« Tips for dealing with angry customers | Main | Tech competencies: what do we need to know to do our jobs (well)? »
July 09, 2007
5 Ways to Get Good Tech Support
As someone who has both given and received copious amounts of tech support, I thought I could offer a few pointers on what works and what doesn't. If you have anything to add, please leave a comment!
- Don't be afraid or sheepish to ask for help. If I got a nickel for every time someone came to me asking for help saying "This is a stupid question," or "I'm sorry to ask you this, but...", well, I'd be rather wealthy. This is what the tech support people are there for! It's their job. You can certainly be nice to them, but don't be afraid to straight-out ask for help.
- Ask for help right away. Instead of plugging away for hours to try to figure out a problem, go ahead and tap their expertise early. The earlier you get to them, the less frustrated you will be and the more likely that you will have a pleasant interaction.
- Explain what you are trying to do when something went wrong and then what happened--exactly. Please don't give the whole story about where you are trying to go with your project and why you are trying to do what you're doing, and why you hate this particular program... If you can list the exact steps that took you to the problem point and then what happened, including any error messages you saw and screenshots, that will help the tech support person help you.
- Keep your goal in mind. Remember your goal is to get good tech support and to get your problem solved. So many tech support people get burned out. They're dealing with problems all day, never anything nice or a "wow this works great!" Remember that the tech support people are not the ones who built the product that is annoying you; they are the ones who are trying to help you. They want to help you. Remembering that, it will serve you well to say thank you when the solution is solved, and to be pleasant to the person during the interaction.
- Don't turn your emergency into someone else's. This goes out beyond tech report, but it also applies here. When we find ourselves in an emergency, or we left something to the last minute, we become crazed. As a result, we infect others around us with our craziness. If you infect tech support with your panic, you will not only get worse service, you will probably become "that guy" -- the person that the tech support people avoid in every possible way. You don't want to be "that guy," so calm down, get the help you need, and continue solving your emergency.
July 9, 2007 | Permalink
TrackBack
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d8341c511253ef00e55052166f8833
Listed below are links to weblogs that reference 5 Ways to Get Good Tech Support:
Comments
Nice stuff... tough to keep track of all that is happening. I end up reading 100 odd blogs daily. Plus there is news. You could also enrich your blog by adding current news on your blog... try out the news widget from widgetmate.com
Posted by: Mike Artherton | July17, 2007
Hi! Thanks for writing this post. As a former employee of a software company (and a librarian), I couldn't agree more with point #1. I loved to hear from our customers. I worried a lot about the silent ones-- were they getting assistance from some other source or were they frustrated and talking about the company angrily behind our backs? Believe it or not, most tech support folks want to help you solve your problem. No one wants to hear that the software stinks and the employees don't help-- especially when we have no idea that you are having trouble.
I would also add that while it is good to ask for help right away (#2), initiative on your part doesn't go unnoticed. It's nice when you've read the manual, checked the FAQ, and checked with a colleague before calling me. This allowed me to instantly eliminate many of the standard troubleshooting tests I'd have to walk you through (and keep our time on the phone to a minimum.)
Posted by: Leslie | July11, 2007
Help Is Not a Four-Letter Word
Help desks are absolutely necessary in today's world and you are so insightful to realize that it's difficult to ask for help.
In my new book Help Is Not a Four-Letter Word: Why Doing It All Is Doing You In, published by McGraw Hill, I point out that it's considered a weakness in our culture to ask for help so here are some tips for you to make it easier to break through those barriers others have about asking:
1. Let them know this is a whole new ballgame - we can't learn to be all things and know it all -maybe that's the universes' way of forcing us to depend on each other!
2. Estabish a company endorsed time limit for calling to ask when they absolutely can't figure it out. 45 minutes? An hour? If you start to change your company culture that says asking for help is good, you'll start to change the way people act as well!
3. Know that many feel they've failed when they call and this comes from years of doing everything themselves so they won't make a mistake and will always be in control. If you can understand this in our culture, you'll go a long way toward being the best at what you do - which is actually teaching employees a new way of living.
4. If you can go to someone who has asked you for help and ask them for something else. you'll begin to create that interdependent culture we all yearn for.
I hope you'll go to Amazon and grab a copy of my book to "lend" to those who are having severe problems getting over this hurdle of asking for help. You'll not only be the "tech-hero", you'll change humanity in a most meaningful way!
Peggy Collins
Author of Help Is Not a Four-Letter Word: SWhy Doing It All Is Doing You In
www.helpisnotafourletterword.com
pjcollins @earthlink.net
Posted by: Peggy Collins | July10, 2007
Having worked in an undergraduate admissions office for four years, I can safely say that all of the above tips will help when you need to ask for help during the admissions process.
Generally speaking, insert "the admissions staff did not set the admissions requirements" for "the tech support people are not the ones who built the product that is annoying you; they are the ones who are trying to help you," and it's right on the nose. :)
Posted by: Informationatrix | July 9, 2007
As someone who works at an IT helpdesk, I would highly suggest that you don't use baby talk to describe your problem. Example: "Me computer no worky" is not the way to start a conversation.
Posted by: t | July 9, 2007
Under #4 ... Always have a stash of good chocolate bars handy. Tech support economy runs on chocolate.
Been there. :)
Posted by: Tanuki | July 9, 2007
I would just like to add to your list, don't say "I don't know what's wrong" or "I don't know what the problem is". Yeah, I assume you don't know what's wrong or you wouldn't be asking for my help. If you knew what was wrong, you could fix it yourself.
Posted by: Julie | July 9, 2007
