Top 5 Tips to Making a Tech Support Call
WGarth Callaghan
I.T. Happens. You fired up the PC and there is no power, or you see a Blue Screen of Death. Maybe your internet connection is not working correctly. You need to call your "Tech Guy" and get things going again. Here are some tips to help you as you make this call.
1) Get your 'stuff' together before dialing. Have a written description to the problem and recite it to the technician. Be specific, if you can. "My computer is broken" isn't descriptive enough. It might be helpful to have your computer's model number handy. We might look it up on the fly while we're on the phone with you. Make sure that you are giving all of the relevant information. Did you experience a power surge/outage? Are there lights blinking on your modem? Do you have cable internet, DSL, FIOS or other? Have as much information as you can before you call and the call might go by quickly.
2) Exercise patience. Scheduling a service call will only take a few minutes, but tech companies will need to check your account information and record some details. We'll need to start a service call ticket at the very beginning of your call. We will work as quickly as we can.
3) Not All Problems Have a Quick Fix. We may need to be on the phone with you for a long time, or we might want to schedule an 'in person' visit. If you are running to a meeting, starting a tech support call might not be the nest thing to do at that time. If we have a remote service and you are a current client, we can likely work with your PC while you are out.
4) Be Polite. This should go without saying. We know that you are calling because you are having technical issues. None of our clients call us just to let us know that all of their PCs are working just fine. We want to help you, that's why we're in the business. We enjoy the challenge you just presented us. We don't enjoy being called names or being yelled at.
5) Don't Help. When we're controlling the mouse and keyboard, we are focusing on your issues and trying to get you back to work without losing any data. We care about our job and want you to have a good experience using our services.