HostMasterTips

Technical support staff has to be more prepared than others due to the nature of the job. Daily issues can be minor to major, from a small nuisance to a single client to ones that take all services down for all clients bar none. Yes, this can and has happened to highly reputed companies in the service industry. Trying to remember the important numbers to call, or tracing documents containing SOPs is the last thing you want to do in an emergency. You need to keep organized and ensure that all major eventualities are addressed by your organized desktop. Use text editors, multiple tabs, templates, sticky notes (real or software based), calendar, alarms, shortcuts and macros to cover all bases. It takes a while to get things arranged in the perfect way for you to make the most efficient use of these applications. Here are a few general tips.

• Make one or more important files (if you deal with multiple different and independent products/services in your day to day job). Add headings in the format like “How to do xyz”, followed by detailed steps on how to work on that particular issue.

• Add sticky note/s to the desktop that contains a to-do list.

• Better yet, add tasks as events to your calendar. I like the calendar recently added to Thunderbird and I use if often to stay organized.

• Arrange important files, manuals in an organized email and upload them online via email or some secure location so that you can access them while away from your desk in case of emergency.

• Tag important emails, arrange them in folders. Add filters to automatically sort emails to their respective folders.

• Take periodic backup of your data and add time stamps so that you can remove oldest backups later. This is one of the most important part of staying organized. Redundancy is always good when you are dealing with data.

First day at a job is strangely nervous for most people regardless of job nature. An eerie feeling remains throughout the first day at office. Jumping ship is less nerve wrecking though. You hardly remember or want to remember the first day after a week or so into your job as most people are so indifferent to your presence that it feels embarrassing. If you are working remotely in technical support or customer services capacity, then first day is mostly spent in setting up necessary applications that connect you to your employer’s systems and also going through orientation related to company policies other than work related documentation.

A good thing you could do is to avoid being over smart or overly shy. Just try to understand roles of different individuals in the office and how you picture in considering the overall function of the department. A few hours can give you a good idea of the hierarchy and the people related to your department and whom you are likely to deal directly with on a daily basis. It is better to keep emotions down other than being moderately warm and friendly ‘when approached’. Talking less, observing and listening more is helpful. You do not have to tell your peers what food you like or where you went on your last vacations. I also found being slightly submissive or timid is helpful in getting acquainted quicker and building helpful relations with all the important people. Your talent will command high respect eventually so let your work do the talking for you.

First few days, you can politely ask for tips, regarding essentials to go through and it is hard to do the same later. Note that everyone is busy and may not be compelled or obliged to assist you. Remember to

• Never ask a question without researching for an answer using any means available to you at that time.

Not ensuring this will make your questions less important for colleagues and cost you.

• Avoid questions about individuals, or their relations and status at office.

Being too inquisitive creates a negative impression and people will not trust you. Becoming trustworthy as a person is as important as important as being trustworthy at your actual skill for which you got recruited. I just hope your first day has been or is going to be good.

Ever think why you are never praised for all the good work you do, and why suddenly you are called in for all sorts of counseling when something goes wrong? It happens to most of us and yet we rarely fully accept it to be fair. Read on and I will try to explain the reasons that frustrated most of us working in tech support including me.

It is not only the quality of the product or its ease of use that decides its success in today’s service culture and cutting edge competition. Pre-sales service and after-sales support is equally important and often more so in high tech industries especially web hosting.

Ever notice the receptionists at bank, waiters at a restaurant, salesperson at a store who are all neatly dressed and well prepared, sharp, warm and friendly. Their look forms a part of the impression of that provider on its client. You may not notice it, but it is these factors that incline us to prefer one service, a particular store or a restaurant than the actual product they are selling. Psychologists have been researching t for decades and have long since provided this to be true. Every company wants its projected image to be good to keep itself in business.

Sadly, these factors are not there to help a web host’s or a high tech firm’s service and support where providing remote assistance is the only option. You may look like the this guy in the first image or the individual in the second one, it does not matter. Since your employer cannot show you dressed up in a nice suit and shining hair, it then has no choice but to ensure that your skills are flawless, neat, deft and customer friendly. Technical support is the after-sales front-line where impressions are created and client experience shifted. Each company wants its front-line to be as competent, skilled and hardworking as any other in the industry and able to draw positive customer attention and leave a lasting impression on the client. It is eventually this, which is going to draw in more clients.

Most web hosts and remote service providers in IT depend on direct marketing like every other company today but its referrals that form a huge portion of sales. Hardly any hosting company maintains franchises or sales centers where direct face to face contact is made with the clients on a daily basis. The reason is the simplest one; there is no need for it! For those management savvy, the need does not justify the benefits quantitatively.

Everything can be done remotely, and there is no physical item that a client needs to drive home. No matter how presentable you are as a person, your company cannot use you in that respect. You do not have aids like creating a nice office ambience to lure in clients, or putting in highly presentable staff at the reception. Hence, your skills matter a lot more.

The feeling left in the mind of a current customer, or a potential client will help your company long after first contact is made. In short, your company has nothing of use in your personality to present to its clients other than your skills and hence the emphasis is all the more on technical and customer services skills. Excellence is standard, not an exception.

Getting into a support job may require luck, references, skill etc, but keeping it and growing in it requires traits like dedication, innovation, hard work, and a never say die attitude. Think about all that has been written above and perhaps you will start understanding the grinding daily routine all the more easily. Yes, you rock! and trust me, your employer knows it !

In youth, most of us are hotshot wannabes at some point in our lives and this trait is even more widespread in tech support.

I am lucky to have been in the field of tech support for around 4 years and this has been a great adventure so far and I hope to continue it further and share it as well. As individuals, we all feel we have something special and we can do anything and everything if given the opportunity. Do you feel you are like this? Yes, add me as at least one individual like you so you are not alone in this world. Let us read on.

Unfortunately some face the hard reality quicker than others. In the field of tech support, this happens a lot. One thing is sure, reality does bring a tech down to the ground at some point in his/her career and I proudly say that I have faced the same many a time. Fear not, this is a blessing in disguise so don’t lose heart. I can safely say that this ironic part of the job is what makes us work harder in our job and become better.

If you are reading this, it is likely that you have been hired already as a tech or CSR at an IT firm that boasts an unparalleled support and takes pride in providing your services. It is also more than likely that you have faced your management in a scenario where you felt they are ashamed of you and you are the lousiest of individuals around. At such a moment, you instantly forget that the straight A’s you hit at some point in your career, a million lines of code you wrote in your life or the software competition you won in college, and you don’t remember it until you are back in bed thinking what happened today at your job. This bed time might not be at 9:00 AM in the morning, since most high end firms provide 24-7 support. Yet still, you are urged to put a brave face in front of angry clients next day, who have messed up their sites/servers big time and blame you and your company for it. Or worse still, some stroke of bad luck caused downtime in your services or at best caused degraded service. At this point you think, why me and why this.

If you haven’t been hired yet, read the above and believe it to be as true as sun rising from the east and then think again whether you want to join this career.

In this series of articles, we will be compiling traits of a tech and avenues of tech support that together make a certain tech better than others. We will also list down helpful tips that will hopefully help someone become that tiny bit better in his/her job. If 1% of readers can benefit a little, I think this site has served its purpose.