Before jumping right in to help clients, let’s make sure we’re prepared first. There are questions to be asked of management and you need time to get your IT kit in order. Here are 4 tips I recommend before taking any calls:
- Ask management how long you are expected to work on a ticket before escalating and to whom you escalate. Your point of escalation is where you send a ticket if you can’t solve it. Hopefully, this team or person is accessible to you as they can be a mentor. You can ask them for advice, troubleshooting tips, or if there’s a client secret that’s not written in the notes. A lot of smaller business clients have pieced together systems and the fix may be as simple as rebooting a fussy computer. When you escalate a ticket, try to check on it once resolved so you can see what the fix was and maybe ask the tech how they figured it out.
- Acquaint yourself with the CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software and ticketing system. Often, these are housed in the same system. Have someone give you a tour first, then practice looking up clients, documentation related to client systems, past and present tickets for the client, tickets by various technicians, notes in tickets, and attachments. Make sure you know the process to pick up a ticket (assign it to yourself), make notes, enter your time worked, and close the ticket.
- Set up all the tools you’ll need:
- Software for connecting to clients. Typically, this consists of a method for connecting to individuals as needed, such as Teamviewer, LogMeIn, and Zoho, and connecting to client servers, such as remote desktop.
- I recommend multiple browsers as some sites work better in specific browsers and it makes juggling tenants easier. You could be logged into your company SSO in Chrome and use Firefox for working with clients, for example.
- Load those browsers with handy bookmarks such as Office 365 Admin Center, a password generator site like https://www.correcthorsebatterystaple.net, and your company sites.
- I find it helpful to have a screenshot and editing program. I currently use PickPic and it has worked well for taking area screengrabs and marking up or highlighting parts.
- Note taking software is a necessity! OneNote has been the most useful tool for me. I have used it when working tickets while troubleshooting, then writing up ticket notes easily with the information at hand. I have dumped links and snippets of research to return to later. I have written up lengthy instructions with images inserted. OneNote’s search function is great for finding previous notes. You might be surprised how often problems repeat themselves. Make good notes and you can make life easier for future-you!
- Learn to use the phone. Whether it’s physical or a softphone, you need to know how to park, transfer, and initiate three-way calls. You don’t want to be scrambling to figure this out while actively working with clients.