My time on the helpdesk...
Feb. 24th, 2004 11:24 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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techrecoveryHaving read most - but not all, I'm tired *g* - of the article someone posted earlier, I thought what I had to say was a bit long for a comment.
I spent 10 months on the extended-warranty helpdesk for a UK boxshifter who got merged. We were outsourced. We didn't think there could possibly be anyone worse than us, except possibly for the standard helpdesk at head office. Apparently I was wrong, but hey, that's america. Things in america can *always* be more whatever than things in the UK.
There was no 2nd line, there was just us and the team leaders. We were in training for a week, and given a day or so listening to the techs already on the floor, and then we were on the phones ourselves. We *did* have to pass a test to prove we knew our stuff. We didn't have to pass a drug test, which if just as well.
Now while we probably had Punters, they wouldn't last long because team leaders occasionally listen in, and because we see who left any given note and anyone consistenly punting customers would be given a good hard slap by those of us who ended up dealing with them. We had no Givers because all hardware requests went through head office - and you had to have a good record before you could access that system. Everyone else had to ask their team leader, who would make them justify it. Anyone sending engineers to fix the wrong problem would get in trouble too. Formatters - we had our share, but again they didn't last long either. The three warnings in big red letters that you were about to lose all your data that our restore packs gave the custs made sure they did know if the idiot tech didn't tell them.
We had a few Mantra types, but our rule was original OS, and if you change any hardware it's just that hardware that's not supported, and you had to report your upgrades to the helpdesk. That was stated in the warranty. If you caused a problem by doing an upgrade, tough. If you upgraded and didn't tell us, then called an engineer for something, it would be reported that you'd probably cause whatever hardware failure it was, so you got charged £50+parts for the engineer. Any customer who lied to us to get an engineer callout also got charged. Usually twice because the engineer wouldn't have the right part when he turned up.
As for not having the answers - we had an intranet with a messageboard. If the problem wasn't on the known issues section as an approved fix then you could check the messageboard to see how other techs had found of fixing it. If there was nothing on there and you'd tried the 'quick fix' stuff (msconfig, taking stuff out of device mangler in safe mode, that sort of thing) then you could ask a team leader. Generally they'd tell you to use the restore pack, unless you really were a muppet in which case you'd not last long anyway.
Now, the customer was the enemy as far as management was concerned, but we had pride in what we did. We wanted those problems fixed, if for no other reason than we didn't want them back in a worse mood. The system had a tendency to keep putting custs through to the same tech if it could so it really was in your interests to fix stuff for the custs *and* to get rid of them quickly for management. We had a nice little community spirit going, despite the fairly high turnover... but towards the end, the new guys... eeesh. We would have been better off doing without them.
I'm wondering, though, whether most people's helldesk experiences are more like mine or if it's really that bad in most places...
I spent 10 months on the extended-warranty helpdesk for a UK boxshifter who got merged. We were outsourced. We didn't think there could possibly be anyone worse than us, except possibly for the standard helpdesk at head office. Apparently I was wrong, but hey, that's america. Things in america can *always* be more whatever than things in the UK.
There was no 2nd line, there was just us and the team leaders. We were in training for a week, and given a day or so listening to the techs already on the floor, and then we were on the phones ourselves. We *did* have to pass a test to prove we knew our stuff. We didn't have to pass a drug test, which if just as well.
Now while we probably had Punters, they wouldn't last long because team leaders occasionally listen in, and because we see who left any given note and anyone consistenly punting customers would be given a good hard slap by those of us who ended up dealing with them. We had no Givers because all hardware requests went through head office - and you had to have a good record before you could access that system. Everyone else had to ask their team leader, who would make them justify it. Anyone sending engineers to fix the wrong problem would get in trouble too. Formatters - we had our share, but again they didn't last long either. The three warnings in big red letters that you were about to lose all your data that our restore packs gave the custs made sure they did know if the idiot tech didn't tell them.
We had a few Mantra types, but our rule was original OS, and if you change any hardware it's just that hardware that's not supported, and you had to report your upgrades to the helpdesk. That was stated in the warranty. If you caused a problem by doing an upgrade, tough. If you upgraded and didn't tell us, then called an engineer for something, it would be reported that you'd probably cause whatever hardware failure it was, so you got charged £50+parts for the engineer. Any customer who lied to us to get an engineer callout also got charged. Usually twice because the engineer wouldn't have the right part when he turned up.
As for not having the answers - we had an intranet with a messageboard. If the problem wasn't on the known issues section as an approved fix then you could check the messageboard to see how other techs had found of fixing it. If there was nothing on there and you'd tried the 'quick fix' stuff (msconfig, taking stuff out of device mangler in safe mode, that sort of thing) then you could ask a team leader. Generally they'd tell you to use the restore pack, unless you really were a muppet in which case you'd not last long anyway.
Now, the customer was the enemy as far as management was concerned, but we had pride in what we did. We wanted those problems fixed, if for no other reason than we didn't want them back in a worse mood. The system had a tendency to keep putting custs through to the same tech if it could so it really was in your interests to fix stuff for the custs *and* to get rid of them quickly for management. We had a nice little community spirit going, despite the fairly high turnover... but towards the end, the new guys... eeesh. We would have been better off doing without them.
I'm wondering, though, whether most people's helldesk experiences are more like mine or if it's really that bad in most places...
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no subject
Date: 2004-02-24 06:05 pm (UTC)The largest desk, and the one almost everyone started at, was for a major software company, and it was almost exactly like what was described in the Salon piece, except that we didn't get a week of training. We got one day with an instructor who spent the entire time downloading MP3s over the T1 to the corporate server, and half a day listening in on other techs on the floor before we were thrown to the wolves. There were no "mentors" or level 2 support, there was just 3 harrassed "senior techs" to handle the escalations for about 100 level 1 technicians. We didn't have any givers on that desk, because we didn't have the authority to send them anything, but we had punters and formatters a'plenty. When I started, the operation was just getting up to speed, so things weren't too bad, but as it expanded, and more techs quit, they started hiring anything with a pulse. It wasn't pretty.
I already had support experience going in, and I was able to actually fix a lot of problems and keep a high call volume. (Not too difficult, when the most common problem came from a glitch in the install that didn't create the full directory structure the program needed to run.) So, lucky me, I got promoted to a higher level of support. In many ways it was better, because there were no call time limits, we were encouraged to actually help the callers, and we had the authority to issue RMAs and even refunds. However, we were supporting three different clients on the same desk - a portable server that ran its own proprietary software, a network hardware manufacturer with dozens and dozens of different products, and a corporate help desk that expected us to support all the hardware and whatever software the employees had installed. On top of that, we were instructed to lie to the clients. You see, all of them thought that they were paying for the exclusive services of our desk, and all of them thought they were paying for 12 employees on that desk, when there were really just 4.
So yeah, it really is that bad a lot of places.
no subject
Date: 2004-02-26 06:31 pm (UTC)I think that the three biggest things that affect helpdesk performance are:
1.) Oppressiveness. If Management steps in and imposes lots of restrictions and monitoring, morale goes down, and it makes the job less bearable. It's better when the techs police each other.
2.) Hiring practices. When I started, we had to answer common support questions in our interview. When I left, the assistant manager for the whole operation told me that he didn't care who left, because he could just hire another person off the street.
3.) Firing practices. Most states let you terminate someone within 90 days without cause. Places that don't use this to their advantage are just no fun. Eventually, you get saddled with morons that no one has the balls to fire.
But that's my opinion.