Introducing “From the Trenches” – The Flip Side of The Help Desk

“Hello World” from other side of the IT help desk fence!  My name is Liz, and I’m a computer technician that works in the Network Operations Center at Custom Computer Specialists.   I have about ten years of experience with IT – that’s a lot of computer restarts! I also write tech news and reviews with Julie and the team over at the-gadgeteer.com (If you’d like to know more about me, visit the “contributors” section!). We’d like to introduce a new series called “From the Trenches”, where computer technicians such as myself give you our experiences, tips, and tricks from the customer service side of things.In my personal experience, the number one thing that a technician/helpdesk analyst needs to focus on is customer service.  Good customer service will always win, even if you don’t know the answer to the user’s problem at that moment.  A smile and a deliverance of understanding  the customer’s frustration goes a long way when speaking to them in person or on the phone.  It makes a frustrated user a little bit more at ease.

I’ve had many experiences where the customer was at their wit’s end, and I was sent in to speak to them and figure out what their issue was, listen to what they need, and either deliver a resolution, or escalate the issue to someone who knows the resolution.   A good technician will inquire, search, and try to re-create the issue that the end user is having. ‘

Quite often, when a technician sits down and finds out what steps the customer is doing, they get a clear understanding of what is going on.  I can’t begin to tell you how many times I’ve discovered that the customer doesn’t describe the problem correctly, and the fix is much simpler than you think!  (“Have you tried turning it off and on again?” – Roy, IT crowd)   This job and the experience of dealing with end users definitely teaches one patience and understanding and the importance of taking a logical, step by step approach to the analysis of a problem.

Stay tuned for more articles “from the trenches”!