Over my career, I have worked in a support role in numerous environments. I one time described doing support work in a new environment like cooking in someone else?s kitchen. You have to learn where things are. You have to learn the nuances of different equipment. But like also like cooking, there are specific things that do not change. Combining specific spices will have the same effect no matter what kitchen you cook in. The same exists in the world of technical support. So I have decided to start my own list and hope that you will add to it.
1. You should always test any installations or changes you make. In my nine years in the field I can not think of one time in which I thought to myself, ?Thank god I didn?t test that out.? I have watched printer technicians print out entire reams of paper to make sure their fix worked. At the least, test the process once.
2. Don?t take the customer?s word for it. This one has gotten many times. I have spent countless hours chasing my tail because a user insists that they saw something or have some idea about what the problem is. If they could fix it with out you, they would. Always recreate the problem and develop your own ideas. I once had a user tell me that Adobe Acrobat had to be reinstalled because it was conflicting with Word. I uninstalled and reinstalled Acrobat and Office numerous times until I finally stepped back, followed the logical process, researched it and fixed it in two minutes.
3. Document your processes. It?s much better to document a process that you will never use again than to not document something that you did and a year later have to try and remember what you did. I am a huge proponent of documentation including screen shots. I also document fixes for obscure problems that I run into. If it happens once, it can happen again.
I look forward to reading your thoughts and truths.
