Ken O’Brien asked:


IT Support! It seems to be one of those expressions that makes people froth at the mouth and send a shiver down their backs. It takes forever to connect and even when you do they seem content to say anything in order to get rid of people.

How much of this is really true? In fairness to the better known PC and laptop builders they do make an effort and in recent years have offered customers feedback opportunities in order to help improve their service. So how can you deal with or cope with IT support? Before looking at this there is one thing we need to remind ourselves of - Technology Breaks .

Ideally everything we use would work perfectly 100% of the time. The reality is that this is never going to be true. Things do break and technology can fail. In the same way that a customer has shown confidence in buying a PC, a PC builder shows confidence in their product by guaranteeing it for a period of time. Hence the reason companies offer warranties and technical support.

Even so the experience of technical support is not always good. Here are some guidelines that may help you survive it a little better.

Think of your own attitude

Our initial reaction to a problem can often be to blame whoever we get on the phone. The way technology companies set up their support only adds to this frustration. The merry-go-round of the telephone support may suit a business but is not designed to calm people. Often by the time we get to the support technician our patience has all but run out. If you have a phone that allows you to work hands-free take advantage of it and leave the phone down while it plays the background music. It will help conserve your patience. And remember the support person didn’t build your PC.

Expect language difficulties

We would all love to hear a voice and an accent that we understand perfectly. However in today’s outsourcing and globalized world this is not always going to happen. Assume that the person on the other end may not understand you. They could be anywhere in the world and much as you find them difficult to understand they may also have the same problem. Be patient with them. While their accent may be different it does not mean that they do not have the expertise.

Plan your call

Like any important call think of what you are going to say. Try to write down exactly what the problem is. Write it in detail if you can. When you do eventually get through this will help the technician to get to the root of it.

Trust the support

While it is true that some support is not as good as others don’t immediately assume that the support you will get will be all bad. Assume that the technician will know what they are talking about. For many simple problems this is the case.

It’s a shared problem

You are both trying to find an answer to your problem. By thinking of the problem as one you can share rather than something to blame someone for; you increase the possibility of a quicker solution.

Vocabulary

Learn some basic vocabulary about your problem, such as hard drive, monitor, desktop, program etc. . Even though tech support staff are usually trained or they are reading from a database of solutions so every specific term that you use can help give a clearer picture of the problem.

Technical support calls are not perfect and companies do not always help with the types of systems they use. Yet the call does not have to the nightmare that we imagine. We can mitigate that by remembering that it is a problem that both parties are trying to solve.

godre asked:


I have done technical support for both the government and private sector. I am so bored out of my mind, but I have no clue what to do next. Can anyone give me some advice as to which way to go after being in technical support? I want to be in a more challenging position, and one that has more responsibilities. I would greatly appreciate your feedback!

boomerd35 asked:


Sometimes, when I pull up my Yahoo fantasy football roster, the page will not load and says Page Unavailable.
1. Not typing. Clicking on link to my team in Fantasy Football League listing.
2. Not before game, been having this problem since draft day.

smileyshovie asked:


Can you give me some trial questions and answers about being a Junior Technical Support Engineer? I’m really nervous and don’t know what to expect.
Thanks in advance!

Barry Millman asked:


OVERVIEW

In your User Documentation, you direct your Reader to perform tasks with your product. If you don’t tell your Reader what to expect when performing those tasks, you will have a baffled Reader, resulting in dissatisfaction and expensive calls to technical support.

EXAMPLE: REVERSE OSMOSIS WATER FILTER

I bought and installed a Reverse Osmosis water filter. The instructions told me to fill, and then empty (the instructions foolishly used the term “dump,” which would have caused the destruction of the system) the tank.

The filter had a capacity of about 100 gallons per day. Thus I expected the initial fill (4.5 gallon tank) to take less than one hour. After about an hour the tank was still filling. Worried, I called the technical support. I was told that it takes about two hours for the tank to fill.

One line in the User Documentation would have eliminated that call: “The tank initially takes 2 hours to fill.” Not knowing what to expect I, and perhaps other Users, wasted the time and money to call the technical support line.

EXAMPLE: UPGRADING A ROUTER’S SOFTWARE

I had some problems with my Cable/DSL (Internet-Ethernet) router. The internal control panel made it easy to check for and download updates to the internal software. The system told me that it would take a few minutes to check for updates (good), but it did not tell me how long the update would take to perform once I downloaded the file.

