Discussion on:

10 signs that you aren't cut out to be a support tech

I agree with the items you've listed, but while "soft skills" are needed, so are the hard ones.

#11 - You need to know the applications your "clients" are using at least as well as they do.

While knowledge bases are useful, they don't replace both deep and wide knowledge of the applications.

#12 - The ability to "see" in your mind what the client is looking at.

If you don't have a mental picture of what the user is seeing, it's dificult to assist them or determine what they're doing.

#13 - Good hearing. You need to listen carefully not just to the client, but to what's going on in the background.

For example, you may hear them double-clicking instead of single-clicking. You may also hear them hitting several keys when you only expect them to be hitting one.

Regards

highly agree

Yes ... good article.

I would add "sense of humor" to the list. I'm not talking about laughing at anyone, of course, but to enjoy some of the situations as well as being able to laugh at yourself.

Also, add a "good team player" to the list. Even if one works alone, it's very important to be able to work with others, whether it's your subordinates, or boss.

And another: Understand that the people you support are your "customers", even if they are in the same organization.

D. All of the above.

Good article.

EMD

Remember that you're also there to support those having the most difficulty... without them, you might not have a job. Unfortunately you're sometimes tacitly asked to save costs by running old equipment into the ground.

I am a technician, I concentrate on the technical skills. Why??? Because I have worked with too may people who are "techs" with people skills and they spend too much company time and resources ineracting with the "customer" (who works for the same company), and both the tech and the customer spend a good deal of time "interacting" and not enough getting the problem fixed. Many times because the "Tech" doesn't know how to fix the problem and the customer too eagerly welcomes the break from work. A techs job is to find the problem and fix it so the customer can get back to their job, a techs job is not to display how much personality they can exude. Stop wasting company resources on small talk, save it for your coffee break.

Partially true, some of the skills that lament the layperson's need, but make sure they know you as your business self.

ie. If I am curt with you, it is because time is a factor, I think fast I talk fast ... so pretty please with sugar on top clean the f***ing car.

perhaps not exactly in those words, but making sure the user understands you're all business during 9 - 5 unless at the water cooler, coffee pot, or zen station ... which at those times you're more laid back.

Otherwise.. those that go too far into the comfort of conversation are truely making points for "the nice tech support person" and that won't make any points with your boss.

fix the problem AND schmooze? In my experience, any service tech who downplays the importance of people skills in the frontline support business usually has none.
"He knows his stuff, but he's an @$$" has been said about support techs as often as "Nice guy, but he can't fix anything."

Yes, your job is to fix the problem and fix it so the customer can get back to work. A good service tech can do this. But a good service tech can also interact amicably ("schmooze") with the customer. If you piss off the customer and the customer has a choice, in most cases you will not be called again by that customer, no matter how well or fast you did the job.

Edit: spelin

Being able to balance tech skills with the ability to connect with your customers is, to me, more valuable than "turning and burning" your service calls. Yeah, you may be first on the leader board for number of calls closed, but when the customer satisfaction surveys go out your rating may be affected by your curt, all-business attitude.

IMO tech support is 8 parts knowledge/ability and 2 parts bartender. Being an active listener during a support call doesn't hurt your rapport with your customers (be they internal or external). On the contrary, it may make things easier the next time that expensive piece of IT equipment or software upgrade comes across the purchasing manager's desk.

I've seen more "nose to the grindstone" techs get canned over the years because they had 0 personality (or they were just complete d!cks). Regardless of whether they were talented or not (most were very good on the tech side).

Knowing how to "interact" with your customers is a skill that should be developed and nurtured, not scorned.

Good luck in your career.

I agree with you also, being the new guy I was easily intiminated by users that call in already mad because of wait time and then when they smell the slightist lack of knowledge the call gets worse. I guess its therapeutic to listen to fellow agents that can conversate and take care of technical issues at the same time.

I agree totally,

While working the help desk temporarily, I was usually concentrating the knowledge base for answers constantly and there were helpdesk agents chatting with users, each other and even singing because the helpdesk was not a challenge for them and they got bored. I think coworkers should be more considerate for people trying to do the helpdesk job to the best of their ability. Just think of someone graduating from school and then go sit in the front of the freshmen class because they know all the answers!

I don't know how many times my people skills have allowed me to relax a user enough to actually tell me what the problem IS to begin with... or how many times we're "just chatting" and the user will say something that tells me (without them admitting anything) exactly how the problem occurred.

Being a good tech may require just tech skills, but if you want to be a GREAT tech, you need excellent detective skills, and we all know (from watching too many crime shows) that a good detective puts people at ease so they can dig themselves a hole.

You also need to be able to help that user OUT of the hole, and not bury them in it. I don't know how many times I've told an awed user, "If you knew how to do my job, I wouldn't have a job, and then I'd be broke and homeless."

before I respond to posts... Lordy this is old.

Somebody resurrected a post from '00 last week.

So let me see.....technical aptitude is not at all a priority in I.T.? You may not be able to fix a problem but darnit you can hold a good social (Tupperware party anyone?).

I would say that soft skills are needed more than technical aptitude. Both are needed, but the support tech should be a go-between and this requires more soft skills than hard skills.

When we were doing tech work in the 90's, it was all about
what you knew, what you could do, almost like you were god
(little g) and noone argued with you. Today, it's about how
you treat your customer. Yes, experience and training are
important, but they walk hand in hand with people skills.
Alot of techs still have that problem, and it keeps them from
achieving a better job. Be good at what you do, but also be
good at customer relations(soft skills).

Aren't people with the tech skills more likely to be developers, second level support, field engineers, etc?

The support techs are the front line staff who need the people skills to "get the requirements from the customers, so the engineers don't have to"?

There's some troubleshooting involved, but issues that require serious in depth technical expertise in a certain area are going to be escalated to someone who can be specialized in that area. The support tech has to be a jack of all trades.

Most of us get frustrated when we call support and get routed to another support person without any real troubleshooting. Support Techs should have in-depth knowledge of the product, and not just be front line people to pass calls along. Receptionists can do that. Frontline techs are actually not treated that well in IT, and should be. I was a frontline support tech way back when, and myself and my co-workers took great pride in knowing our application, and being patient on the phone to help customers. Good managers recognize this and take care of their support people, knowing that they will move on to greater responsibility.

Way back then, and in some areas now, you can talk about one product and be done with it. But the fact remains that, today, technology permeates home and office, and you can't have complete knowledge of everything. So, front line tech support has to act as a general doctor who will check you and send you to the specialist.

I have found when working in numerous fields that the job description varies with the size of the company. Generally smaller companies may ask you to be a Help Desk person, field engineer, load and customise software, repair tech. Which in my opinion makes them far more interesting to work for, and an opportunity to learn a lot more than if you are a straight up Help Desk person etc.

But as far as escalation goes, I don't see it except for warranty work (5% of calls), extreme circumstances or highly specialized applications.

I provide wall-to-wall electronics support in a retail environment (PCs, point-of-sale peripherals, networks, printers, scanners, scales, etc.). I am expected to troubleshoot and repair broken equipment myself; since I don't have access to a repair depot for out-of-warranty spares, I am expected to repair that equipment as well. I am expected to be fully self-sufficient in all cases where client policy allows me access to application software and to contact support only when I need temporary root access on the servers (client does not authorize full root access to field techs).

In the last six months, I have probably escalated at most 3 calls a month and most of those were because I needed a root login.

Support techs are the people who actually do the troubleshooting and find the resolution of the issue. We fix what the developers and engineers screw up. You probably are thinking of a helpdesk person who takes calls and reads a script...