Ah, the "stuffed bear" approach. The tech support at the computing center of some US University (forgot which) had a stuffed bear. When a student came with a problem, the student had to explain it to the stuffed bear first. Only if that didn't help, the tech support people would hear the student.
It worked amazingly well, because trying to explain your problem to someone makes you understand it better and often find a solution. So the students often had their problem solved without having to bother a human - only by talking to the stuffed bear.
