Discussion on:

Seven rules for being a great help desk analyst

Helpdesk and IT Dept.: I agree with most of the comments here but I find that a clear and succint opening message, gives me a chance to open a problem log and take charge of the call, sometimes if you let them, the caller will take over the call andit may take longer than is necessary

Bonding with the users???: Great article, except one thing...blame the programmers to get the user to bond with you? I guess the author never had to ask programmers for an emergency favor!

You know the user is going to repeat what the helpdesksaid...and it will get back to the programmers...and the support rep will be persona non gratis as far as the programmers are concerned.

I think blaming someone else (even if it is their fault) is going to cause bad blood and break down any team spirit there is.

the most common reason for abandoned calls is peak flow calls. callers are like busses, you don't get one for an hour then 5 come together. If Five people call at the same time and you only have 4 helpdesk analysts then the 5th has to wait. we areopften told to "Get more People!" for peaks hour staffing but it can be hard to point out that good helpdesk staff don't grow on trees. The people who pay for ouir services look at the type of graph you show and then do something horrible to them. They take the average! this means that sometimes there is no-one calling and other times the calls are flooding in. we haev be en fighting this one for years, the only way to cover is to get someone from another department to help our in the Helpdesk during peak hours. Most companies can't and won't pay for staffing at peak levels. It's a lousy thing but some times there is no alternative to leaving a voicemail for someone to get back later. the trouble is that people don't trust voicemail and that is something we all have to work on.

the most common reason for abandoned calls is peak flow calls. callers are like busses, you don't get one for an hour then 5 come together. If Five people call at the same time and you only have 4 helpdesk analysts then the 5th has to wait. we are opften told to "Get more People!" for peaks hour staffing but it can be hard to point out that good helpdesk staff don't grow on trees. The people who pay for ouir services look at the type of graph you show and then do something horrible to them. They take the average! this means that sometimes there is no-one calling and other times the calls are flooding in. we haev be en fighting this one for years, the only way to cover is to get someone from another department to help our in the Helpdesk during peak hours. Most companies can't and won't pay for staffing at peak levels. It's a lousy thing but some times there is no alternative to leaving a voicemail for someone to get back later. the trouble is that people don't trust voicemail and thatis something we all have to work on.

interesting

The ideas in this article are very good, but the application is EXTREMELY poor. You should NEVER blame another group (programmers, etc.) or other people for not giving you information or messing up an application. I would challenge the author to read the book called "QBQ" by John G. Miller. If I am a customer I am thinking, "Take some responsibility. Don't throw everyone else under the bus!"

Wow, what great concepts but poor execution.

Interesting. Having a free help desk also helps with offering professional support: http://www.neuqs.com

I am a recent computer science graduate and am trying to get a job a s a desk top support. Is there anything that I should know before interviewing? I noticed that the interviewer asks some questions like... "what do you do first if a user calls and they cant get their email to access?" Or something like that. What are the basic issues that people have and what do i say or how to resolve it? Can somebody help me please. This is my first time and Im freaking out.