Not telling the User what to expect in terms of time is a mistake. I started the update and after a few minutes of operation (was it working?) I canceled the process. I re-started it again, and decided to wait longer to see what happened. It took a few minutes longer, and successfully completed.

It would only take a simple phrase such as “the software update can take up to five minutes to complete” to reduce the User’s anxiety.

PROGRESS INDICATORS (as displayed in a windowing environment) are often useless. Some go beyond 100%, others are logarithmic: they move quickly in the early processing and wait, seemingly at the end, for a long time while processing is completing. Consider making progress indicators relate to the time of operation, not number of files.

Some progress/activity indicators have nothing to do with the program they are associated with. I have used virus checkers that have abnormally terminated, yet the activity indicator kept on moving. Make sure that progress/activity indicators do reflect activity of the associated program.

FILE DOWNLOADS DO IT

Telling the User what to expect is not a new concept. If you have ever downloaded files, the download site will often tell how long the file will take to download, based upon your Internet connection.

EXAMPLE: YOUR PRODUCT’S INDICATORS

While most examples of “telling the User what to expect” deals with the time needed to complete an activity, others can be related to the indicators and performance of the product.

I have a small smart battery charger that has a red light for each of the battery positions. Unfortunately, the operation of these lights is impossible to understand, and there is no description of how they work.

Here’s what happens. When you first insert the battery, the light illuminates. A short while later (the charging still has many hours to go), the light goes off. Sometime toward the end of the charging cycle the light may go on again.

This is clearly confusing to the User. The User’s expectation is that when the light goes out, the charging is completed. This would result in a lot of User frustration, as Users would try to use “charged” batteries that were not charged. The developers of the battery charger should explain the operation of these displays.

THE BOTTOM LINE

Tell the Users what to expect as they use your product. Often this information is the amount of time it will take for an operation to complete. For other products, you may have to tell the User what the indicators mean.

Don’t leave your document Readers confused or left to figure things out on their own. Doing so will reduce your Users’ comfort with your product, and increase your technical support costs.

Jose Allan Tan asked:


Brand loyalty is often dictated by the experience one gets from using a product or a service. These days with competition escalating, enterprises are spending greater resources on ensuring customers are satisfied with the products and services they have purchased. Satisfied customers will more likely be repeat customers.

One area of the enterprise that has gotten considerable attention lately is customer service and support (CS&S). Managers responsible for ensuring the CS&S operation meet pre-set standards of operations have their work cut out for them. In addition to ensuring that the staff is adequately trained and capable of delivering quality service to customers, they must be able to identify talent and keep them.

Enterprise Innovation recently spoke to Manish Sinha to discuss the operational challenges that a support service organization must face as part of day-to-day operations. Sinha is Managing Director for Microsoft’s Customer Support and Service organization. He carries the same burden and responsibilities as CS&S managers grappling with the challenges of ensuring customer satisfaction long after the software package has been installed and the Sales Rep has left the building.

The right skill sets for the right service

According to Sinha, there are three types of customer service and support delivered today — customer service, business process outsourcing, and technical support.

You call a customer hotline number and go through the motion of pressing a series of keys to get to what you want. This process usually takes two to three minutes, and in that time you expect to complete the transaction. We call this Customer Service and it is often associated with a call center operation. The skill sets required for an individual to be effective include good language skills, good communications skills, adherence to a vendor prescribed script, and people management skills.

Business Process Outsourcing is another service that lumps together backend processes such as payroll processing, document transcription, human resource and accounting. Unlike customer service, BPO services do not require communication skills. However, service providers are expected to have a greater understanding of the client’s business, and identify where exceptions are happening.

Technical Support service provision typically requires immediate remediation. The client has an immediate problem that needs to be resolved. Often the systems involved are very complex. The client has its own internal organization that would have to be diagnosed and resolved internally before calling on outside help.

By the time the technical support agent gets the call, a number of technically competent professionals would have tried to solve the problem. Technical support professionals (TSP) have depth of knowledge, are certified in specific areas of technology, have access to a database containing historical data that can be referenced to diagnose a problem, and are able to communicate to the client intelligently.

TSPs know how to ask the right questions or be able to guide the client so that they can piece the problem together. The best technical support professionals excel in diagnostics.

