Technical Support Fundaments. Week 6: Troubleshooting and Customer Service

Question 1 Overview: Documentation is an important part of an IT Support Specialist role. It's vital to document processes and policies not only for yourself but for your teammates that may encounter the same issue. This writing assessment will help you get in the habit of writing good documentation. What You'll Do: For this writing project, you will write documentation to explain the process of making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich to someone who has never seen one before. You'll want to be detailed yet concise. Specifically, the documentation should have: 1) A description of the problem. 2) A description of the end result. 3) The solution detailed in a step-by-step manner.

1. The user has never seen a peanut butter and jelly sandwich before. 2. However, with detailed instructions the user will see the end result of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. 3. Please follow these instructions below: 1. Put peanut butter on one slice 2. On the other slice, put jelly 3. Combine both slices together you will have created the sandwich.

Scenario: You're working in an IT Support position and a user comes to you and says they can't login to their computer. Choose the best response.

Ask the user, "when was the last time you were able to login? what has changed since then?"; Remember to ask questions in order to try to figure out what happened before the issue came up.

Scenario: You're working in an IT Support position and a user comes to you and says they can't access their online bank account. Choose the best response.

Ca you explain to me in detail what you mean by not being able to access online bank account? What specific part doesn't work?; Remember, when tasked with a problem, don't jump to conclusions. Ask questions first and gather more information. The issue be an incorrect login, a poor network connection, a server issue with the bank, or something else. Always ask questions first!

Scenario: You're working in an IT Support position. You have a computer that won't connect to the network. You've already asked the user all the necessary questions, and now you begin troubleshooting. What's the next best first step you can take?

Isolate the problem to either the computer or the network; Since you've already gathered information about the problem, it's time to start figuring out what the issue is. There are two things that could be wrong: either the computer is having issues or it's the network. You can rule one out by testing whether or not someone else is able to connect to the network.

You're doing desktop support and the company policy is that you can only help with company equipment. A user walks in: Tech: Hi there, how can I help you? User: My computer is really slow and I can barely use it. Can you help me figure out what's wrong? Tech: It looks like this is a personal computer. Are you talking about your work computer? User: Uh, no, this is the one that I need help with. I figured you're good with computers and you could help. My daughter needs it for a school assignment that's due tomorrow, but it's too slow for her to get anything done.

explain why you can't troubleshoot the issue, per the company policy. but give him some tips on what common issues could be slowing down his computer, and how he might go about fixing them; This response sets expectations and then gives some helpful suggestions. Here, you're showing the user that you care about their issue, even if you can't help them.

A user needs their password reset. The IT Support Specialist is pulling up the necessary information while the user starts asking a bunch of questions: Why does the password have to have a capital and a symbol? Why can't I write it down? Why does it change so often? Isn't this a waste of time? How would you respond to the user?

let the user know that you're working on their issue and will be sure to answer all of their questions once youre done; You're acknowledging the user's questions, but setting a clear agenda of what you want to accomplish. This allows them to understand what they should anticipate and helps you keep control of the conversation.

Situation: You work for a company that requires a visual verification when resetting passwords. The verification doesn't have to be done through your company account. However, you must see the person "live" (not through a picture), so that you can match them to their photo before resetting their account. Scenario: Phone call Anastasia: Thanks for calling. My name is Anastasia. How can I help you? Ling: Hi, Anastasia. This is Ling. I need to reset my account password. Anastasia: Hi, Ling. I'd be happy to help you with that, but first I need to verify your identity. Can you do a video call with me through Skype? Ling: I can't get into my work account. That's why I'm calling. What would you do in this situation? Check all that apply.

offer to set up a video call through Skype, FaceTime, or hangouts; You're all about thinking outside the box to figure out what else the user can do to set up that call. You could potentially suggest that they go to an internet cafe or local library with wifi, too. suggest that the user does a video call with you through their phone ask the user if they have a personal account to use for Skype.

Scenario: You're working with a computer that doesn't run your newly installed software correctly. You've already asked the right questions, but you can't seem to isolate the problem to anything specific. Which of the following responses is the next best step to take?

restart the computer. it could be an issue of the software installation needing a reboot, restarting takes about 2 minutes.; A reboot might be required for the software to be fully installed. In this case, a reboot is also the quickest troubleshooting step to take.

A user walks in to get IT support. The IT Support Specialist is a female. The user is male. There's also a male IT Support Specialist in the room. The user explains to the IT Support Specialist that his co-worker is on leave and he needs to access her files. The female technician attempts to explain the policy, which doesn't allow for this, given security issues. The male user demands to speak with the male IT Support Specialist to reach a solution. If you were the male technician in this situation, what would you do?

tell the user that there is no difference in knowledge and understanding between you and your co-worker; You are not going as far as confronting the user, which can be really difficult. Rather, you're reinforcing and supporting her work as a fellow IT Support Specialist. It's not always the person being undermined who is responsible for "sticking up for herself."