Introduction and questioning Level 3 Extended Diploma Unit 12 IT Technical Support

Outcomes Understand the tools and techniques used for technical support Understand how organisational policies and procedures influence technical support Be able to gather information to provide advice and guidance Be able to communicate advice and guidance

Benefit of this unit There is a demand for technical support people who can: Provide on-site help Provide remote support Provide field support Provide call centre support On completion students will be able to: Help clients resolve technical problems Improve the performance of IT systems Demonstrate good interpersonal skills when under pressure

Questioning Customers can request support : Face to face By telephone By By completing a problem report form Questioning is a technique used in : Face to face Telephone

Types of questions Closed They give you facts. They are easy to answer. They are quick to answer. They keep control of the conversation with the questioner. Open They ask the respondent to think and reflect. They will give you opinions and feelings. They hand control of the conversation to the respondent

Exercise Are these questions open or closed? What seems to be the trouble? Is there a red light on the front? Have you changed anything recently? Did it start up normally? How long has this been going on? Does the printer make a noise? Did you get an error message? Can you see the desktop? What is on the screen right now? Does the cursor move? What happens when you press ALT-CTRL-DEL together?

Probing questions Clarification. What exactly did you mean by 'XXX'? Could you tell me more about YY? Purpose - Sometimes they say things where the purpose of why they said it is not clear. Ask them to justify their statement or dig for underlying causes. Why did you say that? What were you thinking about when you said XX? Relevance - If they seem to be going off-topic, you can check whether what they are saying is relevant to the main purpose of inquiry. Is that relevant to the main question? How is what you are saying related to what I asked? Completeness and accuracy - You can check that they are giving you a full and accurate account by probing for more detail and checking against other information you have. Sometimes people make genuine errors, which you may want to check. Is that all? Is there anything you have missed out? How do you know that is true?

Recording support requests How would you record a face to face conversation or a telephone call for support?

Recording support requests How would you record a face to face conversation or a telephone call for support? Fault log Problem report form Problem logging and tracking software

Individual Task Design a problem report form to be used for a face to face or telephone support request Step 1: What do you need to capture? Step 2: How will you lay it out?

What do you need to capture? Items identified by the class are:

Role play Groups of two One student is the client One student is the support person Each group is given a problem The client explains the problem The support person questions the client to make sure they capture ALL the information about the problem The support person completes the report form During the role play the remaining students observe the body language and detect the type of questioning used

After the role play Keep your completed report forms as they will be used for the first assignment Student who did not complete report form will be able to use them for the telephone exercise For part of assignment 1: Explain the questioning techniques used when handling a face to face support request Explain why a report form is useful and supply an example