Diagnostic ability, said Sinha, is a rare trait and support organizations spend a considerable amount of resources to train their staff in diagnosis and problem solving. In many cases, product knowledge and communication skills are not enough. To be able to ask the right questions and in the right order are often important in coming up with correct diagnosis and problem solution.

Today, the number of technical support professionals is small relative to the demand. IDC estimates the worldwide demand for support services to reach $23 billion worldwide by 2009. What compounds the problem is the perception among TSPs that technical support is not a cool, fulfilling and profitable profession to be in. Many would rather go into software development or project management. Those who would take up the job of technical support specialists typically do so for a short period to get the necessary training, competence level, recognition and connection.

As a result, companies like Microsoft, Oracle and IBM are unable to hire, in the numbers required, the right technical support professionals. And even then, churn rate is very high for these professionals. The end result is that the quality of technical support delivered in the Asia Pacific region is not on par with the more developed markets — for now.

Sinha believes that educational institutions in the Asia Pacific must wake up to the requirements of industries. They need to develop curricula and teaching methodologies that reflect the needs of businesses, so that companies do not have to expend considerable resources to train graduates to adapt to the markets they enter.

Some universities in Australia are now requiring their students to undergo psychometric testing to determine their aptitude towards certain disciplines to guide students in their choice of profession. In most parts of Asia, career choices have not changed for many years. People chose their profession based on what is popular or what parents and friends are leaning towards. Careers are often chosen after graduation.

Technical support is evolving from merely solving problems based on visible symptoms or results to identifying the root cause or causes of a problem and determining the best course of action to take to solve the problem and to stop it from recurring in the future. This requires not ordinary field engineers but diagnosticians who take on root-cause analysis prior to making recommendations on the best course of action.

In the near future, enterprise customers will pay for this type of service geared towards identifying potential problems and offering steps to avoid or minimize their impact. CEOs will be more than happy to pay for this because it brings security, peace of mind, and an understanding that what you put in place today minimizes your risks in the future.

As governments and private businesses continually invest in IT infrastructure, enterprises are burdened with the task of retraining fresh graduates to develop specialist skills that would enable them to become product employees within the organization.

This should not be the case, said Sinha. It is incumbent upon the education system to revamp its curriculum and education model so that it reflects the true conditions of the market. In the area of technical support provision, the industry needs graduates who have the basic skills of the trade — to be analytical in mind and process.

This is the foundation of proficient technical support professionals. Fortunately, some universities in more developed markets are taking the first steps towards this model. Unfortunately, the pace of adoption is slow, and in many other countries, non-existent.

Andrew Karasev asked:


ERP and MRP systems support requires local office representation plus centralized brain in the form of Software Development Factory and technical support call center.  If your Great Plains implementation includes complex technical additions, such as customization, integration, data conversion, reports design, software developing and programming, then you should expect your Great Plains consultant and project manager to be locally available for visits onsite.  Technical consulting and programming could and probably should be handled to Software Development Factory, as you should not expect local expertise to be ultimate – local Great Plains programmers have to deal with whoever comes to order system data fixes and support local projects, where your industry not necessary to be covered

1.       Los Angeles Businesses support.  We support Hollywood entertainment industry, Port of Long Beach and Los Angeles related businesses with concentration in Bill of Lading, Agent Settlement Report, Logistics and Warehouse management

2.       Orange County CA support.  Implementation in Orange County requires good understanding of such business niches as Franchise (Taco Bell), entertainment (Walt Disney).  You should expect such Great Plains modules as Project Accounting, Sales Order Processing, Purchase Order Processing, Inventory Control implementation expertise

3.       San Diego and suburbs.  Here we are facing high demand in high tech and venture capital backed companies Great Plains Dynamics GP implementations, user software licenses sale and user training

4.       Connection with Mexico and Spanish language support.  If you need Maquiladora connection with Northern Mexico, we are happy to support you GP implementation in San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco in USA and Tijuana in Mexico

5.       Great Plains Integrations.  If you need EDI, legacy system integrating development and implementation, please feel free to call our 866 number to get your options

6.       California Great Plains Implementation.  If your business has Great Plains Dynamics GP technical challenges in Manufacturing and Bill of Materials, Services, Transportation and Logistics, Great Plains Dexterity customization recovery, we are the right people

Barry Millman asked:


Overview

Your product needs User Documentation (manuals, instructions, etc), but your small company (20 to 100 employees) has no in-house staff to create that documentation. This article describes how to select and enable your “non-writer” employees to create Great User Documentation. You NEED Great User Documents

Your Product needs Great User Documents (Instruction Manuals, User Guides, Reference Manuals, Instruction Sheets, etc. ):

. Undocumented features become expensive flaws . All products have shortcomings; Great User Documents help your Users around these problems . Providing information beyond the minimum helps reduce technical support costs

Your Users deserve Great User Documents:

. To eliminate jumps in the documentation that the User cannot follow . To understand what the product will do and how it performs . To provide tips and knowledge to provide the best possible User experience

Great User Documentation will reduce support costs, increase User satisfaction, and increase your profit (fewer returns and more positive recommendations).

