Technical Support Tips

You’ve been there, on hold for 10 minutes trying to get onto technical support, when you do you tell the agent you have a problem with the product but you don’t have all the information on what you have or what’s going wrong.

Making a telephone call to Technical Support can be easy, especially if the support agent has good knowledge of the product which the majority of them do as they deal with hundreds of telephone calls and emails every day.

If you take the following steps into account then you are also helping to solve the problem faster, remember that’s exactly what Technical Support wants.

• Write down the full details of you product – Product Number, Serial Number, How the CD Burner Hardware is installed, what Operating System you are using, what is the error message and what exactly did you do to receive the error, remember Support Agents are not mind readers.
• Before dialing the Technical Support number make sure your background setting is quiet, in other words don’t have the TV on or children playing behind you…and in some cases don’t allow your cat to walk over the keyboard.
• While on the phone use a pen and pad to take notes such as the name of the Support Agent you are speaking to and the case reference number, which by the way is the most important thing when getting problems fixed by Technical Support. Support Agents are not assigned email addresses for customers, they usually use “group” or team emails.
• Follow each step the agent suggests, they see hundreds of the same problems everyday – its just bad luck if your problem is unique.
• Also use email support for suggestions and always remember to add the case reference you were given.
• If you feel you problem is not getting solved in a timely manner I suggest this. Level One agents should be responding to your cases within every 1 or 3 business days, Level 2 agents 4-7 business days and Level 3 agents 7-14 business days. I personally use this rule when dealing with Support Help Desks, anything after that is unacceptable and a route should be taken. You first start with the manager of the Level 1 agent (DO NOT say anything to point blame the manager or his team) and explain what your concerns are and how you are in your right to have a working product but don’t demand. Now contact customer services, with your case reference number, and explain your issues – if you have everything on email you will be doing brilliant. So what you have here is a number of people, at different levels dealing with your problem.
• If you are just getting no-where and ready for a nervous break down then I personally suggest giving up trust of the product you have purchased and never to purchase from them again. I personally recommend Hewlett Packard.

As I stated before please do not take insult to this guide, this layout is to help you receive better Technical Support, I will add to this guide.