Slow down,

In a Metrics-Obsessed Managerial Environment (MOME), "call times" are one of the most commonly used metrics.  If you're in a call center environment, it may the only metric, or paired with "number of calls taken". Consequently, your first instinct upon taking a call is to Get This Person Off The Phone ASAP.  And for most of us, we figure the fastest way to get someone off the phone is to communicate with them as quickly as possible.

Unfortunately, talking as quickly as possible about technical issues which the person you're talking to may not understand is a sure way to make your call last at least twice as long as it needs to. 

If you're willing to slow down and take the time to talk (and listen to) your customer, you'll be suprised how quickly you can, in fact, Get This Person Off The Phone.

There's also the advantage that if you can actually solve this person's issue, they won't be calling you back.

Linkage, Questions and Updates

I've started adding some Linkage at the bottom of the blog page - I'm surprised that a simple search for "Tech Support Blog" didn't turn up more blogs about Tech Support in the first three or four pages.

If you find a blog you think would look good in the Linkage List, add a comment here and I'll check it out.

If you have a question about Tech Support in general (not an actual Technical Support issue, but a question about the job, the industry, how I managed to stay sane), feel free to drop a comment and I'll put it into the "To Answer" stack for a posted response. 

I've worked out an Update schedule for this site - I'll have regular posts up Monday and Wednesday, with additional posts added when things occur to me and / or I find something useful and / or neat.

Thanks again to everyone who's spreading the word about this project. I'll do my best to keep it interesting, relevant and as low-snark as possible.

Tools: Online Note Taking

Back in Write. Everything. Down. I mentioned that I use an online note taker to hold all of my "boilerplate" responses, quick fixes, and the like. It's a good resource for complex command-line functions and code "band aids" as well.

Here's a few that I've found and tried out. I'm focusing on the free ones for now:

Evernote (evernote.com) - This is Lifehacker's favorite and I can see why. Cloud-based data storing certainly works for holding onto the bits of info you want to get to quickly. There are clients for just about every operating system and mobile device made in the last five years.

Yahoo! Notepad (notepad.mail.yahoo.com) - tied into your Yahoo.com account - web-based with more than a few Yahoo! Widgets (MacOS and Windows) to tie into the online app. This one is text only.

Google Documents (docs.google.com) - Full on, Word-Compatible docs, databases and darn near everything. Widgets, naturally, available.

Yep, just three. Why? Because I'm sure some of you out there have better ones, and if you do, drop a comment with them here.

Teach Parents Tech

... my erstwhile Blog Host - Google - has come up with a very clever (and funny) way for us techs to help our parents get a handle on all this computer stuff.

If you have parents that are new to computers, parents that are familiar with computers, or just want a good, non-insulting giggle, check out http://www.teachparentstech.org/

I sure wish this was around when I was writing batch files to create a menu for my Dad.

Be Kind

It's depressingly easy to forget that what we're paid to do, as Tech Support people, is help other people with their problems. If you're lurking around Level 4 (see the Levels of Competency post previous) it's easy to get frustrated with just how much the people who are calling you do not know about computers, the internet, or whatever you're supporting.

Take a few moments and remember that everyone starts out as a newbie - everyone starts out not knowing the things you know.

Take a few moments, a deep breath, and Be Kind. It helps.

Levels of Competency

Tech Support folks spend 8 to 10 hours a day supporting a specific product or range of products. That's 40 hours a week, 160 hours a month, 1920 hours a year, not counting overtime.

It doesn't help that most of us in Tech Support are already up to our elbows in computer stuff most of our waking hours. We're so deep into it that we forget that not everyone else on the planet is in the same situation.

In on of the many training seminars I was asked (ok, required) to take presented me with "The Four Levels of Competency":

1. Unconsciously Incompetent: You don't know about something, and you're not even aware that you don't know about it. Anything you are not actively interested in, or that you've never heard of, you're at Level 1 already.



2. Consciously Incompetent: You know that something exists, and you're aware that you don't know a whole lot about it. Most folks you will ever deal with as a tech will fit into this category. There's a reason for that which I'll get into in a later post.



3. Consciously Competent: You know quite a bit about something, and even have a pretty good idea what areas you're not that savvy in. Every time you've ever had to start supporting a new product, you're soundly at level 3.



4. Unconsciously Competent: The subject is something you know inside and out. You eat, breathe, and sleep this subject. You have forgotten more about this subject than most people will ever know. Consequently, you forget that there are folks in the lower 3 levels who don't know as much about this subject as you do.

Most "Tech Support" humor on the internet resides at Level 4. Most smug, snide, condescending tech support reps are at Level 4. If your job is to communicate concepts to people who may not know as much about a subject as you do, Level 4 is a pretty common place to find yourself. I'd like to suggest you try moving back to Level 3.

Hey Noob - Write. Everything. Down.

The first thing I want to tell anyone getting into Tech Support is this:

Write. Everything. Down.

Tech Support as an industry has some of the least effective training of any industry out there.  Generally there's a week or so of "get familiar with the product" and then you're punted out into the deep end and left to fend for yourself.

Therefore: Write. Everything. Down.

Every time you learn a new diagnostic test, a new foible of the product, or come up with The Exact Right Words To Use in an email, save it somewhere. I use an online "notes" app for my boilerplate and how-tos since I can pull those up from a desktop widget (it also means I can get to it from any computer I'm on, which is useful if you're dealing with a 'sit anywhere' situation).

Writing Everything Down also means: If you can, Write It Down Where Your Coworkers Can Get To It. A common document dump, an online knowledge base, a WIKI-like editable web site: any of these can become an invaluable resource for everyone who supports the stuff you support, whether while you're working there or later when you've found something else to do.

Write. Everything. Down.

In a situation where you're in a Metrics-Obsessed-Managerial-Environment (MOME), writing down your casework also lets you provide hard numerical data for reviews, volume checks, projects and training.  If you have this stuff all written down, come Quarterly Review time. your email to your boss will take 10 minutes instead of an increasingly cranky half-hour.

Write. Everything. Down.

... Kind of like what I'm doing here.

Holiday Hours

So Happy Christmas, everyone.

One of the things that makes Tech Support different from most "desk" jobs is the need for support outside of normal business hours.  This means weekends, holidays and the like. 

We're working at about half staff over Christmas, and by "half" staff I mean those of us on the front lines and 2nd tier are working. The rest of the company, including any engineers we might have to send things "up" to if we can't solve customer issues, are on vacation. In fact, some of them won't be back until January.

We'll do our best to solve problems.  But some folks may not get their larger issues sorted out till 2011.  We have to set customer expectations realistically.

The good news is that company holidays, if you're a full time employee, are paid. Which means those of us who work official holidays get paid... twice. 

It's not a bad trade-off. Happy Holidays.

Stumped for a Xmas gift for your techie? Welp, t-shirts never seem to be a bad idea.

Welcome.

Let's set some ground rules here: I'm  40-something mutidisciplinary geek (fine arts / theatre / music ) and part time gadget fiend. I started working in the Technical Support industry in 1988. I've been pretty steadily employed for one company or another as Tech Support or Helpdesk since then.

It's now 2010.  By my math, that's ... over 20 years in Tech Support.

According to industry wisdom, six months to a year is a "long time" for someone to be in Tech Support for one company. So far I've worked for each of the companies who dared employ me for at least one year - my longest gig is the current one, and that's clocking in at 9 years in April.

So that's a long time. How do I manage to keep doing it? What have I seen? What have I heard? What do I feel like talking about?

Interested?

All right, we'll begin.

20 Years in Tech Support