Tecchie Help Needed!

[TiggsTours]

Originally Posted by El Salsero Gringo

Something tells me this is the first step to disaster. Does anyone else have conversations with technical support along these lines?

"Hello? Technical support? I have a question regarding the xyz feature of your software. I can't find the menu option to set pqr on the abc."

"Hang on sir, I'm not technical, but I'll check our spreadsheet. Which operating system are you using?"

"Er, it's BogOs v15.9 service-pack epsilon"

"Ah, that's your problem sir. It's not supported. In fact, my spreadsheet says it doesn't work under that operating system".

"No, really it works fine.. I just need to know which menu item is the one that-"

"(interrupting) I'm sorry sir, I'm not technical, but my spreadsheet says that our software doesn't run under your operating system"

"Look it does run - can I speak to someone technical please?"

"I'm sorry sir, the spreadsheet was created to reduce the load on the technical people so they can deal with technical problems"

"But I have a technical problem!!!!"

"I'm sorry sir, I'm unable to progress your enquiry at this time. thank you for your call, which my flowchart says is now complete. To assist our quality control procedures, would you be willing to participate in a brief customer satisfaction survey?"

"*(*^ off!"



Not saying that's what your company's like, but I'm sure it's a slippery slope....

Not quite how things will work, but not far off!

The client will call client services, who will raise a bug, which will say exactly what the problem is, so we would know before it came to us that they could access the program. Client Services would go through all the stages till the client gets an error message, or the program just doesn't run, then it would be passed to us (Operations) we would then look to see which software they are using, and which server they use, if it wasn't compatible, we'd tell them which software they need with their server, that's all.

But you're right on one count, arses, elbows, my company don't seem to know the difference!

[El Salsero Gringo]

Originally Posted by TiggsTours

Not quite how things will work, but not far off!

The client will call client services, who will raise a bug, which will say exactly what the problem is, so we would know before it came to us that they could access the program. Client Services would go through all the stages till the client gets an error message, or the program just doesn't run, then it would be passed to us (Operations) we would then look to see which software they are using, and which server they use, if it wasn't compatible, we'd tell them which software they need with their server, that's all.

But you're right on one count, arses, elbows, my company don't seem to know the difference!

I see why such a spreadsheet would be useful, but I can also see that asking someone who isn't technical to write it isn't going to be very useful for them. Good luck, anyway!

[Robin]

Originally Posted by TiggsTours

As I said, I explained in my interview with this company that I am not at all technical, I'm so untechnical that I don't understand a word of this, I was told this is not a technical Project Management job, and it clearly is, hence the reason I am desperately searching for a new job! But in the meantime, they pay my wages!

Can I make a suggestion ? Have the techie people create a web page with links to the versions that they know work - ie if they have tested with flash version x and Java y and had a,b & c patches loaded, it would make sense to have that on a support page that clients can ensure that they have installed first. Might even reduce the tech support calls as they can refer them to the web page in the first instance.

I personally would suggest that there is a whole raft of tests that could be carried out and to be honest with you, it sounds like your developers are being a tad lazy - if you have version or package dependencies or connectivity requirements then you really should have them built into your software or at least a custom diagnostic tool. Otherwise your technical support are always going to end up with the " what brand of string would that be ?" before they can even ask how long it is !