But You Have No Writing Staff

Yes you do! If you can find employees who are between projects, or want to take on additional responsibilities and acquire new skills, then these can be your writing staff.

However, you may be considering hiring an outside freelance writer. Perhaps that is a good choice. However, let me list some benefits of using in-house non-writers over freelance writers:

. Experience with the company (culture, management, style, physical plant) . Knowledge of the product, market, users . They may know the members of the design and development teams . Already set up with resources in your company (desk, phone, access to information resources) . Will be a resource you can use to upgrade or create new documentation . Will effectively employ someone who is between projects

Selecting Who Will Write

Ask your staff if they would like to write the User Document for a particular product:

. If you have any volunteers, then these are the employees you should consider to become your writers. . If you do not have any volunteers, then you might have to resort to coercion. Perhaps explain the benefits of writing versus other less-attractive busywork (or even temporary layoffs). . If necessary, assign someone or a group to the writing task.

Convincing Your New Writers

. Tell them that you will provide support, training, and time to do the writing. Make sure that you keep your promises. . Tell them that writing skills would benefit their career (communication skills are usually a benefit) . Variety will make their work more interesting . You will try to make this as no-risk as possible . Tell them that the Great User Document that they produce will benefit the product and the company (and them).

If they have other objections to the writing assignment, evaluate their objections, and determine if you have a reasonable argument to overcome their objections. If not, perhaps you had better find someone else for the writing project.

You Can Enable Non-Writers to Write

Most of your employees who have made it through an education system, and have been hired by your company, can probably write. They may be fearful of writing. I believe that if they can think clearly and explain something verbally to someone sitting next to them, then they can write Great User Documents.

To just thrust a writing assignment on the non-writer is unfair and will prove to be unproductive. You need to support the new writer.

How to Support Your New Writers

Training

. They need a complete method for writing. They need guidance on how to start, what tools they should use, and a method for producing great User Documents. . They need an effective organization for the User Document. They need to know what to include in the User Document and how to structure the document . They need an easy way to write the first drafts and how to revise them . They need a way to feel comfortable performing the previously stressful task of writing. Most people remember an adversarial relationship between themselves as writer and their reader (usually a teacher or critic). . They do NOT need grammar lessons. Hire an editor, and if cost-conscious, hire one from a university. See the editing article in the on the site listed in the “Resources” or “About the Author” section of this article.

Support:

. Access to the development and marketing teams; . Use of the development team to evaluate their writing (small chunks); . Access to the product, literature, marketing materials.

Resources:

. Style manual; . Editor; . Time to do a good job

The resource links in the “Resources” or “About the Author” section of this article will help your new writer get going.

Beware of Technical Lures

If your new writers come from your technical areas, they may want to spend time learning writing technology. They do not need it!

My point is not to spend the time learning new tools that might not benefit your company’s situation. Let’s look at the two popular lures:

1. Fancy Writing Software

Very few professional technical writers would use a word processor to create a large User Document. However, in all likelihood you will NOT be creating a mammoth User Document. Most likely your User Document will be less than 40 pages. A modern word processor (such as Microsoft Word, WordPerfect or Lotus WordPro, all are trademarks) will easily do the task.

2. Content Management System (CMS)

I believe that the documentation industry has incorrectly focused itself on Content Management Systems (CMS’s). CMS’s are reasonable tools for large companies like Microsoft, IBM, and Toyota who have huge numbers of documents. For smaller companies (like yours), CMS’s are a diversion from the real task, which is “how to produce the User Documentation that your product needs and your Users deserve.”

Aha! Your new writer might say that by writing in XML or by using a CMS he/she will be able to create the text in one format and easily produce that text in HTML, printed form, or as a PDF (Portable Document Format, used by the Adobe Reader). This is not a valid argument for your situation. Modern word processors have the capability of producing HTML documents, converting their output to PDF, as well as printing.

