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IT professionals are often faced with difficult end users in their IT jobs.  Even if these end users are less than easy to please and grateful, IT managers count on IT contractors to handle them with grace and top notch customer service.   IT headhunters also deeply value IT consultants who can tout their interpersonal skills, particularly in difficult situations.  How can you sail smoothly through difficult situations with end users?

Set expectations early.  If time is an issue for the user, be upfront about when they will be likely to receive service and a complete solution for their issue.

Maintain a calm, polite demeanor– no matter what.  Keeping your cool will help your end user also maintain a better attitude.  It will also help you to avoid becoming too submissive or domineering.  If you’re too submissive, you might invite abuse.  If you’re too domineering, you may aggravate the user or garner some very bad reviews about your service later.  Keeping your personal interaction unremarkable will make it easy for the end user to focus on the most important thing: the fact that you solve their issue.

Stay focused and only take information that is valuable from the end user.  Sometimes they can, in an attempt to be helpful, give half-baked theories, extra information, or start trying to make small talk.  As mentioned earlier, don’t be rude or dismissive.  Do attempt to keep your eyes on the prize, though and don’t get distracted by extraneous and incorrect information.  Your goal is to fix the end user’s issue, so filter out everything but the useful data to do that.