20 Years in Tech Support

Follow-through, follow-through, follow-through

2012-02-16T09:25:00.005-06:00

If you're working multiple cases or multiple tickets, it is very easy to allow yourself to let the less urgent tickets fall by the wayside. Sometimes you'll find some problems "fix themselves" - unfortunately sometimes that means the customer has just given up hope.

Make a point of trying to "touch" every open or pending ticket you have in your stack every day. Even if it's just to make certain you haven't missed something. You'll be surprised how many things you find you can solve.

The Shortest Tech Support Career Advice Ever

2012-02-14T09:19:00.000-06:00

All you need to develop a successful career in the IT and Tech Support industry is an interest in technology and the confidence to search out, record and retain the little details that make computers do what we want them to do.

You don't need certification, you don't need a degree. You just need to be confident in your ability to find information and harness it.

Further education: Codeacademy.com

2011-09-12T08:00:00.000-05:00

If you've been on the "Support" side of things for a while and want to start edging into the "coding" side of things, check out Codeacademy - It's a rather nifty "interactive tutorial" site that will get you nicely grounded in string-oriented coding with JavaScript. In keeping with the times, it also provides scores, badges, and other things to boast about on FaceBook and other social media sites.

I've been very "results oriented" in my coding experience - only soaking up as much knowledge as I need to get a specific task done for a specific project. This site has helped shore up the basic concepts of programming, which will make it easier for me to create my own projects.

Two thumbs up.

Tools: A (cloudy) place for your stuff

2011-09-07T08:00:00.000-05:00

If you haven't heard about DropBox yet, I'll be happy to tell you about it. DropBox is a free online "Cloud" storage service which provides its users with 2GB of free storage space, and can be accessed through the web or via an App for most operating systems (Windows, Mac, Unix, iOS, Android, etc). I've found this very useful for porting installer programs, data files, online manuals etc from place to place.

The 2 GB disk allocation is free - you can pay for up to 20 GB of online storage.

The other cool thing about it is - if you refer someone to DropBox, you can get a bit of extra storage for yourself. So.. if you're interested, feel free to click any of the links I've made in this post and sign up for some free storage space.

Scavenger Hunts

2011-09-05T08:00:00.001-05:00

Life is more manageable when approached as a scavenger hunt, rather than a suprise party.

- Jimmy Buffet

Technical Support is, by its nature, a reactive job - it's very hard to be proactive in an environment where your purpose for being there is to "fix things". In my experience, there are two ways to approach the situation:

a never ending series of emergencies which require immediate, adrenaline-laden flurries of frantic activity to fix whatever was broken (and try and prevent that from happening again); or
a series of interesting challenges which can be overcome with enough research, questioning, and learning (and can then be documented so you can recover gracefully

I leave it to you to decide which way leads to less stress and irritation at your customer base.

(and yes, we're back on line - your humble blogger got himself a new contract gig and has been, well, busy doing tech support - we'll get more info and useful tools out here shortly)

The new gig: Hitting the ground running

2011-06-29T08:00:00.001-05:00

Starting a new job means getting an idea of what the work environment will be. While some companies take the time to provide an orientation period, in many cases once you're in, you're moving. If you have the time to do so (say, the weekend before you begin your new job), try the following:

Spend some time getting familiar with the area around your new place of work: This will give you an idea of the environment, possible places to go for lunch, where to go when you're almost out of gas, and other useful bits of data.

Spend an hour or so checking your favorite online map site for alternate routes to and from your new gig - where do you go if the freeway is at a standstill? Can you get from here to there on surface streets alone?

Get an idea of the size of the company. A company with 120 employees "supports" differently than a larger, more spread out company. The kind of support you provide (ie: sterling) should not change, but the manner in which you provide that support might be different. Do they have a system in place to log requests or is it a more informal "can you help me with this?" environment?

Learn the location of the restrooms, fire exits, break rooms and vending machines. This information will help keep you sane when it's time to get up and walk away for a moment.

