Technical Support: The Good, the bad and the ugly

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.

Not exactly what you would call a great starting line for a blog on Technical Support. I have been a Technical Support Guru now for going on 20 years and the Senior Technical Supervisor now for 5 years. That sentence above, describes my experiences to the letter! It is my personal belief for the good, the bad and the ugly in support, is because “NO 2 CALLS ARE EXACTLY ALIKE!”

Let me explain, there are a few different types of technical support;

First you have the internal support technician. They deal with support issues within a company and have more control of the systems and familiarity of what’s before them. There systems are planned, tested and controlled within a closed system. Well, at least you hope so.

The second type of support is the Third-Party Support. They are consultants or contractors if you will that sell their services to companies that aren’t large enough or possibly see the value of hiring a outside consultant to run their IT Management.

The Third type of support is a bit of both above. The software and hardware they sell, they support their customers based on warranty, support contracts or the support can be purchased out right. Only on the software or hardware technology they sell.

I am sure there are some other situations for support and assistance that I haven’t listed. Generally, though, this should cover it for this blog. I have been employed by all the 3 that I have listed above. None are better or worse than the other because of one determining factor: “THE TECH”

That’s right, “The Tech” … the person you speak with either on the phone, remotely connected to your computer or even in person. This is the key to success or the slow spiraling path to technical failure.

Go ahead and ask…

“What if he isn’t knowledgeable in the area I am having issues with?”

“What if I can’t understand what he is saying?”

“What if he can’t fix it?”

Great questions…glad you asked!

“The Tech” doesn’t have to be the smartest person on the planet to fix your issue, he just has to know more about it than you. That’s right. I have never told ANYONE that I have all the answers. That would be absurd, right? One thing I will say about clients and/or customers. They may not be ‘tech-ish’ like you but they can smell a fraud from a mile away. A good tech doesn’t have all the answers but should know where to get it and have paths to fix your issue.

“The Tech” doesn’t have to speak perfectly the language that you choose to speak. We live in a diverse world that offers many opportunities to every Race, Language and Gender. BUT… if you don’t understand the tech, ask for another. Just don’t downgrade their ability based on whether you can understand them or not.

Let me lengthen this point though. I am an American and I have a degree in Journalism as well as Computer Science. To most of my customers I speak English very well but that doesn’t mean they understand me. Of late, there have been some scams, hacks and con artists that have spoiled the waters for technical support personnel. This is unfortunate but true. If you haven’t received a call from Microsoft saying they detected a Virus coming from your computer, you haven’t lived. Of course, this is a scam.

If “The Tech” person can’t fix, this is not unusual nor does it indicate that he doesn’t know his job. The sad fact is, I have come across many issues that couldn’t be fixed. Not even by the Engineers that designed them Trust me on this, I have spent countless hours with developers of software trying to fix issues. When the Senior Developer throws his hands in the air and gets that “I should have been a plumber” look in his face? An upgrade is in the making.

If “The Tech” is a good tech he will create a workaround to resolve the issue at least temporarily.

Again, there are variations on this theme but the one thing I learned starting from the ground floor as a Customer Representative to the Senior Technical Supervisor is this. A good tech takes command of the whole situation. From listening to the customer, to diagnosing the issue and to explaining (with confidence) the fix or the workaround fix. The minute the customer/client detects nervousness, unsureness or bull… you’re in trouble.

As I end this article, I have a story. (did you hope I had a tech story?)

I have had countless calls in the past for “No Sound coming from the computer.” This is a typical call for our 1st level support and is usually easily resolved. Maybe the customer had the mute on, or possibly the sound card driver needed updating or maybe the computer wasn’t allowing the third-party app to access the speakers. On one particular occasion the answer was simple but the customer was distraught.

Seems the customer was so upset. They had just purchased this expensive speaker system for there computer so they could play music while they worked. She was a transcriptionist and typed audio files into Microsoft Word. She had a headset to listen to the dictation audio on the same computer as her New Sound System.

Can you see the issue?

What would your fix for this issue be?