Another argument is that a CMS will enable writers to re-use content from one product to another. I believe that this argument is not relevant to companies with only a few products. While old-fashioned, a good library system and using cut and paste will suffice for the smaller company.

Instead, Focus On These

Rather than spending time learning new technology that may or may not help your writing project, your writers (in fact, all writers) should be focusing on what is important to the Users of your product. These are:

. Content: The material that you will provide in your User Document . Access to that Content: Enabling your Reader to easily find what he/she needs at the time, and to skip what is not needed

If your new writers do know how to use writing tools such as FrameMaker ™ or a Content Management System (and one is set up) then of course they should use these tools. But everyone should remember that the Reader (the User of your product) only sees the content via the accessibility to that content. Don’t let the technology get in the way of helping your Reader.

The Bottom Line

Most literate people, with reasonable support and resources, can be guided to create effective User Documentation. A good place to find resources is listed in the “Resources” or the “About the Author” section of this article.

Nancy asked:


The support of online shopping, banking, and other task has created demand for help desk support specialists who provide advice to users, administration functions, maintenance, and network support. In many cases, this support can be outsourced, so that company employees are free to do their normal job functions.

Help Desk Support Specialists answer phone, email and chat communications, then interpret problems and provide technical support for hardware, software, and networks. They must listen carefully and ask questions which will help them diagnose the problem. To resolve issues, they may run automatic diagnostics programs, consult manuals and patiently walk customers through problem solving steps.

In many cases help desk support is necessary around the clock, so schedules rotate. They constantly interact with customers as they answer questions and give advice, so they should be personable and well-versed. In many cases, they need to be fluent in two languages.

Help Desk Support Specialists:



Provide first-level contact and problem resolution to resolve as many user-reported problems as their expertise permits.

Escalate problems as appropriate.

Obtain, document and convey concise problem information on unresolved issues to internal support personnel.

Act as a liaison between customers and internal support staff during the problem resolution process.



If you are interested in outsourcing a help desk support specialist, The Tech Connect™ solution from Answer Center America may interest you. With Tech Connect™ any company can have a 24/7 technical support help desk for their employees and clientele.



Tech Connect™ Solutions



24/7 Bi-Lingual Technical Support Agents

Multi-Tier Support Solution With ACA L1, ACA L2, & ACA L3 Teams

Ticket Creation and Follow Up

Server Monitoring and Update Support

Network Monitoring and Update Support

PC Update Support

Digitally Recorded Calls for Quality Assurance and Training

Agent Screen Shots for Quality Assurance and Training



What is involved to Start?

Just as customized as your technology solution is for your business, so will ACA’s Tech Connect™ solution. An ACA support team including your ACA sales Consultant, Account Manager, and Technical Support Liaison will work hand and hand with your team to create a custom solution built around the individual needs of your company. This way when your clients or employees are calling in to Tech Connect™ they will have an experience that is seamless just like they would experience by reaching your internal technician. This way ACA can provide your company with one of the highest 1 call resolutions possible.

John Campbell asked:


Remote control software is software which is used to control a computing server or desktop computer from another computer. Remote control software is used for data transfer and it is a remote controller between two or more computers. In order to understand remote control software completely we should know the term Remote Desktop

A “[url=http://www.rhubcom.com/]Remote Desktop[/url]” is a computer platform in a remote location that appears to be local. Remote desktop allows you to control the desktop and the entire applications and contents of a computer from another machine. Remote desktop will actually allow you to see and control your connected PC as you are sitting in front of it.

Remote desktop software enables network administrators to simplify the process of monitoring and maintaining these networks of computers with a simplified and intuitive interface.

With the help of remote control software you can access your pc even if you are far away from it. As remote control software enables long distance access of computers. Remote control operation is used to take control of an unattended desktop personal computer from a remote location as well as to provide instruction and technical support to remote users. In reality software maintenance is one of the most important and common uses of remote control software.

Remote control software reduces call handling time and first calls resolution rates. Some features of remote control software:

 Remote access via internet

 File transferring

 Text and voice chat

 Desktop sharing

 Remote shutdown

[url=http://www.rhubcom.com/]Remote computer software[/url] permits remote control access to an unlimited number of computer systems over the web and includes support for multiple simultaneous remote desktop support sessions. Remote control software saves time provides the facility to access your pc from anywhere anytime.

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