Flipside: 8 End-User Troubleshooting Tips
All I can say is wow and double wow! I had no idea this would be so damn popular. I admit I posted it on digg to see if the community would like it, but 50,000 hits later I guess that’s a “yeah.” I would also like to note I’m an actual admin and don’t work at a call center. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, just clearing up some misconceptions.
So for those who love Top X lists, and based on the emails I’m getting, I’m going to do something for the end-users out there, and any admins reading this can chime in. These are things you should do or keep in mind as you’re contacting your local admin or support.
#1 – Reboot
The Holy Grail of Tech Support returns! Not much to say about this one. Some say it fixes the symptoms but doesn’t cure the problem, and to that I say—bah! Sometimes weird crap happens and you just can’t explain it. Sometimes the printing subsystem dies and it needs a restart to come back to life. Running the 16–bit subsystem in NT4 is a nightmare. Bad things happen and a memory and cache flush usually clears things up just fine. I think it’s sexier to say that there’s really a hidden cause for your troubles that can be cured with the right widget or tweak, but rarely is this the case.
#2 – Don’t Lie
Yes, the opposite of #1 on that other list is very important. Don’t lie to me. If you want your problem fixed, just tell me what happened. If you visited a site you weren’t supposed to, I need to know. I’m not in the tattle-telling business, but I’m also not in the coddling business. If you were doing something bad, your boss will probably know about it—eventually. But as for my time with you on the phone, in person, or reading about your troubles in email, a majority of the time bad things don’t begin happening “for no reason at all.” If you’re filesharing, think you have a virus, or are riddled with spyware, the more information you can give me, no matter how hurt or shameful, the better and the faster you get fixed.
#3 – Plug It In
It’s a cliche, but it’s true: Sometimes you need to plug the damn thing in. And I’m not talking about power cords exclusively. Keyboards, mice, microphones, network cables—none of these things will function if they have no connection to the machine. I can’t tell you how many times I had to run out to a facility only to find that the mouse was loose in the back, or the network cable was unplugged. If you’re not comfortable with fiddling with that stuff it’s okay, but at least jiggle a few chords and see if anything is loose.
#4 – What Changed?
Whenever there is a software problem, most of the time something changed to cause it. I know it may have been a slight change. You may have upgraded your hardware, you may have upgraded your Acrobat Reader or ran Windows Update and didn’t think to mention it. Whatever it was, the guys on the other end of the phone or staring into the innards of your PC need to know about it. Something as “innocent” as a Network Drive Letter changing can be huge in terms of configuration files and where they’re looking for data.
#5 – Get the Exact Error Message
Before you contact those who are forced to wade through the jungle of errors and problems, be sure you write down everything an error message tells you. And hopefully you don’t leave anything out because, as House M.D. will tell you, a bad ‘history’ (ie, the exact data on prior events and conditions) is necessary to properly diagnose a problem. If its a run-time error, I need to know the number. If it’s a start-up error, I need to know how far along the machine booted until it crashed. If you get an error message of any kind, expect us to ask you exactly what it said.
#6 – If it isn’t Critical, Please Email Instead
I know you just gotta have some things by a certain time. I also understand the pressure of someone sitting on the other side of your desk staring you down. By all means, give me a call. I want to help. I’ll come down and fix it if necessary, or even bring you another machine. But if it isn’t life or death and it isn’t absolutely crucial to your day-to-day activities, please give me an email instead. Particularly if its a strange or new error message you’ve never seen, I’ll get to take one look at it and either have time to research it or will contact you immediately and fix it. Either way it’s a win-win: If I’m busy and need something done, I’ll have the time to finish that before I get back with you.
#7 – Check Your Neighbors
Can’t check your email or access the network? Check your neighbor(s) if you can before you call. If its been down for any length of time beyond 2–3 minutes, the IT department has probably heard about it. There’s no need to let us know again, unless something has changed (see #4). While I appreciate the heads-up as far as downtime, the longer I’m on the phone trying to pacify your fears the longer it takes to actually fix the problem.
#8 – Threats Don’t Speed Up Assistance
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been passive-aggressively threatened. “Well, what do you think Mr. Smith, your boss, would think of not making it out here until Thursday?” some ask. To that I respond, go ahead and ask him. Knock yourself out. If it’s not critical and I’ve got more important things to work on I’m afraid you’ll have to wait. I know you’re important and the fact that you’ll have to use another printer in the building is a terrible thing, but threats will get you nothing but a pissed off IT crew that will take their sweet time helping you now and in the future.
