Talking to tech support sucks.

It’s not that technicians aren’t nice (they are), or that they aren’t knowledgeable (also, they are). It’s the sheer fact you have to take time out of your day to call someone who may know how to fix a problem you’re having. But not just any problem. It’s one of the most frustrating kinds of problems.

It’s a computer problem.

We’ve all been there. A BSOD pops up; the computer starts acting strange or slow; it takes a long time to boot up, etc. This is always a scary moment. There could be something important on the drive you need: Family photos, homework, work documents.

You decide you can’t handle this alone so you go to make a call or go on a live chat system.

What comes next can decide the fate of your computer. We’ve been here for years handling the worst-case scenarios, and so we’ve spoken with some of our frontline tech support employees to get a sense of what makes a successful tech support conversation.

DO

Be Polite

Seems obvious, right? Well, if you haven’t worked in customer service you’d be surprised just how many people let their common decency out the window when the going gets a little rough or not exactly as they imagined it should be.

Being polite is the number one reason your problem is not only being looked after, but that you’re not flustering the person on the other end of the line resulting in poorer work. People do better work when they’re not overly stressed or dealing with rude clients.

This isn’t just in the tech support field. According to two studies published in the journal BMJ Quality & Safety, it was found doctors when dealing with difficult patients – described as people being demanding or aggressive, or questioning the doctor’s credentials – were more likely to be given a misdiagnosis by 20 per cent.

This means if you want your problem handled in a timely and effective manner it’s best to treat the technician with respect and patience.

Follow Directions

Again, it seems a bit silly to say it, but following the directions given to you by the technician is the best way towards fixing the problem. Whatever your problem is it probably isn’t unique. In fact, most of our tickets can all be pointed towards similar problems and technicians can deal with several of those every day.

It’s okay to ask why the technician wants you to do something, but refusing to follow directions will result in either not fixing the problem, or resulting in a less-than-satisfying outcome. Believe us when I say we want the best for your PC as well, and the last thing we want to do is to ruin your computer. We want to resolve the issue and have you back on your feet. So, give a little trust, and we’ll always do our best to help.

DON’T

Be Vague

Okay, so the computer is acting up. It’s not as fast as normal. It’s acting strange. There’s a weird error message that comes up. You don’t know exactly what it said but it looked bad.

Unfortunately, these kinds of descriptions don’t exactly help narrow down the problem. There are so many things going on with a computer all at once it’s not as simple as vaguely describing a problem and summoning a solution from that.

When technicians hear this kind of speech, we only hear a puzzle. We start deducing what you really mean by this, and we’ll do our best to help narrow down your descriptions by asking overly specific questions. What were you doing when the error came up? Did you install anything new? Did you visit any unsafe websites? How long has this problem been around? Please describe what you see now, etc.

The more specific the better. If an error message comes up it will always have at least a description in a sentence, and hopefully it even includes an exact error code number. This information is not gibberish. Although you do not understand it, this helps point to exactly where the computer is running into a problem. The best thing to do is to take a screenshot, or if that’s not an option, take a quick picture with your phone and include that in your discussion with the technician.

Think You Know Everything

You’re an IT professional. You’ve done this before. You don’t need to follow the simple directions first, right? You would never forget to unzip the package! …Right?

You’d be amazed how often people assume they’ve done something simple. But oftentimes the simplest solution is the correct one.

We’re not trying to talk down to you when we suggest you look to see if you haven’t unzipped the software package. We’re also not talking down to you when we ask you to confirm these details with us. The truth is everyone makes assumptions, particularly when they’re confident with something. You assume you’ve done nothing wrong. But that’s where the majority of our tech support chats come from, and how to fix them.

We’re all on the same team and we want to get the program working for you. But we need to step through the process you’ve done in sometimes tedious detail. But this is all for the purpose of narrowing down the solution. Nine times out of 10 we’ll find the solution along the way.

If you follow these Do’s and Don’ts, you’ll be sure to have an enjoyable experience with us, and with RollBack Rx Professional, Reboot Restore Rx Professional, our freeware, and more. We look forward to providing you the best customer service in the instant recovery market.