If you’ve ever had a phone call from a grandparent in a retirement community asking you how to login to their email or fix something on their phone or tablet, then you know how challenging it can be to try to give someone of an older generation on how to deal with a tech issue. Luckily, with a little forethought and patience, you and your elderly loved one will find it a lot easier to make these fixes and get them back on track with their chosen tech.

To help you see how this can be done, here are three tips for offering tech support to someone of an older generation.

Start With Something Simple

To help your elderly loved one when they are having tech issues, it’s going to be best if they have tech that you’re already familiar with. So if you have any sway with them when it comes to picking what phone, tablet, smartwatch, or computer they buy, try to encourage them to choose something that you know well and can help them with if and when they run into issues.

Once they have their device ready to set up, you should help them make personalization choices that will be simple for them to use effectively. By doing this, you’ll hopefully reduce the number of times that they’ll need help in the first place by empowering them to handle simple things on their own. 

Write Down The Right Directions

For times when a common issue comes up or they have a more complicated task that they’re wanting to do on a semi-regular basis, something that you can try is writing down the directions that they’ll need to follow each time.

Start with a step that you know they can do on their own or navigate to without issue. Then, go through the step-by-step procedure of what to do next so that they can get the end result they’re looking for. This will keep them from feeling like they’re bothering you every time they run into this issue. 

Teach Them To Use AI Digital Assistants

Something that can be incredibly helpful to many people of older generations is to use AI digital assistants to help them throughout the day.

To show them how to use this, make sure they have a digital assistant that they can easily talk to and use to complete their most common tasks. This can help them with all kinds of things in their daily life, from keeping track of appointments or making calls and sending texts that they don’t want to bother using their phone for. 

If you want to be better at offering support to your elderly loved one when they have a tech issue, consider using the tips mentioned above to help you in doing this.