Have you ever thought that it would be great to work at the front line of customer support providing help over the phone or face to face? That it’s an easy job, sitting in a desk all day long and answering phones?
Great! Let me tell you how it is. First things first; help desk support is NOT for everyone. The person that would be successful to this role needs to have truly passion for computers and Technology in general, very thick skin and the ability to distance himself/herself of who they truly are and the persona that they need to assume in order to be able to work. Yes, it’s a persona. I have been working in positions like these for my whole career. I have seen the front line as well as the Management side of things. It’s not easy at all.
Not only you have to have the ability of a psychologist to be able to listen without judging the person on the other end (and believe you me, the times I had to work with as little as “it’s not working” is immeasurable), you have to have the mental clarity of a chess player to run different scenarios ON THE SPOT while the person is talking, as they will want an answer there and then. Any other professional probably will get some time before an answer can be given, but not us. We are the paramedics on the scene of an accident.
After the first investigation you will need to be able to collect all the jumbled information you are given (and try to hold your mouth when a user is saying “hard drive”, or “memory” and they mean the desktop PC) throw out everything that is irrelevant and just chatter and concentrate to the nuggets of gold you have been given.
You will have then to formulate a plan of attack and either solve the issue by yourself or forward it to Level 2 support.
Now let me tell you about Level 2 support. Most of the times (not always though) are the guys that they think they are so important to touch any simple item because...importance! You can find them arrogant, condescending and downright unhelpful. These are the guys you need to build a good rapport with (even if you have to praise them for their wonderful way to maintain the systems, and how do you do it? Amazing!) I had my share of those types. Been assertive of your knowledge and following the business guidelines for solving issues helps A LOT! Unless you work for a business that have very strict lines of separation between levels, be certain that you will be called upon to perform some of their responsibilities too. And that is a good thing to remember.
Once you get everything you have it’s time to solve the issue. A very big skill you need to cultivate is writing the solution for the user in a plain language that they can understand, and it makes sense. From experience users find easier short and direct commands like “click the button” or “do not close the window”. They don’t have to think a lot. Not that they will remember what they did at the end. They really don’t care if it works at the end. This is especially valid if you are supporting internal staff in a department that brings money to the business.
Which it brings us to the unfortunate mention; in the eyes of the business, you do not bring money to the table. You are part of an org that takes money, of course provides services, but the business itself will have hard time monetizing your services for the yearly financial review. And because of that they will be times you will be “bottom of the pack”.
I had an instance where the whole team I was part of, was referred as “washers” for the rest of the business. We found it funny, and the official product of the team became a sponge in plain view on our wall. You must be able to take jambs like these and not react.
BUT, make NO mistake. Your role is one of the most important ones. Traditionally Help Desk is seen at the bottom of an inverted pyramid, working for EVERYONE ELSE. In my opinion it should be the other way. At the top of the pyramid, all other departments aiding Help Desk to solve issues and support the end user, because that’s why you will do this job. For helping the end user when they are in a tight spot.
At the end you will have reached a conclusion for the issue at hand. It’s important to remember that you need to keep as many information as possible in the resolution notes. There were so many times that someone else from another department will try to check up on your solution.
A Help Desk technician doesn’t have only to find solutions for software issues but will be called to do physical work too. Moving computers, setting up desks for new staff members etc. The times we were called upon to setup a new desk at moment notice. I have lost count. And will be times that you will be the person that will do everything. Setup the desk, clean it, find chairs etc. And don’t forget the desk diving for network ports and broken power boards. And those dirty desks. How many times I had to clean the area so I can work. Some people are f-i-l-t-h-y.
Another issue that you might face as an in-house Help Desk, is the “line-cutting”. In their eyes everyone is more important, the higher up the more self-importance, and they will try, one way or another, to come in and demand someone to fix their problem at that moment. At the end we had to create a booking system electronically to combat this situation. And you know what happened? Users pretended that they were unaware of the system.
At this point I would like to mention a subject that doesn’t come up often to a conversation; Help Desk mental health. This is a VERY stressful job. You are the public face, the front-liner with a “target” on them; you are exposed for everyone to see and criticize when things go wrong.
Understand that you WILL have good days and you WILL have bad days. You will be consistently in high stress levels and those can have negative effect on your well-being. You are, after all, a “hero”, a “fixer”; people will turn to you when chaos rains upon their working day.
The problem with this “fire-fighting “is Help Desk staff “burn out” after a while of constant pressure.
You need to establish a daily mantra to combat this. Take breaks from work and move around. Do some stretching exercises, have a chat to others in your team. Speak with your team leader/manager if the workload is overwhelming. A good management should be aware of the workload by looking at the stats for each of the Help Desk staff. The creation of a good team-bond is also very important. Look out for each other is another thing that can help.
But, among all the bad things, there is a ray of light; most of the issues you will encounter are re-occurring. And that’s where a good system to Knowledge-base articles will come in handy. Make sure you have a good library of fixes for those small, repeating tasks. I have templates of quick-fixes in text form that I can copy-paste to the ticket and send it to the user. 9 out of 10, they will be happy to close the ticket. The rest will be probably someone that they think the solution is “too technical “to understand.
So, there you have it. That’s what it feels like to be part of a Help Desk team. It’s a demanding job, with a lot of ups and downs. But it does make a difference in any organization. Remember, no matter what people say, you are a HERO for the rest of the business. Be proud!
