Introduction
In order to effectively serve customers, everyone has to understand his or her role well. A clear understanding is paramount to a satisfactory approach. Customers will come seeking assistance from service desk in a wide range of issues. It is the helpdesk they will have the first impression. It is therefore important that all helpdesk personnel treat customers well. The help desk team will consist of the networking team, desk site team, server and some other software specialized team.
Levels of help desk team
The help desk team comprises of three levels of teams. The first level will be concerned with handling clients with some common and general questions. This team must be well equipped with a variety of general skills in computer technology ranging from hardware, software to current trends in technology. The questions that are frequently asked mostly belong to the frequently asked question (Gerard, 2008). The second level comprises a team that handles slightly complex issues that the first level team has failed to answer or solve. This team must have the necessary resources like software and hardware devices that should be used in solving of their problems. The last level is the team that will deal with specific maintenance tasks like software updates and upgrades. This team must have the necessary skills with regard to the ever changing technology. This level of support team does not have to wait for a client to report a problem or point out an issue. Their role will be to continuously monitor systems at all times. In case of any problems they will be charged with responsibility of fixing them.
In all these three levels of support team, there shall be experts in different fields like network experts, software experts and general hardware experts.
Role of a support technician
IT support technicians and support team has the task of ensuring that all the user problems related to IT are solved immediately. Daily working communication methods would be by phone, E-Mail, or using web based applications (Gerard, 2008).
- Some of the duties that will be expected of any support team will include;
- Patiently working with the client to identify problems and faults in systems
- Providing adequate and convincing explanations to the client for the problems faced
- Communicating with a client via phone or by person in an acceptable and friend manner in order to solve their problems
- Upgrading systems or configuring new ones
- Performing system testing and maintenance of equipment
- Documentation of the faced problems and how they were solved for future reference
- Training of customers on proper systems use with regard to new or existing modified systems
There will be a times when external users will need to be serviced. In this case the approach though similar with servicing internal users will require extra caution and good approach in order to maintain customers. Phone and emails will play a greater role in this case. However under difficult circumstance physical presence would be necessary.
Trends in IT industry
There have been emerging trends when it comes to computer support. Some years ago, support people were required to attend to offline computers. This trend is fast changing with computer support required to attend to online clients who require assistance. Online support is gaining momentum in the world. There are emerging trends in IT technology that every technician has to be well conversant with in order to deal with clients issues effectively. Some of the trends include: Web 2.0, software-as-a-service (SaaS), global-class computing, consumerization of IT and open-source software (Marcel, 1997). These five trends co work together and extensively amplify each other. A disruption in one of the technology can cause adverse effect to the rest and distort the balance between users and systems in place. IT technician support are required to be able to provide such support.
Conclusion
Customers get satisfied when good and friendly approach is used to solve their problems. All support technicians must employ good communication skills and try as much as possible to be friendly. Some clients might sometimes get annoyed easily if their problem is not well solved. Patience is an important skill that each one must develop if effective service delivery is to be realized.
Reference
Gerard, B. (2008). Help Desk 100 Success Secrets: Helpdesk Need to Know Topics Covering Help Desk Jobs, Help Desk Software, Computer Help Desk, Help Desk Support, Helpdesk Jobs, It Help Desk and Much. Lulu.com
Marcel, W.H. (1997). Designing it-support for professionals: a knowledge management approach. Boston: Eindhoven.
