Tip of the Week: Working Effectively with Your Help Desk

Reaching out for support involves admitting that there is a problem in the first place—a sore spot for some individuals. It can also be time-consuming, which is more of an issue for busy individuals. However, with the right approach, you can make asking for help during the IT support process much easier.

How to Make IT Support More Efficient

If you want to make the support process more efficient, you can take some simple actions today to make your provider’s job easier:

Mention Error Messages

The more a technician knows about your problem, the easier a time they’ll have addressing it.

This is where error messages come in. If the piece of technology gives you an error message, it can be a helpful clue as to the solution. Simply mention these error messages to your technician and they’ll be able to cross-reference and likely diagnose the problem.

Remember, be as specific as possible, as this will help the technician narrow down the issue during the troubleshooting phase.

Take Screenshots

Pictures can speak a thousand words (or something like that).

If your team has a hard time explaining problems to your technicians, then you can instead encourage screenshots, which will provide more information and context. You can use the Print Screen key or the Snipping Tool (Windows Key + Shift + S). This gives you an image you can paste into your support ticket.

With this context, your technician will be able to more quickly discover the issue and help you address it accordingly.

Keep Your PC On

Today’s diagnostic tools are always collecting data, provided your PC is turned on.

This is why it’s crucial that you keep your devices on—so your support team can see how your device is running. If you leave your PC turned on overnight, your technician can investigate issues without having to disrupt operations during the workday. This is especially important if your business has remote staff.

Once the issue is identified, your technician can then push out updates or fixes without having to worry about disrupting your team’s productivity.

Be Prepared to Answer Questions

Technology support requires clear and effective communication, no two ways about it.

Addressing issues related to IT might involve a conversation with your provider, who will have questions for you. These questions are not aimed at discovering what you’ve done wrong, but rather to collect enough information to establish context for the issue. This will help to speed things up and get you back in action as soon as possible.

Make sure you’re available to answer questions, and answer them both honestly and in as great a detail as possible.

Trust the Process

We know that working with IT support is the last thing you want to do when you already have so much on your plate.

IT is so entrenched in modern businesses that it’s likely your IT issues are bleeding into other areas of your business. The most disruptive issues are going to take priority. This is what a ticketing system is for; it helps your provider ensure that the most pressing issues are resolved first.

It’s important to trust that your IT provider will ensure a timely response to your issues according to priority level.

These Tips Will Help You Help Us!

You’d be surprised by how much these tips help IT support, and with a little preparation, you can ensure that all interactions with IT are satisfactory. For more information on how to achieve a quality relationship with your IT provider, contact Directive at 607.433.2200.