released and unfamiliar gadgets.
It's hard to really extrapolate too far beyond the scope of these results -- the average caller was 35 years old, and Gadget Helpline is actually a subscription service, requiring a monthly payment of $3 from users. Demographic specificity aside, the entire question may just be a close relative of the age old "ask for directions" gender dichotomy. Men like to figure things out for themselves, just like they like finding their own way on the highway, without the assistance of an instruction manual or third-party directions. Makes sense, right?
But, you could easily look at it another way, and argue that reading an instruction manual is more akin to reading a road map, and that calling any help service at all is more similar to pulling over and asking for directions. In this light, then, it would've been interesting to know the gender breakdown of the entire customer sample. If there is a marked discrepancy, with more female callers than male, that would reinforce the old roadway stereotype. But what if the male percentage of total callers was in fact higher? Does this mean that guys in fact do ask for directions, counter to cultural norms (just not in front of people)? And that a majority of those who ask for directions never even bothered to actually read the "road map?"
Our head hurts. [From: BBC via BoingBoing]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Gipionocheiyort said 1:02PM on 11-10-2009
That title has nothing to do with the article...how does them reading the manual before calling tech support equate with them being more likely to call tech support?
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