Standard questions on Help Desk/ 1st line support

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Wow just seen the post about, writing details down ion a a4 paper and then adding it to a system later

wish i had time to do that

in the helpdesk role im in dealing with the nhs, and internal users, theres no way that could really happen, due to the system not generating a reference number until a call has been "logged" or "incident created" for correcdt terminology



basically user phones up, we take:

A surname, then first name (usually they are already in our system)
confirm location details and contact number
check availiablity for today and days for the week

Then ask for the problem:

if a user says "my printer refuses to work"

we simply type printer issue into our local intranet "guide" (for want or a better word) and we are issued with a minium data set, which we then run through.

Obviously thats the theory which is fine, when mr "guide" loads quickly the right keywords have been entered, otherwise we use a standard mds

Description:
Username
Location
Asset number of pc

And if im unsure of something i rely on this line "is there anything else that you would like to add to this call"

seems to work


If we relied on wrting it down, then filling the infomation in a lter date, it would involve a lot of call backs and frankly that would interrupt my coffee trips

 

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Thanks for the feedback Colloghi. I think that is part of the problem they don't use the s/w provided so don;t ask the questions shown in your reply. I had two today which I complained about. The first one was
recorded as:-

User name: Joe Bloggs
Telephone Number: not recorded
dept: DCC
Location: not recorded
problem: user wants some software to be installed on some PC's
PC Number: not recorded.

So I had to go to the location and find the information out.

I mean how hard can it be to ask someone what location are you calling from or what type of software you require or even what is your PC number?

Another was to install a new PC & TFT with lock.
The details they took down for the job had the wrong dept, the wrong user, the wrong location and the wrong telephone number.

Now i wonder what fergral would do if he had jobs like that assigned to him everyday?? Would you moan about it?

The problem is like the SD we are all under pressure with dealines. How can I be expected to do 8 jobs per day if I have to spend most of my time running around the complex to find out the information that could of been collect when the user rang up??

 

No, I wouldnt moan about it. I'd be doing anything I could to be getting it sorted. I'd be chasing up with my manager, their manager, my managers manager, until we could get it sorted. I'd work out a strategy to get it sorted. I'd come up with, and suggest to the managers ways they could resolve the problem, and justify why its worthwhile doing (lower percentage of calls escalated, higher customer satisfaction, more efficient processing, less time spent on a call by 2nd line and higher, etc, etc).

The problem is, that most people when presented with a problem just whine and whine and whine. Managers arent interested in it. Identify a problem, and offer solutions. Tell them why you came up with the solutions. If they choose to ignore you and pick a different reason, fine. But you still come out looking like a productive member who has the whole teams best interests in mind.

If they totally ignore you through multiple chasers, then perhaps you need to look for alternative employment if you arent willing to put up with the conditions

 

totally agree with Sparky here, there must be away for reassigning back, as the the 1st line SD'ers are not getting the information, and 2nd line have to do it, what is the point of having a 1st line..

...i know this wont happen on every call, but every SD needs a standard

 

Thanks for the input - Hey Mr Cheeks where have you been??

been online all weeks haven't seen you around?

There's another guy in our team who did that and was told off by our IT manager stating we can not push the jobs back to the help desk if they have got it wrong. Anyway late friday I got an email to say there will be a departmental reshuffle I don't like the sound of that! Maybe things will get better or maybe I will be on the doe next week

 

Not without getting a bollocking from the IT manager.

I suggest that when the email or printerserver was down they could change the splash message on the answer machine service on the Help desk to say something like "if you are calling becuase you can not access you email it is because the email server is down and will be down for the next hour while we make repairs to it."

I thought that would help people on the help desk and save them from repeating themseleves when they get 65 calls with people asking the same question.

What I got in return was, you can't change the splash message. I then did further research and found out you can. The telephone system is easyspeak system designed to have an automated message played before you speak to an advisor.

Anyway, after relaying my findings to them, they said well we don't know how to, there's no instructions. So I search the archive and office and found the instructions and re-wrote them in word and and sent it to them.

After all that do you know what they said....haven't you got something better to do like the jobs we assigned to why haven't you done those. Despite the fact i did this in my lunch hour i was pretty cheesed off

 

Fair play mate you have some valid points there.

Your right I should be thankfull for the job than winge about it after all there are a lot of members here who are still struggling to get into IT and have to do crap jobs just to pay the bills.

