"If they are not providing high-quality service in delivering on the needs of the service recipients, then they are failing at their job," she said.

Seeing the relationship from the other person's perspective can also help. The following are suggestions from end users on how IT can better meet their needs and wants.

Gary Babcock, president and CEO of Mississauga, Ont.-based medical office automation software developer HTN Inc., likens IT managers to physicians. "Your bedside manner has just as much importance as your capability in treating a disease," he said. End users want to know what happened, how to prepare to fix it and what they can do to avoid it in the future, he explained.

If IT doesn't have the time to teach users how to do it, "at least they can make you feel you understand what is wrong with your computer and a lot of them don't do that. They just want to fix your problem and get out of there. That's not good bedside manners," said Babcock.