And that’s all I have for today. Any others you think I may have missed? I’m all ears. Thanks for reading.
Numb is the new deep, done with the old me
And talk is the same cheap it’s been
28 Comments:
Yeah, but IT is expendable. My printer situation, however, isn't. I mean, none of em really know what they're doing...
I was threatened by a manager one time and was able to get my point across rather easily. I KNEW she'd screwed something up bad from the symptoms, but she wouldn't cop to it. I told her to just tell me what she'd done, even if it was bad, and I could fix it easily. If she skirted the truth, I'd still find out, but it would take me several hours of diagnosis to be sure, and then the time to fix it.
Fortunately, she was intelligent enough to figure this out and told me she had deleted everything in her home directory by mistake... versus blaming it on us or those pesky Gremlins, which would indeed indicate a very serious data disappearance problem and require a great deal of investigation. By admitting it was her, it took 15 minutes to restore the data and we could both get on with our day.
From then on, she'd always insist that the helpdesk send the problem up to me when she knew she did something stupid. I guess she felt like I was the only one that wouldn't outright laugh at her.
Don't lie to the IT staff. You'll either look really stupid or it'll take ten times as long to fix the problem and we'll still know it was you that did it... accidentally or otherwise. Shiat happens... we know this and we plan for it.
you are a douche,, why dont you digg this too. It appears you need alot more years...
Do not complain or apologize to your help desk staff for not knowing anything about computers. It is not their fault that you do not. When you do it just makes them twitch. They dont particularly care if you don't have computer skills if your can be calm, give good feedback and take directions.
Durring the beginnings of a call they have no idea of your tech level they may shoot things over your head or dumb things down to too simple level. Just give them a chance to adjust to your level. They are not trying to jargon you or patronize you . They are just getting to know you.
Also most computer problems don't come with estimated fix times so dont ask if they have one they will give it to you.
Here's another item: Don't tell me the solution, tell me the problem.
Ever brought your car to the mechanic and, trying to show off, said "I think it's the (thermostat, alternator, whatever)"? The mechanic replaces the part you specified, because that's what you told him to do, then you get the car back and dammit, it's still making that noise.
It's the same thing with your computer. If you ask me for something, that's exactly what you'll get. Don't be surprised when it doesn't fix the problem.
If you're lucky and I'm not terribly busy, I might try to play 20 Questions to determine what the problem is. If I am busy, I'll probably just hand you that new ink cartridge and let you get ink all over yourself before we discover that poor print quality might be other things, like your print heads (last Thursday) or the fact that you pull the paper out of the printer before it's finished printing (last year.)
Just tell me what the problem is. And yes, with the exact error message. They pay me to figure out what the solution is.
Or tell me what task you need to accomplish; don't tell me what software you need to do it. Yeah, so, your son said you can use Photoshop to view those pictures of your grandkids. We're not spending $500 to buy it for you.
And no, I don't care that you're looking at pictures of the grandkids. But you can damn well use IE or Paint to do it.
I agree with your advice for users, but as the techie it is fun to just nod and let someone commit to a whopper of a lie, especially in front of their boss, before showing them otherwise. "I remember that you didn't do anything but turn on the computer before all these problems showed up, but the activity logs show that someone ran Acrobat Professional Installer at 8:17 a.m. on this computer, which would account for what I'm seeing ...." Have you ever seen someone change shades of red three times in one sentence?
Never tell the idiots that they are idiots... it's much more fun and productive to SHOW them that they are idiots.
Hey, man, the idiots are reading this! Shhhh!
I wish it was only the users that were the problem...
Ok, there are some right n00bs at my collage, and they always ask me to do anything on the system, because I can actualy do it in less time and with less hastle than the Admins, as they bog you down, cripple the system and basicaly ristrict what you can do, without caring that you need acsess to your server at lunch time to finnish off that HUGE assignment for the next lesson.
I have discovered that there are two types of sys admin in the world:
bad - the system is the priority, LOCK IT DOWN!
good - the user is the priority, let them get on with their work and fix it when it goes wrong, after all, that's our job.
the sad thing is, in my experience, there are so fiew of the second type. Oh, well...