Read over any information your company provides in regard to internet usage. This is a big one especially as some companies are beginning to crack down on the use of streaming media sources like YouTube and Pandora. Find out what's OK and not OK to do at work before you try learning the hard way.

Learn people's names as quickly as you can. Start with your immediate supervisor and coworkers, then work your way out from there to the other teams and support people. Always learn the names of the admins, secretaries and receptionists. They're the ones who really run things.

The more you know about where you're working, the easier it will be to work there!

Seek Free Knowledge

2011-06-22T08:00:00.003-05:00

There are always a few - a few - moments of relative quiet in the day of a tech support rep. If you have access to the internet, why not use it to track down additional information you can put to use?

Try running a search for free (your area of interest here) tutorial - most of the results you will encounter will provide at least a basic education in the field, programming language or program you're interested in, which can justify your adding it to your skills and experiences list mentioned in Monday's post... which can lead to improving your options and opportunities moving forward.

On top of all that - it's free knowledge, which is always a good thing.

Update! Update! Update!

2011-06-20T08:00:00.004-05:00

This holds true for most jobs, but especially in the area of IT and Tech Support: When you learn a new skill, get it on your resume as soon as possible. Partially because it follows the Write Everything Down rule, and partially because you can use your resume to remind yourself about your skills and experiences when it comes time to think about your next assignment, job, or career choice.

It also doesn't hurt to have an updated resume just in case someone points out an opportunity, of course...

Carry Your Knowledge

2011-06-15T10:00:00.000-05:00

RTFM - Read the (freaking) Manual. It's an old phrase, and one which has a lot of truth in it. Most of the issues a customer will encounter are documented somewhere.

If you have the resources, consider picking up "portable" versions of the manuals you reference most often - versions which will fit on a smart phone, in a cloud storage service such as DropBox, your personal laptop, netbook or tablet.

Electronic formats are generally searchable, notate-able, and far easier to carry around than the telephone-book sized "dead tree" versions.

Starting Out: The Contract Gig

2011-06-13T13:56:00.000-05:00

It can be challenging to get into the Tech Support industry - although there are plenty of postings for job openings, there are also plenty of applicants for those openings.

One alternate way to get experience in Tech Support is to work short term "contract" assignments. Many companies need IT personnel for their internal "Help Desk" or Technical Support for their customers on a temporary basis. Even more companies use contract employees to fill the need for more bodies on a seasonal basis, or to "try out" new employees before committing to full-time employment.

If you're starting out as a tech, do a few searches for "technical staffing" on the search engine of your choice. The odds are good you will find at least two agencies in your area who provide temporary employment (also known as "contract"). Call, email and make appointments with the understanding that you're just starting out.

If you're an experienced tech and currently "between jobs", a contract agency can help you fill the gaps between full time employment. Some techs simply go from contract gig to contract gig, as it allows them flexibility and the ability to decide when and where they work.

Working with agencies can make job-hunting easier: the agencies are paid by the companies who are looking for help, so they're motivated to help you get work!

Winning in Tech Support

2011-06-01T10:00:00.000-05:00

It's hard to remember that when you're dealing with a caller, you're dealing with a person who has a result he or she is trying to achieve and is being frustrated by some part of the product you're supporting. It helps if you can put yourself, even slightly, in that customer's place - most people do not muck about with technology for the entertainment value (with the exception of, say, game consoles) but rather use technology as a tool to achieve a specific goal.

"Winning" for the customer is being able to achieve that goal. "Winning" for the tech should be helping the customer to "win'.

(Why should Charlie Sheen have all the "Winning" around here?)

Steam

2011-05-25T08:00:00.000-05:00

We all get bad calls. Every so often, a call will come along which will just does not go well for all parties concerned.

When that happens, and it will, take a few minutes. Get out of the queue, get up, take five minutes or however many you can manage. Remember that the call wasn't about you as a person regardless of what the customer said - the call was about the customer being frustrated that he could not do what he wanted to do.

