If you are a user of technology (and since you are reading Tech Talk, you are) you will at some time need the services of the IT Help Desk. Here are some helpful things to remember when contacting your friendly neighborhood Help Desk Analyst:
It’s not necessary to apologize for contacting us.
Your need to contact us is the reason we are here. You are not bothering, disturbing or interrupting our day. Our work largely consists of one “interruption” after another. While it’s true when we are not actively interacting with a customer we may be working on other projects, responding to your needs is our number one priority.
State your issue clearly and be prepared to answer questions.
In most cases, we will not know how to help you until we fully understand the problem you’re experiencing. We may ask a series of questions to help understand and resolve it. Please listen to our questions and answer as fully as possible.
Don’t assume that we are an expert with your hardware or software.
While we may have more knowledge of many hardware and software systems than you, it is unlikely for someone to be an expert on every application. We utilize websites, blogs, list serves, databases, and each other to research the problem you’re experiencing. While we try to arrive at an answer as quickly as possible, sometimes they require research. Unfortunately, research takes time. Please be patient.
We may ask you to perform a task that you have already tried.
It may seem that we don’t believe you and we may ask you to do things you’ve already tried. We are not robots following a program, but we have developed step-by-step methods over time that aid in resolving many issues. Sometimes performing Step 1 results in something that guides what needs to happen in Step 2. Please be patient as we work through our process to understand and resolve issues.
We are regular people and we genuinely want to help.
We are, as mentioned before, not robots (not yet anyway). Like you we have feelings, experience bad days, get frustrated, and are sometimes tired. Most of us try to rise above our personal circumstances to perform our jobs to the best of our ability. Our job is to help you resolve technical issues, answer questions and provide the best customer service possible.
Hopefully by taking some of these things into consideration, you can help us help you. After all, we’re all in this together.
Author: Todd Williams
Graphic Courtesy of Freepik