Sorry guys/girls didn't mean to come across as a Victor Meldrew

I guess i have got two options- if i can't change the place it's time to move on!
or accept the failures as apart of how IT dept works and stop moaning.

after all it's job satisfaction that counts

 

Ouch so many questions I feel like my brain is overheating..Hmm i need some beer to cool it down...aah that's better

Well...

 

thats alot of users for 20 IT staff, we have about 15 IT personnel here only 2 of us though do network admin the rest are developers and the like, we only have about 300 users. We also have outsourced our helpdesk roll to another company, so quite often we get funky calls to us as well but normally local knowledge allows us to sort that out!

To me that smacks of under investement in the IT department, Time to jump ship me thinks!

 

When I was at Nuvox, this was our standard phone greeting:

"Thank you for calling the helpdesk, my name is Whatever, may I get your name, department, and PC number please?"

You've covered 4 things right there. First, you thank them for calling. Even though they are calling you for an issue they are having, thank them anyway. Without them, you don't have a job. Next, you identified the department they have called, then you identified yourself, and last you got their name, department, and PC number.

After that info was obtained:

"Thank you Caller. How may I assist you today?"

And it gets better. All phone calls were recorded, and 50% of the time someone was live monitoring you. So if you missed asking any of the required questions, they came to your desk after the call to inform you what you missed. And just like in baseball, three strikes and you were out.

 

I'm currently working on a service desk and what we say is..

hi..<insert company name here>...can I take your name please?
what is your problem?
how many people is it affecting? *allows you to work out the priority*
where are you located?

things like that

 

Hello Dales Thanks for your input, do you know what software that external company uses for logging there calls? Can you update the job records or even create a job or does this have to created via helpdesk?

It's interesting reading this thread, because since the time of writing the thread we have had a new manager, who has come from a IT company that had an Help desk that was ITIL. He stated if the 2nd/3rd line support were sent jobs via the help desk that did not match the ITIL criteria then they would be sent back to the help desk and an email sent to the Help desk supervisor explaing why it was sent back. the it was upto the supervisor to find out why the wrong or missing information was not recorded on the job!

I had another funny one today, it had no surname, no contact number, no serial, make or model or even it number. It had a forename - jennifer and the dept. So I rang the dept to find out what the problem was and they told me a "there is no jennifer here, you've got the wrong number"

Here's the details:-
Screen in room 19 for Dr Thomas's room needs to be put together.

I went to room 19 of that Dept and found out - there was no one there by the name of Dr thomas
A complete waste of time!

 

Wow - that sound brillant, I wish they could say please or thankyou here. I must admit some of the reply's I hear on the service desk are short and rude. Leaving the impression to the users that the IT Dept is just a bunch of tossers who don't care!

 

The majority 1st line support that used to be based in my building really were tossers who didn't care. Many did the bare minumum required of them, and then complained when they were never moved on or promoted. I joined the 1st line with this company, and although I found it extremly boring and tedious, made sure I excelled all expectations (which isn't difficult in a 1st line position) , and with 2 months I was moved to 2nd line, and with 4 months was moved to a specialist team.

The 1st line has now been moved to Budapest, but I still find that calls are badly logged. I'm lucky if I get the correct persons name and number and location, let alone a clue about what the issue might be.

 

The majority 1st line support that used to be based in my building really were tossers who didn't care. Many did the bare minumum required of them, and then complained when they were never moved on or promoted. I joined the 1st line with this company, and although I found it extremly boring and tedious, made sure I excelled all expectations (which isn't difficult in a 1st line position) , and with 2 months I was moved to 2nd line, and with 4 months was moved to a specialist team.

The 1st line has now been moved to Budapest, but I still find that calls are badly logged. I'm lucky if I get the correct persons name and number and location, let alone a clue about what the issue might be.

It's a real shame, because there are so many eager people looking to get into the industry, who i'm sure would do a great job.

 

The System the company use's at the moment is a variation of Information Resource Management
http://irm.stackworks.net/

The Helpdesk fills in all the relevant details when a job comes in and either they deal with the problem or escalate the job. User's also have the opportunity to log their own jobs electronically if they want to, putting the problem in their own words.

But with IRM all assets are entered on IRM and user's details are then assigned to assets. then jobs are logged against the machine.

A nice touch is you can see your job queue and can priorities accordingly

Probably gone way off topic by now so will stop

 

Heehee!! That's a silly name!!!

 

Thanks Hades for the link