DRAFT
Here we are. You are now in charge of IT support for users. Congratulations!
You are now responsible for responding to your colleagues’ enquiries and complaints, providing them with technical support, helping them to troubleshoot problems with products or services.
First of all, it's important to think of your colleagues as customers. Just like in a restaurant, even a computer store, when a customer comes in, they need to be served. We don't try to get rid of them; we aim for them to leave satisfied. A customer is also a potential ambassador – someone who will share with others their experience of the IT service you offer.
Depending on how satisfied your customers are, staff will be more or less likely to feel confident coming to you with their own questions. It is therefore important that IT customers are well served.
Computer support is a service which is provided. People need to know when this service is available, what the opening hours are. A first thought might be "all the time." This is a possibility, but it has its drawbacks. If people can come in all the time, that means you can be interrupted at any time in what you're doing.
You might want to set aside certain time slots to do other important things, such as carrying out daily or weekly checks, or performing monthly or yearly maintenance procedures. You may want to reserve time for your training, such as taking part in IT Connect online webinars or meetings with your mentor. Having users who can interrupt you at any time is certainly comfortable for them, but it can prevent the service from working properly.
It might be useful to define time slots, or a system that lets users know if they can enter or not. This needs to be considered carefully, as it will also help protect you and your heart from resentment that can arise if you feel like too much is being asked of you.
Secondly, it's good for customers to know how to contact you. Is it by phone, email, chat or social media? Or do you have a ticketing system? Again, the phone can be convenient for the user, but it means that you interrupt everything to respond immediately to the request. However, if you're dealing with a priority issue or if you're in a meeting, you don't necessarily want to be interrupted. It can be helpful to "educate" your users about this by asking them to use a contact channel that allows you to manage intervention priorities correctly. This kind of arrangement can help ensure that the customer always feels welcome, whenever possible.
So there you are, in touch with the customer and their problem or question. Good IT support resolves issues quickly and efficiently. Quickly means taking charge of the request as soon as possible, depending on its urgency, and given other priorities. Once the request is taken care of, promptly also means focusing on the request to resolve it as quickly as possible, and not leaving it on hold.
Effectively means that we don't want to put a plaster on the wound, but we want to heal it. In other words, we want to understand what has happened and why, to solve the causes of the problem and not the consequences.
Whenever possible, it is preferable to be physically present with the user making the request, at their place of work rather than remotely. That way, the person will feel well taken care of. And you may also notice things that can be improved in the workplace.
How should you behave with the person? How will they feel? Will they feel that you are a very competent person, but also very busy and therefore stressed, and that they were lucky to have two minutes of your precious time, even if they were turned away? On the contrary, it is important to be available to the person, to take the time to listen to them, to understand what is going on
Active listening is important to truly understand the situation, including sometimes the problem behind the problem. It might be that the person has just started to explain and you have already understood, but you have to let them finish explaining; be polite, pleasant and patient. The quality of the relationship is just as important as the technical skills. We are there for the person. If they don’t feel welcome, they may not come back to see you, go elsewhere or stay with problems that will impact their work. You should strive to build positive relationships with customers. This can be done by being friendly, helpful, and understanding.
Let's consider the technical aspect. Once you have understood the problem, it may be faster for you to directly solve it with a few lightning-fast clicks. The person will be happy because their problem will be solved and they will know that they can come back and ask you next time because you are a competent person. But is this really what we want? We don't want to make ourselves indispensable, we don't want our customers to depend on us. We want to empower them and do everything we can to make sure they don't need us.
It may sound scary, but we want to be able to provide an IT service that works well without an IT person. This way, we can spend more time improving and less time repairing.
To empower customers, you need to walk customers through steps to resolve their problem. Showing them, explaining what you do, taking the opportunity to help them grow in their skills. A support request can be a good training opportunity. What’s important, if the user has made a mistake, is that they understand their mistake, so as not to repeat the situation.
If the customer asks a technical question, it is very important to answer accurately.
If the person feels that you don't really know and that you answered quickly and a little off topic, this is also a reason why they may not ask you for help in the future. If you don't know, it's best to say "I don't know, I'll do some research and get back to you". Yes, even computer scientists don't know everything. On the other hand, it is important to actually do this research afterwards and get back to the person with a clear and satisfactory answer.
If support is to be provided remotely, including by email, you need to make sure you send clear instructions that can be understood by a user. Using simple terms, step-by-step instructions, and screenshots can help.
Ideally, you should aim to resolve customer issues on the first contact. But it may also be beyond your skills. That's okay. Hence the importance of escalating the issue to a more experienced technician. Have a network of people you can contact in case you get stuck. The important thing is to solve the problem. Whether it's you or someone else, it doesn’t matter to the customer. The goal is for them to be satisfied.
Gather feedback from customers. When a customer is having trouble, the issue may be related to an installation or configuration error. In this case, you should take the opportunity to improve installation procedures. This feedback can also be used to improve products and services, as well as to identify areas where customer care can be improved. If the user has a complaint about the level of IT services, it is important to refer the matter to your supervisor so that their complaint can be taken into account and analysed. Later, you could ask users for feedback on the quality of IT support, so that you get some idea of their level of satisfaction, which you can work on improving.
What if the customer is a bit picky? It depends on the situation. Some clients need to understand the importance of handling requests in order of priority. Having an incident submission system that includes prioritization can help. If the person is just in a bad mood, a gentle response may be enough to calm the anger. If, on the other hand, there is a lack of respect, it is important to calmly remind people of the importance of respect in professional relationships.
There may be times when someone lashes out at you or refuses to follow the technical regulations approved by the entity. In this case, it may be best to withdraw yourself from the "discussion" and refer the matter to your supervisor or human resources person.
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