These are all great ideas for the average worker monkey, but I suggest all IT people to have patience. Most people don't even know exactly where their electricity comes from, less alone the magical gerbils that make their computers work....
Seems only IT people are posting here, but here's some advice to users:
1. 'don't believe everything the IT staff tells you' especially on a Friday afternoon.
2. Make sure the problem is completely fixed before Johnny tech monkey leaves. He will blame you if you call back to tell him that the problem still exists.
3. Don't fix any problem, even if you know what the problem is, because, as you can see from the tone of these posting here, they don't believe you have the ability to fix anything. Just play into that, it will give you loads more free time to let them try and figure it out.
4. Don't be pushed around by people with low self esteem.
5. Don't lie to the IT staff, they carry grudges and don't take jokes very well.
6. Call the IT staff for every little problem you have, so they can't blame you for doing something wrong. Do not take any initiative what soever in maintaining your computer, IT'S NOT YOUR JOB.
Spoken like a true sales/marketing dweeb.
I'm definitely down with the 2 kinds of Admins.
At my last job where I was in charge, I told all new hires the same thing:
"I'm going to give you local admin rights to your machine. And you can install stuff on it, that you think you need. I'm never going to second guess what you think you need, to do your job. BUT, if you fuck up your machine a couple times, I will get tired of rebuilding it. And I will take away your admin rights."
We're all adults here, in theory, until someone proves that they aren't I'll give 'em the benefit of the doubt.
To user above, that is what makes the IT department leanr to hate you. Every IT would love for the users to do a decent job of listening, learning , documenting, and helping in fixing the problems. Thats all we ask, just help us help you and we will both be happier, we understand you are not a computer nerd, hell we arent accounting nerds and don't want to be. Like everything else, there are good IT types and bad ones, just like good users na bad users. Can we all just get along! Well never mind I know that answer.
"1. 'don't believe everything the IT staff tells you' especially on a Friday afternoon."
I would take this as applying to anyone, not just IT Staff, but I honestly doubt there's a higher preponderance of liars amongst IT staff than the general populace.
"2. Make sure the problem is completely fixed before Johnny tech monkey leaves. He will blame you if you call back to tell him that the problem still exists."
Competent IT staff will wait for you to try things before they leave. They don't want to have to come back out on another service call any more than you want to wait for another trip. If you're not around, however, don't expect IT to know exactly what it is you were trying that was failing...
"3. Don't fix any problem, even if you know what the problem is, because, as you can see from the tone of these posting here, they don't believe you have the ability to fix anything. Just play into that, it will give you loads more free time to let them try and figure it out."
A complete crock. If you're tech-savvy enough to change your toner cartridge, or set your Outlook to "vacation" by yourself, knock yourself out. But don't get out a screwdriver to install some RAM you have hanging around the house, don't install unlicensed software you brought in from your last job, and don't install shareware without at least getting an okay from IT staff that it's not utterly laden with spyware.
"4. Don't be pushed around by people with low self esteem."
Hello, Pot? It's Kettle...
"5. Don't lie to the IT staff, they carry grudges and don't take jokes very well."
Er, what on earth? Don't lie to *anyone*, asshole! Jokes are fine, in their place, but don't tell me you came in one day and magically your machine was serving up porn after hours. Fess up, it just makes things easier in the long run.
"6. Call the IT staff for every little problem you have, so they can't blame you for doing something wrong. Do not take any initiative what soever in maintaining your computer, IT'S NOT YOUR JOB."
See Number 3, above. But I'll also add "don't do anything that you know is beyond your ability". Don't run Windows Update if you don't know how your IT staff handle updates. You may well break the app you need most.
It seems like the IT world has been seperated into two different camps, user and tech guy. While this is amusing for articles such as this or for jokes on SNL or other nonhumorous content it is in no way a truly accurate portrayal of the world. There are plenty of users who know plenty about computers and are more than capable of troubleshooting their problems and there are also plenty of admins who have self-esteem and function normally in society. The point being that it is not a black and white world and at the end of the day most users just want to get back to work and admins are only trying to fix the problems.
