

Can I talk to that William fellow?  He was so helpful. - cabacon
http://blogs.msdn.com/oldnewthing/archive/2009/11/23/9927055.aspx

======
spudlyo
This story is mostly true, although it's not quite how I remember it. In 1989
I was a product support services intern working at Microsoft's Lincoln Plaza
campus. I worked for the 'System Languages' team, or SysLang as we called
ourselves. We supported Micorosft C 5.x, QuickC, and their Pascal product and
associated tools like the M editor and CodeView. One day (I don't remember if
it was November or not) Bill came through on a tour of PSS. I mentioned to
another intern, Nadine, that it would be cool if Bill took a call from a
customer. When he came by our area with a group of other management types she
bounded up to him with a huge smile on her face and asked if he'd like to see
how things worked for himself, and take a call from a customer. The people he
was with tried to dissuade him of this idea, saying something about schedules
and the like, but Bill liked the idea and wanted to do it. At the time, I was
a real clean freak, and my cube was very clean and devoid of clutter, so I
suggested he sit down at my desk. I explained to him how the Aspect phone
system worked and how to look up things in our STARS knowledge base using an
OS/2 terminal program connected to a DEC minicomputer. He got settled in, and
eventually took a call, greeting the customer like:

"Hello, Product Support Services, this is William, how may I help you?"

Just about everyone who wasn't currently on a call with a customer was
gathered around my cube listening. I seem to remember the customer having a
problem with the linker. Bill queried the knowledge base, which was normally
painfully slow, but this time it was snappy and responsive. The first result
looked like it might have addressed the customer's problem, and Bill went with
it. I of course only heard one side of the conversation, but it sounded like
the customer wasn't satisfied with the answer. Bill was firm yet polite,
reassuring the customer that we had seen this problem before and that his
solution was correct, and the customer eventually agreed to try the solution
mentioned in the STARS article. An hour or so later, my friend Tad got that
customer again, and he mentioned that William had helped him with his problem
earlier but his solution didn't work. Tad let the customer know that he had in
fact talked to Bill Gates, and helped him with his problem. I don't remember
how/if it got solved though.

That was quite a big day for me. For years I had saved the yellow pad that had
Bill's notes from the call.

~~~
ed
Only on HN...

~~~
spudlyo
I also posted my version of the story to the blog's comments. Man, hard to
believe that was 20 years ago. Hopefully some other SysLang veterans read HN
and will post something.

------
sunir
The best thing you can ever do for your company is to put every employee in
front of customers. One of the things that attracted me to FreshBooks was that
they rotate everyone through customer support continuously. As a (former)
developer who was tired of consistently building the wrong thing because sales
and marketing jealously guarded the customer, this was very refreshing.

This isn't a novel idea. Many companies with customer service orientations
have done this. If you're selling Software-as-a- _Service_ , that ought to
include you!

~~~
billswift
Not necessarily a good idea. I could probably handle it now without a problem,
but when I was 25 or 30 I would have quit first, and you should have your head
examined if you would have put me in that position back then. Given how many
high functioning autists tend toward techie type jobs, it may even block your
hiring good tech talent (it may even be an ADA violation).

------
nathanwdavis
What amazes me about this story is that back in '89 MS had a knowledge base
that worked so well that a person not trained for customer service was able to
provide the help needed just by looking in the knowledge base. Many companies
still don't have a system that good yet.

~~~
joezydeco
What was Microsoft's product line in 1989? MS/DOS, Word, Excel and Windows
2.0?

~~~
wglb
It also included compilers and, specifically to the problem the user called in
about, a linker. Compilers and linkers are no simple matter to support,
particularly in those days.

------
wallflower
Repost but if you have not yet read it:

My First BillG Review by Joel Spolsky

"He was flipping through the spec! [Calm down, what are you a little girl?]
... and THERE WERE NOTES IN ALL THE MARGINS. ON EVERY PAGE OF THE SPEC. HE HAD
READ THE WHOLE GODDAMNED THING AND WRITTEN NOTES IN THE MARGINS. He Read The
Whole Thing! [OMG SQUEEE!] The questions got harder and more detailed."

There is a nice little koan about technical management in that essay too: "he
just wants to make sure .."

<http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2006/06/16.html>

And another classic billg story (related by Jeff Raikes of Sales):

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=553965>

~~~
revorad
Another little BillG anecdote - [http://blogmaverick.com/2004/05/25/success-
and-motivation-p4...](http://blogmaverick.com/2004/05/25/success-and-
motivation-p4/)

~~~
wallflower
Thanks and a reminder that Dell always advertised on the back of PC Magazine
(way before they were big or even medium-sized).

------
rykov
Huge respect for CEOs that regularly visit the front lines. Apparently Bezos
swears by it.

[http://www.businessinsider.com/henry-blodget-jeff-bezos-
work...](http://www.businessinsider.com/henry-blodget-jeff-bezos-works-in-
kentucky-distribution-center-for-a-week-2009-3)

