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Anticipating customer questions makes your instructions more credible

A month ago, I had the unexpected good fortune to be able to attend the Philadelphia appearance of singer Kenny Chesney, who brought with him Pat Greene, Sara Evans, Sugarland and Brooks & Dunn.   When tickets originally went on sale, in March, they sold out in half an hour.  However, a...

Tags: Help, General, Free Tech Support, Customer Relations, support, Helpdesk

Blog posts 2007-07-27

Insights from a book on why software s**ks

For those of you who wonder why software is so difficult to use,may I suggest the book Why Software Sucks, by David S. Platt (note: I normally avoid such words, and give the title in its entirety here only out of a desire to be accurate).  Infact,...

Tags: Helpdesk, Help, General, Free Tech Support, Customer Relations

Blog posts 2007-07-23

One of the Lads

Continuing my quest for the bathroom beautiful I decided that Dodgy Dave's quote was a bit high.   For about half a week's work he quoted me just under £5000, a price that did not include the services of his plumber, electrician or plasterer.   I priced up the stuff I needed...

Tags: Blogroll, Customer Relations, Training, Free Tech Support, General, Help, Helpdesk, support

Blog posts 2007-06-25

The Flashing Zero Generation

As I passed through this veil of tears that is IT support I have experienced most of the types of caller, I have even created a taxonomic classification system for user types which has been the subject of a previous article.http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-1035_11-1034684.htmlI have to add another type of person to this...

Tags: General, Help, Helpdesk, Office, remote support, Customer Relations, Excel, Free Tech Support, support, Training, windows, Word

Blog posts 2007-06-17

Make sure your customers can find you

I had a great meeting at the University of Maryland the other day. They're pleased with my work, and find my suggestions valuable. Being in a good mood as I was leaving, therefore, I decided to stop at a Starbucks before driving back to Philadelphia.Not knowing the town...

Tags: Free Tech Support, General, Help, Helpdesk, support, Customer Relations

Blog posts 2007-06-11

The Field Tech: How Helpdesk Life Can Prepare You For The Real World.

After too many years answering the phone and creating imaginative solutions to mundane problems I took the plunge and went out into the world as a field tech.There are many advantages to this, unlike my last helpdesk job, the scenery changes, there is a different face at every call and...

Tags: support, remote support, Helpdesk, Help, General, Free Tech Support, Customer Relations

Blog posts 2007-04-08

That last minute caller!

That last minute caller! It’s been a long night shift; you are looking forward to going home, eating a meal and clearing your head of those dumb users. With less than a minute to go your phone rings and your heart sinks. You go through that inner...

Tags: Help desk, Call centers, won&rsquo, t

Blog posts 2007-03-25

Being The Local Tech Bloke

Many of you will now the feeling, being the person that all your friends and family come to for advice and help with every kind of computing query known to man, and every time that Microsoft releases a new operating system the queries are inevitably along the lines...

Tags: Upgrading, windows, Free Tech Support, Help, PC

Blog posts 2007-02-22

Additional Resources

Ten ways to decline a request for free tech support

Requests for free tech support often catch you off guard and your first instinct is to accept the task. But taking on a free support job is often a significant commitment and can be a real headache. When someone makes an unwelcome request for free tech support, use a response...

Tags: TechRepublic Inc., Tech, Recruitment & Selection, Human Resources, Workforce Management

Download resources 2005-05-26

World's most useless tech support document

Your nominees for most useless tech support document are...Now it's your turn--nominate the most useless tech support document you've ever seen. It has to be a true tech support document. A posting by some person in some tech support forum doesn't count. I'm looking for an actual...

Tags: RexWorld, Now IT, tech support document, useless tech support

Discussion threads 2007-07-19

GLOWZ

blog rootTech Supportfree tech support about general things

Tags: Blogging, epikorous

Discussion threads 2005-10-13

10 good reasons not to provide free tech support

COMPUTERS ARE OUR HIGHEST ENGINEERING EXPRESSIONAnd they suck when it comes to problems!RE: 10 good reasons not to provide free tech supportCouldn't agree with this article anymore

Tags: PRODUCTIVITY, BALTHOR, tech support

Discussion threads 2007-07-11

Top support tech resources: Best of Jeff Dray

Jeff Dray has been in the help desk and tech support field for more than 15 years and has shared his experiences and expertise in numerous TechRepublic articles. Here's a sampling of some of his practical, often-droll advice on a variety of tech concerns. Topics include: 10 things to...

Tags: Network, Tech, Jeff Dray, Help Desk, Call Centers, Networking, It Operations

Download resources 2007-05-03

Knowledgebase vs CBT

I wanted to break this into a seperate thread.There was a little bit of discussion of CBTs vs. a searchable knowledgebase as an added Feature to TPG.I know several companies that do online CBTs, and Im sure it would be possible to partner with one of them. Does anyone know...

Tags: computer-based training, John Sheesley - TechRepublic Pro, John Sheesley - TPG, Knowledgebase, online CBT, Tech Books

Discussion threads 2005-03-31

Webcomic: Linux tech support

Google=Linux Tech supportWhy would anyone want to wait in a que for a half hour listening to Dells crappy music?Just google it!(and go download some crappy hold que music while your at it to get the full effect of Real Tech support!)Cartoon not at all accurate....the support tech is not...

Tags: UNIX, OPEN SOURCE, Operating systems, Hacking, bradgalliford@..., Dell Computer Corp., Linux, Linux Tech Support, Webcomic, Dell Linux

Discussion threads 2007-06-18

sonicwall vpns...

how do i get my 2 sonicwalls to vpn to each other?i have a pro 600 and a tzw i have vpn licences for both, and tried to get them connected but it always fails, i followed instructions from manual and no dice!I have VPN between 2 sonicwalls. I had...

Tags: VPNs, Network security, TELECOMMUNICATIONS, VPN

Discussion threads 2005-05-18

Ten good reasons not to provide free tech support

As an IT support professional, people routinely ask me to "help" then solve computer problems unrelated to my actual job. I like to help when and where I can, but there are serious pitfalls to accepting such requests. Providing free technical support is often not worth the price you pay,...

Tags: TechRepublic Inc., Computer, Help Desk, Productivity, Call Centers, It Operations

Download resources 2005-05-26

Help Desk Trouble Ticket Template

The Help Desk Trouble Ticket is an important document for the technical support professional. This form contains all the essential fields for maintaining an organized, accountable tech support organization, including general ticket information and problem description. Ample room is also available for follow-up responses by the tech handling the job....

Tags: TechRepublic Inc., Tech, Help Desk Trouble Ticket, Help Desk, Call Centers, It Operations

Download resources 2008-04-04

Did Vista kill defrag?

When I first started using Vista defrag worked fine. In the last couple weeks however it hasn't worked at all. It won't even launch. The scheduler isn't working either. It's really starting to affect my PC's performance, programs in general are taking about twice as long to load and are...

Tags: Microsoft Windows Vista (Longhorn), sny420@..., Microsoft Windows Vista, tech support

Discussion threads 2007-10-15

Not to provide free tech support

blog root

Tags: Blogging, yyq123@...

Discussion threads 2005-06-01