Even though some customers get angry and even abusive at you on the phone, you are not the target.

Not my job

2011-05-23T08:00:00.000-05:00

The three words which will kill your customer's experience faster than anything else are these: "not my job".

Customers call into Tech Support because they have a problem with something - something they may not understand at all other than knowing that it's on their computer. Sometimes that something might not be with the product you're being paid to support.

Be willing to take 30 seconds, do a quick web search, and at the very least aim the customer in the right direction for assistance. Tell your customer"I haven't been trained to support that, but here's what I found that might get you what you need..."

... You can help even when you don't know the solution.

Seek out new resources

2011-04-06T10:00:00.000-05:00

One of the easiest ways to avoid work is to be certain that whatever the problem is, it isn't the area you're working in.

Granted this allows you to get off the call or reroute the email message, but it doesn't benefit you to just foist the case off and be done with it.

If and when you can, seek out and make note of resources which might be useful when a issue is Not My Department. If you can clarify whose department it is, or direct a customer to a product that might be able to fulfill his needs when your product cannot, that will improve your support chops and the customer's experience at the same time.

Follow Through on your Follow Through

2011-03-28T10:00:00.000-05:00

Although most calls that come in on a tech support line are "one and done", there are going to be times where you need to check on something and get back to your customer. In this case, "Follow through" is key.

Let your customer know roughly how long it will take for you to get back to them
Make sure you and your customer agree on the manner in which you will contact them (email, phone, IM, etc)
If you don't have a solution by the deadline, at least let the customer know you're still working on it
If you come up with an answer ahead of schedule, let them know ahead of schedule! There are very few circumstances in which a customer will be upset that you have gotten back to them with good news ahead of the agreed up on time

Be Pleased With Your Ignorance

2011-03-23T10:00:00.000-05:00

For a Tech Support rep, not knowing something is akin to admitting defeat. After all, the job entails knowing more than your customers know.

However, finding out that you don't know something is an opportunity to remind yourself that you don't know everything - it's an opportunity to learn something new, write it down and stockpile that information for yourself and your coworkers.

Be happy when you find out you don't know something - it means you're still learning.

Time and Knowledge

2011-03-21T10:00:00.000-05:00

When is the best time to make sure new information is noted somewhere you can find it again?

As soon as you recognize it as being new information.

"One-off" information may not be needed on a regular bases, which makes it even more important that it be recorded. Information you wind up using on a day to day basis will be reinforced through repeated use. As usual, it's the "edge cases", the things that only occur once in a long while, which make Writing Everything Down vital.

Coaching vs. Criticism

2011-03-16T10:00:00.000-05:00

In the course of your job, you will make mistakes. When mistakes happen, managers communicate thes "opportunities for growth" in the form of coaching notes.

Don't take them personally. A coaching note is intended to point out information which you may have missed, or a technique to resolve an issue which you may have been unaware of. Take that information as information rather than as an attack. (Remember, managers want you to succeed.)

Don't be afraid to point out areas where you made a mistake which you learned from before it's pointed it out to you. Learning without being prompted to learn looks good to a manager.

Brake for safety

2011-03-14T10:59:00.000-05:00

In a high volume environment, it can be easy to forget that not only are you supposed to take regular breaks in the call and ticket flow, but that, in fact, it's legally mandated.

Take advantage of scheduled "down time" to get up and away from the screen - and not just to check your own email. Take a walk, talk to people, go outside and remind yourself that there is a world out there.

Widen Your Scope

2011-03-09T10:00:00.000-06:00

It's very easy to get used to dealing with a very finite set of subjects during the course of your day. You can end up knowing everything about a few things and very little about others.

Take some time to broaden your scope - even if you only spend a few minutes surfing on a subject that's tangential to what you do, but interesting enough that you continue to look for more information on it. That might even lead to widening your scope farther.

