Before Calling IT Support

IT Support is a necessary evil. It exist because computers expanded beyond the universe of people that actually know how to work with them.

Whether you work in an office, bought a DSL Modem or purchase the latest version of a software, you'll probably have access to some kind of tech support by phone or email.

In this kind of service there are three figure involved, the user, who asks for help/information, the technician, who provides the solution, and the most important, information that travel back and forth between the user and the technician.

In order to a successful conclusion of the process the user must be given a solution for is problem or an answer to is question. The efficiency (time and quality of response) depends both on the user and on the technician. In this post i'll focus on the user and the proper way of explaining the reason for calling IT Support.


Before Calling:

Ask yourself what's wrong, you don't need to be a computer specialist to check a few things on your computer. So, check what you know, this often solves the problem or can provide good information for what the problem might be.

Reboot, it's amazing how many problem this action can actually solve.

Have the information ready, if you have to call for help you will have to provide some information. So get the generic information of your computer (os type and version, some hardware specs) and be very specific when coming to problem/bug reporting, be sure to note the error message and, if you can, the actions you did before the error appear.


On call:


Tell what you know, shortly describe what the matter, and the information you gathered on the situation. Once again, be specific!

Follow instructions, when you're told to do something, think first, you're the one interacting with the computer, if it doesn't make sense ask for the reason to do it, if the instruction isn't clear ask the technician to be more specific. Try to understand the solution in order to be able to solve future similar situations.

Know who you talk with, if you have to call again you know someone that already knows most of the situation.Also, there are bad professionals everywhere, so if you're told to do something that damages the system even more it's the technician responsibility.



And finally, be polite; Everyone is working here, so leading the situation in a calm manner is easiest way of getting your problem solved .