From personal experience I will say that if you go into a situation where either side has a preconcieved notion of how they should act, it causes problems. I don't like being treated like the enemy when all I am trying to do is help. And I'm sure on the flip side your co-workers don't like being treated like their every breath crashes the server.
about the "i'm smart enough to try to fix my own problem" comments, realize that any company large enough to actually have an IT department should be running some kind of management system. If nothing else, they should have your system on a domain, but it could be major system optimizations that you have no experience with. This is to make our lives easier, but it changes the way your system works: I.E. don't expect your corporate managed systems to work the same way as the new dell you just brought home with factory loaded software. When we apply these kind of changes, it expands "your computer" into something much larger than the box under your desk. realize that fixes you do at home (such as running the internet connection sharing wizard (oh good god I hate that one)) may not work in the environment we've spent many many hours creating to make your equipment run smoother, and our lives easier(at least that was the initial idea).
For those deriding the "user" and "tech guy" division, it works like this: a user is concerned with his box. that's one box. those of us who work as admins are concerned with a much larger world. We've got a much larger picture of what's in the office(remeber buying us that network visualizer software that we had to beg and plead for? that's why)It's not that you aren't tech savvy, it's just that your world has been confined to what happens on your box, or maybe a small home network. Things like roaming profiles and centralized management just don't apply in those situations, ignorance of these kinds of technologies is only a detriment to your technical staff, not to you.
I will say that our tech department has gotten much enjoyment out of the posts/blog and can probably put at least one name with each post/comment (user or tech).
As an IT professional reading through these blogs.... It is my opinion that most everything in the comments are true, on both "sides".
Users do lie - IT people lie, it's an unavoidable truth. Rarely does this do any good for either the user or the tech. My favorite question is "when was the last time you powered off/restarted your computer?" "oh, within the last week" only to visit this user and find that task manager is showing "System idle processes" has been running for 150 days. Politely pointed this out to a user and explained... only to meet with an argument. This leads to an addendum to "don't lie"... being "don't argue with the numbers the tech guy shows you" - we don't like that and rarely forget.
I also have the firm belief that patience goes a long way for the tech AND the user. I've seen too many times when attempting to assist a user over the phone (and even in person) get frustrated after a hanful of questions - even straightforward ones, such as "click the start button, tell me what version of Windows you have... 98, ME, 2000?" The response was "oh, this is too technical for me, I can't do that" - the conversation went downhill from there and was thankfully not one of our work users. We're not asking these questions for our health, we're trying to help.
To the user: Follow the do's and don'ts list... Most/many techs will not laugh at you for something that has happened... and if they do 99% of the time it will be later... think of it this way... you have brightened their day
To the tech: Pay attention to your users skill/jumpiness level - treat them as you would someone who is dear to you (even the times when the user doesn't deserve it)- remember, if they weren't around, you'd either be programming or asking "do you want fries with that?"
To all - take everything w/ a grain of salt.. unless there's much water under the bridge between tech and user, nothing is meant personally.
Users: Read the all user messages we send out. They contain vitial information which apllies to all users, hence why we sent it out to all users
Don't wait a year to report that after the email upgrade all you're old emails went missing. For some reason we won't spend days rebuilding the old email system to restore the missing emails you couldn't be bothered to report.
This is a good post, and I agree.. another one to remember for users:
You are probably not the only person I am helping right patience helps me a lot.
The ratio for most IT is somewhere around 500 users to one tech. In larger corporations its even greater. At one point I personally supported around 3000 users. This was in well managed environment and I was only in charge of desktop and printer, but thats a lot of people. Know the how heavily loaded your IT person is, and please be patient. You may not be able to print but your IT person may have 3 users who are down completely.
Contrary to Popular Belief Computer Techs are not Santa Clause.
We show up more often, and don't keep lists, but most importantly IT people do not have magic sacks with parts in them. It takes time to get parts. Depending on your environment and IT budget usually only mission critical parts are kept on hand. (And just because you are a VP doesn't mean your inkjet printer is mission critical.) Parts are most likely going to have to be ordered, warranty may have to be worked. You may not see it happen but IT people often push a lot of paperwork through, and this all takes time.
If you have a presentation or project deadline.. SAVE YOUR DATA TO THE NETWORK. This is one of my biggest pet peeves.. Someone has a project or presentation due, thier hard drive crashes. Do they have a copy on thier network share? No. Now its suddenly critical that I get thier computer up their data recovered. If there is a copy on the network it is easy to find a spare machine and reconnect the network drive.