It also helps to remind us that no, we don't Know Everything. And that can keep you out of Competency Level 4, which will make working with people who don't know about your particular area of expertise easier.

Not Knowing is OK

2011-03-07T10:00:00.000-06:00

Part of knowing your job is knowing what things you know and knowing what things you do not know. Although many techs would rather lose a limb than admit they don't know something.

Customers actually appreciate it if you let them know that you've hit a point where you need to get more information from other sources. (It lets them know you're human!) Set the customer's expectation, do some research, and then them know what you've found out. Even if you have to tell a customer that you still aren't sure what's going on and are still researching, they appreciate that you are willing to say "I'm not certain, but I'll find out."

Above and Beyond? (The worst they can say is...)

2011-03-02T10:00:00.000-06:00

Some Tech Support reps are nervous about asking whether something is possible when the request appears to be beyond the generally assumed scope of their company's support.

It's hard to think about going "above and beyond" when a product or service is new to you , but once you have some experience with what you're supporting, don't be afraid to look beyond the scope of what you've been trained for and consider offering support that goes "Above and Beyond"... provided you know how far you personally are capable of going.

One other thing to consider: If you're going to go "above and beyond", make certain you document what you've done and what you've offered in considerable detail and set the customer's understanding that what you're doing is a little farther than some would give...

Going Off Script

2011-02-28T20:19:00.000-06:00

In some Tech Support jobs, a "script" may be provided for techs to use in communicating with customers on specific topics. Anyone who has ever received a telephone solicitation call has heard someone reading off a script and, it's likely that it wasn't a pleasant experience.

When you're working from a script, treat it as an outline rather than verbatim - take the information or steps and state them in your own words, with your own cadence. Talk to the customer rather than talking through the script, and you'll find the call goes better.

Phones vs. Email

2011-02-23T10:00:00.000-06:00

Tech Support takes multiple forms these days - it used to be that the only way to get assistance was by calling a phone number, waiting on hold, and then talking to someone.

Now you have telephone support, and then support via email, instant messaging, chat, even social media outlets like Twitter.

While Tech Support will always be, at its root, the art of helping someone use something they don't fully understand, there are some differences between email and telephone support.

Email (or chat, message board, instant messenger, IRC channel) support has the advantage of an unspoken, but generally understood time delay. You don't have to maintain a continuous dialog with the customer, and that can give you the chance to review what you want to say, polish it, edit and then send the email, post the message, send the IM. The disadvantage is that you are communicating entirely in text - you do not have the advantage of communicating through pitch, tone and timing that speaking with someone on the telephone permits.

Telephone support is the most "immediate" form of support - the clock is running from the moment you answer the call. You need to be able to think on your feet, and if you need to put the customer on hold you need to set that customer's expectations as clearly as possible. On the other hand, you can make a more direct connection on a social level through how you say what you say - it adds another level of communication beyond conveying information.

Most techs have a preference - phone or email. It's a good idea to build your skills in both media, that way you won't have issues no matter which media you work in.

What is "World Class Support"?

2011-02-21T10:00:00.000-06:00

The phrase "World Class Support" gets bandied around a lot among Tech Support managers. The problems is, no one defines the phrase. What does it mean?

The surprising truth is, "World Class Support" simply means doing more than what customers have come to expect from technical support.

Talk to your customers like they're people, not problems
Listen to your customers - even when what they're saying may not be 100% focused on the technical aspects of the problem they're encountering
Set expectations realistically - and be sympathetic when your customers want things done faster
This particular bit falls into the category of "Under promise and Over provide" - if you can do so honestly, let your customer know that the time line you're giving them is the official line, but things tend to get done faster.
Be Honest - Sometimes the answer is no. This can be an "Unfortuantely no." It helps if you can suggest alternatives.
Be willing to take the time to end the call with the customer happy. If that's not possible, try and end the call with the customer less unhappy than they were when the call started.

Just keeping these things in mind can result in providing, yes, "World Class Support."