Support Desks and You

Submitting a request to a tech support desk always reminds me of shopping at a hardware store. Sometimes I go to the store and know I need a hammer and just need to know what aisle it’s in. Other times, I may need to figure out something like how to install a flood light on my deck. In that case, I need to know what aisle to go to, what light to buy, and how to properly install it so I don’t light my ass up with an electric shock.

Support requests are no different really, except instead of hammers and flood light installation it’s more like password resets and server environment re-configuration. Being a tech company and hosting provider we receive all kinds of requests, which makes us personally more aware of how we reach out to companies when we experience issues. For example, when we recently experienced issues with using the Amtrak website (which happens every time by the way since their website is a mangled, functional mess), we wrote the specific nature of the problem, the error code that occurred and the browser version we were using. In this case, they still proved useless in their response, but hey, we at least provided them with a detailed explanation of a problem.

So with that in mind, there are some simple things you can do when submitting a tech support request (to us or anyone else) to make the experience a little smoother for everyone.

• Be as detailed as possible. I think the saying, "The devil is in the details" applies perfectly here. If you're getting an error message, tell them exactly how you got it. You don't have to get too crazy with it, but saying something like, "my website's broken" isn't really giving the person on the other side much to work with. What browser were you using? What version of the browser? And are you the only one experiencing issues at your company?
• A picture's worth a thousand words, so show a specific example if you can. Unless your last name happens to be Shakespeare, your words might not always paint the clearest picture. So if it’s something that you can show by taking a screenshot, or copying an error message to include with your request, go ahead and do it.
• Make sure you are contacting the right company. For example, if you can't bring up your website, and you also cannot bring up Google, ESPN or the FAIL blog, then there is a good chance that your internet connection is down. And that there is nothing really wrong with your website.
• Finally, take a deep breath and relax. Go and do some yoga if you can. I know trying to deal with a tech issue that you can't fix yourself can be very frustrating... but that's no reason to lose sleep or lose your cool over it.

Obviously, dealing with any type of tech support can vary a lot depending on your situation. And even though my advice may seem a little obvious to you, try to keep it in mind next time you go submitting a support request, and I bet you find your experience just a little easier to deal with. Unless you're buying tickets on Amtrak's site, and unfortunately, then you're out of luck!