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Jul
7
I hear a harrruuummmm. Should I be worried? Lessons in tech support
Filed Under Good tech support, Tech support issues, Understanding the customer
A little while ago, I was called by a customer who was hearing strange noises coming out of her computer and she was afraid the system was going to break down or explode. She described the sounds as a loud “whhhhrrrrrr and then hums and vibrates. Then it starts getting louder and sounds like it’s going harrrruuummm”. She went on to say the sound will suddenly get quiet and then start up again later. I’m not sure if I should be impressed or frightened – I understood instantly what the problem was. The thing about being a good tech support person is, you have to be able to decode what the customer is trying to tell you. In this case, the problem was easily solved by the customer herself. I told her to bend down and punch the CD eject button. Problem solved. There was a cd left in the machine and the drive would periodically try to access it.
Two thoughts come to mind when I think of what makes a good tech support person. One, know how you customers communicate problems. That’s the key. Most people just want their computer to work and don’t want to be bogged down with gory details. I don’t ask my customers to try and explain things rationally. When they call, they are panicked or stressed about their system doing something unexpected. It isn’t their job to read computer technical sites or keep up with the latest trouble shooting information. That’s what they pay me to do.
One of favourite calls described a problem as “the dohicky on the back of the big box fell off when I was cleaning. Should I be worried?” I was rather startled when I understood what that meant. A cable had been pulled out when she was cleaning behind the desk. My all time favourite support call still tickles me. Not much ruffled this particular customer’s feathers; he tended to remain calm under the most adverse circumstances. When I picked up this message: “It’s not working at all. I’m not sure what I’m looking at. Should I just back out of the room slowly and close the door?” I knew it was very serious and warranted an emergency call. It turned out when he installed some patches, one failed, causing the computer to reboot and crash. He was looking at the dreaded “Blue Screen of Death”. His calls were normally to the point and concise. The nature of his message was enough to tell me something had gone terribly wrong and an emergency call was needed.
The second thought is, know your customers’ computers as well. When someone calls me, I know what type of work they do, how they treat their system and just as important, if there are any quirks about that system. Often a problem can be quickly traced if you know the computer inside and out. When the customer with the noisy computer called, I already knew her DVD drive was a bit noisy, but she rarely used it so it was not worth spending money replacing it. I can count on one hand how often she used the drive. The second customer was very comfortable solving problems and updating his system. He kept his computer up to date and in pristine order. When I spoke to him and heard blue screen, I figured the patch went wrong. Knowing where to start looking when I walk in the door saves customers money. I have another customer who was a heavy smoker and who also eats over her keyboard. When I get calls from her, I know invariably it’s something related to the keyboard being gummed up, or she’s spilt something onto her laptop again. She chewed through laptops like most people do mints until I hooked up an external keyboard. Her calls are pretty routine, messy but routine. Her calls tend to be short “I did it again” messages. She mercifully stopped smoking so I no longer have to knock ashes out of her keyboard. Crumbs, jam, fingernail clippings, coffee, sugar and stuff I’ve never identified – yes, but no more ashes. I take a small roll up keyboard when I need to do maintenance because I can’t stand touching her keyboard. I once threatened to come in a Hazmat suit. Didn’t make a difference, her keyboard is still breeding unknown life forms.
The point is, if you want to save yourself a lot of needless visits, learn to decode your customer. You can cut away a lot of stress if you understand what they are trying to tell you. They know when their computer is doing something strange. If you are familiar with their computer and how it works, you can narrow down the problems a lot quicker. But the key is to listen to what the customer has to say. My customers and I often laugh at their descriptions, after the problem has been solved. But I tell them over and over, it would have taken longer to solve (and cost more money) if I didn’t stop to listen to what they said. Yes, I understand “dohicky fell off”, “damn, the cursor is zippy”, “I hear a tick tick tick”, “what the fuck are those horrible beeps” and “should my monitor be hiccupping?” because I chat with my customers while I’m visiting. I listen to how they describe things on their computers and this makes it much easier when it comes to answering those emergency calls.
Oh and the hiccupping monitor? It was nothing more than a corrupt video driver. The screen was periodically blinking on and off. Removing the driver and reinstalling it solved the problem. I got a lovely loaf of banana bread as a bonus for not snickering into the phone when I spoke to the customer.
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