You're right, it's down. I think we broke the site! I got that from a friend on Facebook, so there's probably been a lot of traffic going there.
Don't get me wrong, I worked Help Desk for 5 years myself. That's exactly why I have no use for the attitudes of most of the people who do it.
We were supporting a required government data gathering project, people had to use this system, they hated it, they were all remote (phone support only), we never knew what they had in the way of a desktop system at the other end, and because it was a legal reporting system, the users were generally not technical: they were secretaries, clerks, or financial assistants. We had to tell these people how to create a clean ASCII text file of the report from whatever word processor they were using, how to use their modems (usually external in those days - no Intarwebs yet!), and how to use either their own telecomm product or our proprietary product or both.
These Help Desk people at my office nowadays? Who are only supporting one organization with a limited set of hardware and software? Hah! They have it easy! Why are they so helpless and surly?
hmmm i dunno it is hard to say, a friend told me a story about a member of their team hanging up on customers. All i say is "Gah" i've worked their for two years, you don't hang up on people without warning.
I think good helpdesk roles are more customer service roles so you're trained to assist the customer rather than to push their issues away.
Yes, exactly! For Tier I support - the people who take the initial call - customer service is key. You have to calm the customer down, be reassuring, and get the customer to the point where he or she can explain the problem in enough detail so that troubleshooting can begin. After that, if necessary, you can always bring in a more technical person to take over if the problem isn't simple.
When they interviewed us for the job I was describing above, we did role-playing: the interviewers pretended to be angry customers, and we had to act out what we would do in such a situation.
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2011-05-07 02:27 pm (UTC)You're right, it's down. I think we broke the site! I got that from a friend on Facebook, so there's probably been a lot of traffic going there.
Don't get me wrong, I worked Help Desk for 5 years myself. That's exactly why I have no use for the attitudes of most of the people who do it.
We were supporting a required government data gathering project, people had to use this system, they hated it, they were all remote (phone support only), we never knew what they had in the way of a desktop system at the other end, and because it was a legal reporting system, the users were generally not technical: they were secretaries, clerks, or financial assistants. We had to tell these people how to create a clean ASCII text file of the report from whatever word processor they were using, how to use their modems (usually external in those days - no Intarwebs yet!), and how to use either their own telecomm product or our proprietary product or both.
These Help Desk people at my office nowadays? Who are only supporting one organization with a limited set of hardware and software? Hah! They have it easy! Why are they so helpless and surly?
no subject
Date: 2011-05-07 08:36 pm (UTC)I think good helpdesk roles are more customer service roles so you're trained to assist the customer rather than to push their issues away.
no subject
Date: 2011-05-08 01:39 am (UTC)Yes, exactly! For Tier I support - the people who take the initial call - customer service is key. You have to calm the customer down, be reassuring, and get the customer to the point where he or she can explain the problem in enough detail so that troubleshooting can begin. After that, if necessary, you can always bring in a more technical person to take over if the problem isn't simple.
When they interviewed us for the job I was describing above, we did role-playing: the interviewers pretended to be angry customers, and we had to act out what we would do in such a situation.