Gotta whine somewhere, might as well get my $9.95 worth.
Help Desk Quiz
Question 1: When one of our end users calls you to say, “EnterpriseHRWare is slow today” the correct response is:
INDENT Ask the customer, “What EnterpriseHRWare module are you using?” get the answer, then open a ticket.
(B) Ask the customer, “Can you tell me if this is a problem only on your PC, or are the other folks in your area having the same problem with EnterpriseHRWare?” get the answer, then open a ticket.
© A and B
(D) Open a high-priority ticket containing only the statement, “Susie Q says EnterpriseHRWare is slow, perhaps it’s the whole building” and send it to the EnterpriseHRWare administrators.
Hint: (D), tempting though it is, is not the correct answer.*
Apparently some of you missed the training session wherein the manager explained that the Help Desk software is not an online version of those pink “While you were out” message pads. Your job is to do some triage, get some information, take notes - in short, do your jobs so we can do our jobs. No one expects you to fix the problems - you don’t know EnterpriseHRWare, and that’s OK. But you don’t need to know EnterpriseHRWare to ask a couple of questions while you’ve still got the end user on the phone.
Question 2: When a user *volunteers * lots of detail about a problem and its history, you should:
(A) Create the case with the history consisting entirely of the statement, “Lizzie B’s EnterpriseHRWare session failed”
(B) A, and call the EnterpriseHRWare administrators to tell them, “Lizzie B’s EnterpriseHRWare session failed, just thought you’d like to know.”
© A and B, and tell Lizzie B that you’ll pass all of that information on to the EnterpriseHRWare admins.
(D) Ask Lizzie B to be patient while you cram all of that detail into the case, then send it to the EnterpriseHRWare admins.
Hint: A, B, and C are less than ideal.
You do understand that we talk to the end users, right? So when I call Lizzie and say, “Tell me a little more about what you were doing in EnterpriseHRWare,” she is not amused to find out that her detailed description got lost in the course of going in one ear and out the other. You should also understand that Lizzie gets a copy of the case in her email as soon as you send it to me, and she will see that you summarized her entire call as “session failed.” If you’re going to cut corners, don’t advertise it to the end user, OK?[/INDENT]
I am really not trying to dump on my help desk here. I’ve been the help desk, I’m still a glorified support tech myself, I talk to pretty much the same people the Help Desk does. I know that getting useful information from many of the users is like having dental surgery without anesthesia, only more tedious and unpleasant. But for the love of whatever, ask a couple of questions before you hang up! This isn’t a direct sales call center - it’s OK to stay on the line for another couple of minutes to get the information you know we need. Help me help you, as they say.
OK, I’m done whining. Apologies to any support pros I’ve offended, and now I’m off to give thanks to the universe for every top-notch support person I’ve ever dealt with.
*Extra credit, eternal gratitude, and maybe a holiday bonus from the admins if you came up with “A and B, then call your contacts at the other two offices that use EnterpriseHRWare, ask them the same questions, get the answer, then open a ticket.”