Tips for effective support of system

In a perfect world, the weather is sunny all year round, it only rains when you sleep, all traffic lights are green and your software never gets worse. But - we are not in a perfect world. Sometimes it rains, sometimes we get red, and sometimes the software fails. I can't help with the weather or traffic lights, but I have a few suggestions on how to help through customer support when you have a problem with the software.

Check your issue

It is likely that if it happened, it happened to someone else. Check the knowledge base to see if you can find any information that will help you with your problem. This can be useful if you receive an error message that you do not know or need to know how to take a specific action.

Be specific and detailed

Here is an example of an incomprehensible conversation.

• Customer: I have a problem with the software.
• Support: OK, I can help you. What is the problem?
• Customer: It doesn't work!

Unfortunately, we need a little more to continue. Do you have an error message or other message? What exactly is going on? What did you do before the problem occurred? The more details you can provide, the more we will be able to replicate and then resolve the issue.

One picture is more than 1000 words

Surely you know the saying that one picture is more than 1000 words. This is useful when you can attach pictures of error messages or other windows or messages. It is not always easy to remember what the system displayed and then tell us. If you can send a picture it increases the likelihood of finding the right problem.

Reproduce

"If it only happens once, it's not a problem." We may not be able to fix a problem that we (or you) cannot replicate. And even if we try, if we can't replicate the problem, we can never know if we've fixed something - even if it disappears for a while. Try repeating the steps as soon as the error occurs while it is still fresh in your mind. I know it will take you time, but for us to solve the problem, it is often the only way we will be able to fix it.

Choose an importance

If everything is critical, then nothing is critical. If your system is completely unavailable, or if there is a critical impact on the entire business, we must identify this problem as critical. If a word is misspelled in a message or window, it's usually not that critical. Of course, if you are unsure, choose the importance you consider appropriate - we will take this into account when evaluating the problem.