Threats don't work thats for sure. The most likely thing is going to happen is I am going to ignore them and go on to someone who is more polite.
for the techs: Treat your user with respect. have you ever been called the HelplessDesk instead of the helpdesk because you or someone in your department didnt pay attention?
for the users: information, information, information. it is much more valuable to tell me what is going on and how it got started and let me sort out what i need to remember and what i dont. true i dont care much about the plant you keep in your cubical... but if you happen to mention its on top of your monitor and you've been watering it... then i care.
always start at the basics, What the error is. what broke. if you need to, go on to what you were doing when it broke, then go on to what else was going on. Eventually we'll sort out if it's user error, or tech error. both of which are entirely common, anyone who says otherwise isnt telling you the truth.
Techs: Users are people too
Users: Techs are people too
Lying and rudeness are my two pet annoyances as a tech. I go out of my way to help friendly people, even if they don't have a clue. Those that are rude or just flat out lie to me get duck-shoved to the bottom of the pile of jobs I have to do.
I keep a sign above my desk (I'm an IT manager AND run customer tech support) that says:
The customer is always:
* Lying
* Misiniformed
* Stupid
* Wrong
x All of the above
Not always true, but true often enough to make it worth remember. I also tell my assistants that patience is more important than technical knowledge - stay calm, work the problem, and the customer will thank you. Get frustrated & angry, even if you know exactly what's wrong, and you'll find yourself with a pink slip and a bad reputation.
My favorite: when something happens, as the tech one says, "Ok, stop, Don't Do Anything!" and you can still see them moving their hand for the mouse or the keyboard or whatever. "Yes, I know he just said don't do anything, but I'll just close this window..." GAH. What part of DON'T DO ANYTHING do people not understand?
Here is another truth for ya:
Microsoft Windows ME is EVIL!
I work as a PC tech on the side, my day job used to be a programmer for a large financial services company. The helpdesk there, they called it "command center", had the philosophy that if you totally wiped the PC's install with a totally fresh image, that would cure all ills. This process takes about 5 hours to complete, at least on laptops.
Thankfully, I was able to fix some of my own issues, although, they had system policies set to where we couldn't even get a darn command prompt to run! ARGH.
There were a few times when my PC would crash with blue screens, and I'd get all the error codes, even the HEX addresses of the modules that crashed. Their answer when those happend, was to reimage, I told them many times, that it wasn't a software problem, that it HAD to be hardware.
And I was 100% right that it was a hardware problem too. About a month later, the PC would not POST at all. A tech came over and cracked open the case, and it was obvious what the problem was. Several of the caps on the motherboard were fried, I could smell them the moment the case was opened.
Best way to get prompt IT service is to fix your own problems...especially if you don't know what you're doing. After the first 3 f-ups that cost IT staff days to fix, they'll insist you call them first with any little problem.
Users in corp. environments: Remember that IT is a support function. As such, it relies on other business units for funding. If your IT dept. is understaffed/resourced, it may be because it doesn't have the budget it needs.
In other words, company politics and budgeting affect resource levels for IT as much (if not more) than IT mgmt. Many users don't realize this and jump to blame IT for what may be a failure of mgmt. Not saying this is always the case, but something to be aware of. I've seen many times when the mgmt. of a dept. complains that IT support doesn't have enough staff and that same dept. is the one that fights for any increase in IT budget...
I previously worked as an IT consultant with a local firm and to be honest, the worst offenders of the "I know what I'm doing cause the magazine told me what to do" were one of the directors, and one of the trainee IT staff (had an HND in graphic design but knew nothing of the technical side of IT itself)
Several time's atleast one of them would come to me with a problem and/or question and it would normally go along the lines of;
Them: Steven can you come fix my PC for me please?
Me: Sure, but to save you some time, what exactly has happened?
Them: I don't know, I couldn't access [N] so changed [Y] and the PC stopped working
Me: Then change [N] back
Them: But I can't remember what I did
Me: Okay, I'll be there in a couple mins
The best of course was after I'd finished with the company (long story). They hired a new guy straight out of uni, didn't have a clue what he was doing, but they called me up last week (bear in mind I'd not worked there for over a month and a half), 15 times in 30 mins! and their question was simply "where is [program]?" .... my response "it's in the IT software archive on [drive]", needless to say I suddenly realised why, whilst I loved my job when I was working for them, I didn't miss it when I left ....
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