Life and Times in Support

Technology was to have made life so much easier, but man, it sure seems to be more of an uphill climb some days. I mean what is it about computers that people don’t get?

The reason for this blasting of sorts is I just got off the phone with someone that has been a client for years, and the person who was trained to do the work quit. OK, so you say the client lost an employee and called for help, right? Yes, but here is the rub: the person that had the job for more than five years never-cross trained anyone on her job, so now the client is up a creek without a paddle.

Then the client got mad at me for not making sure his employee had trained others. So the question is, is that tech support or training?

In this geek's eye it’s not support but training, because the software still works. It’s just that they forgot how to use it. OK, so that’s customer relationship building when a support person comes to the aid or goes beyond the norm to help out a long-term client.

I have these things happen often, where people forget to do the obvious things like train, back up data and do things like clean the computer, they call for the quick fix to support.

The question: is it right? No, but where do you turn when it all comes down around your ears? Tech support.

OK, that said, remember to at least say, "Oops, my bad" when it’s your fault because the support person on the other side of the phone is rolling their eyes, they may even be laughing under their breath, but they will go the extra mile for you if you simply tell the truth.

Well that’s my take on support. Now that I have that off my chest I feel better.