Get Faster Help From Your IT Management Team

Posted November 21th, 2022 in Cybersecurity, IT Management, IT Management Team

We all have those work days where nothing seems to be going quite right.  Your presentation won't load for the zoom meeting that is in 15 minutes or your screen freezes just before you were about to save that excel sheet.  You need help from your IT management team but they all seem to be busy.  So how do you get quick support?  Below are some tips!

1. Don't Blame the Help Desk Technician

According to a study done by Logicalis, the IT service desk employee turnover rate is roughly 40 percent. Basically half of every tech person that decides to take a job helping people like you solve their technical problems ends up quitting that job in short order.

Why? One of the biggest reasons is the way they are treated.  Many people take out their frustrations on the first person who answers the phone at the IT help desk.

The fastest way to get your IT management team interested in helping you solve your problem asap is by not blaming them for whatever is going wrong. Sometimes it may be a simple restart of your computer!  You need to understand usually the person directly responsible for maintaining that system is not the one on the other end of the phone with you. They just answer the phone and try to figure out how to help you - so don't get angry with the person who wants to help you!Help Desk

2. Don't Understand?  That's Ok!  We Are Here To Help.

Asking for help can be daunting. Admitting that you don't understand something even more so. The problem is if you don't admit that you don't understand something, it's that much harder for the IT tech person to help you understand.

If you wait until step 10 to inform the person that you're still stuck at step 2, you've not only wasted everyone's time, but now the support tech will have to walk you all the way through the same steps again!

3. Ask For Someone Else

If you are not receiving the support you need see if there is someone else who can assist you.  Maybe the tech you are speaking with does not have the experience another tech does in your specific issue.  A simple "I'm sorry, but I'm just having difficulty working with this style of troubleshooting, is it okay if I work with someone else who may be available?"

4. Don't Leave Out the Details

One of the most common problems that IT support agents have to deal with is when people who call are not truthful about the events that led up to the problem. You may think that all you have to tell the support person is that your keyboard isn't working, and eventually they'll fix the problem. If you leave out the fact that you spilled coffee all over the keyboard, you're actually doing yourself a disservice. Why waste your time and the technician's time when you know perfectly well that the most likely cause is the spilled coffee?

Share all of the details so that the technician can save you time and your company money and you can go get yourself a fresh cup of coffee.

5. Laugh

IT agents hear complaints all day long. These people are usually frustrated, complaining, and sometimes very rude. Imagine how refreshing it must be for that help desk agent to hear someone who's actually happy on the other end of the phone - someone who cracks a joke or makes light of the situation.

It will also likely inspire the tech support agent to work that much harder to solve your problem quickly.

They will be so appreciative of your kindness that they'll ask what else they can do for you - and they'll be more than happy to stay on the phone with you as long as possible. Remember techs are people to and they have bad days as well.  Being nice will get you a lot further!

6. Submitting Tickets

Before submitting the ticket, stop and think, "Is this really something IT is responsible for fixing?" Maybe ask facilities, the office manager, or a gardener.  

It's all in the details!

Example 1: The stubborn printer

Incorrect: "I can't print." To which printer? From what program? Is there a Kill?

Correct: I'm receiving a Kill message while printing from Office to the upstairs printer.

Example 2: The server outage

Incorrect: "The server is down." Which server? We are well-trained in tech but we can't read minds. Which applications are affected? What are the symptoms?

Correct: Maybe instead try "Microsoft Outlook says that it can't connect to the mail server, my co-worker says his Outlook is okay." One gives no information, one is specific and helps immediately narrow down the problem.

Example 3: The slow computer

Incorrect: "My computer is slow." This one drives us nuts! When is it slow?  What are you trying to do?  What program are you working in?  When did this start happening?

Correct: "My computer always takes a really long time to open Microsoft Excel files off of the file server."

So much better.

Example 4: What exactly is the problem?

Simply incorrect: "THIS IS URGENT!  I NEED HELP NOW.  CALL ME ASAP".

Please don't make us have to work to extract information from you. Vague tickets are frustrating and we can't do anything except ask you to elaborate. Also, it pushes you down the queue while we start another ticket waiting on you to reply with more info.  So when Sally sends a detailed ticket her problem is already resolved even if she sent in her ticket later than you.

Along with detailed tickets, sending screenshots helps us immensely. Instead of just saying, "The application looks weird today," take a screenshot and send it along so that we can see what looks "weird".

Hopefully, this helps with how our IT Management Team operates. We want to help, we just need a little understanding and support when it comes to our procedures and workflow. Thanks for reading and thanks in advance for those perfectly-written tickets to come!  We look forward to helping you!

Now, what are you waiting for?  Submit your detailed ticket today!

Submit a Ticket

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