Michael McDonnell Winterstorm Solutions Technical Support Simple Rules for Getting the Help You Need Every Single Time These slides can be distributed and modified under the terms of a Creative Commons LicenseThese slides can be distributed and modified under the terms of a Creative Commons License. You are free to share and remix but you must provide attribution and you must share alike.

Why? Technical skills solve technical problems Is “getting technical support” learnable? Getting technical support is a management skill a communications skill NewTechnicalSkills

Overview How Helpdesks Work Writing Effective Requests Managing the Process 1 2 3

Section 1 How Helpdesks Work 1

Why Learn about Helpdesks? Build Confidence Improve Communication Inform Decisions

The 9-step/4-phase Model Phase 1 : Greeting Phase 2 : Problem Identification –Problem Classification –Problem Statement –Problem Verification Phase 3 : Planning and Execution –Solution Proposal –Solution Selection –Solution Execution Phase 4 : Verification –Craft Verification –User Verification / Closing Source: Limoncelli, T Deconstructing user requests and the nine step model. Proceedings of LISA ’99: 13 th Systems Administration Conference. Seattle, Washington, USA, November 7-12, 1999.

Problem Identification Loops ClassificationStatementVerification Later Phases 123 Phase 2: Problem Identification

Loops Between Phases Phase 2: Identification Phase 3: Planning & Execution Phase 4: Verification 123

Consequences ClassificationStatementVerification Later Phases 123 Feeling Ignored? Helpless? Getting the “runaround”? Frustration growing?

Solution #1 Classification Statement Verification Later Phases 123 Write a complete and detailed request Let them go in circles alone, not you.

Solution #2 Phase 2: Identification Phase 3: Planning & Execution Phase 4: Verification 123 Manage the communication process Know who will do what and when

Section 2 Writing Effective Requests 2

1. What is wrong: in a single sentence 2. What is wrong: in detail 3. How will you when it is working? 4.[ Who does this affect? ] 5.[ When does it need to be fixed by?] 6.[ Why are you contacting this person specifically? ]

Worst Case Scenario Getting Help from TELUS Advanced Communications Key to Solution: Writing and Effective Request I failed to describe the problem (only the solution) Staff responded with few details Staff did NOT want to help me Staff wanted to go home Staff had procedures that supported NOT helping

Example: The Wrong Way From: Iva Gott-problems To: Subject: help!!!! Problems accessing files and printers. Please advise.

Example: URGENT From: Iva Gott-problems To: Subject: [URGENT] The whole office cannot access network Hi, Starting about an hour ago, everyone in the office is unable to access the network: we cannot access the fileserver, printers, , or the web. All of the PCs can boot up and we can run most programs without a problem (e.g. Microsoft Word and Excel run just fine), but anything that needs to interact with a server or the Internet is having a problem. Can you investigate this as soon as possible. Our department has a deadline Tuesday, and we need to access files on the fileserver and the printers at the bare minimum….

Example: Simple From: Iva Gott-problems To: Subject: Cannot view webpages with Internet Explorer Hi, I’m writing to you because, as of this morning, I cannot view any webpages using Internet Explorer. After restarting my computer and logging in, I double- click the I.E. icon on my desktop. IE starts up normally, but no matter what address I type in I get an error (“Server is Unreachable”). I have tried the following URLs…

Example: Why Them? From: Iva Gott-problems To: Subject: Many Shaw customers unable to view our homepage Hi, I’m writing to you because some of users, those who use your cable-model service, cannot reach our homepage. I am writing to your address because it appears on the Shaw support site at and the users reporting this problem are Shaw customers….

Example: Verification Info From: Iva Gott-problems To: Subject: Many patrons unable to login to ezproxy Hi, I think there is a problem with ezproxy, many but not all of our patrons are unable to login this afternoon. We are not sure when the problem began, but we have no reports from yesterday, and many starting this afternoon. I have tested using the barcodes (included below) and PINs of several patrons and this is what happens…

Section 3 Managing the Process 3

Worst Case Scenario Dealing With Dynix over RPA Key to Solution: Managing the Process Long process (Less than a year) Dozens of problems Complex problems requiring many experts Deception and “misunderstandings”

Managing the Process 3 Rules of Thumb: Focus on the result you want Know who will do what next and when Specific questions deserve specific answers… but so do general ones

Focus on the Result From: To: Iva Gottaproblem Subject: Re: Browser issues Hi Iva, We haven’t been able reproduce the problem you are reporting with Internet Explorer, but our network specialist suggests that you install Firefox because it has fewer problems of this type….

Who, What, When Information Required for Better Decisions Who will take the next action? –What does it entail? –What is it supposed to accomplish? When will you know that they are done? Who will contact you when it is done?

General Questions, Specific Answers From: To: Iva Gottaproblem Subject: Re: network problems Hi Iva, The network problem is resolved now. Let us know if you have any further problems. 1.What was the problem? 2.Will it happen again? 3.Should we do something different? BUT…

Questions? me: Slides: