HelpDesk - Do you appreciate them?

[Haui]

Well, do you? Regardless if you work with them or not.

 

[djheater]

Having done the job, I do appreciate them and try and make it as easy as possible on them when I call.

 

[Haui]

Originally posted by: djheater
Having done the job, I do appreciate them and try and make it as easy as possible on them when I call.

What do you do now?

 

[Pepsi90919]

no

 

[Haui]

Originally posted by: Pepsi90919
no

And why is that?

 

[Turin39789]

Originally posted by: Haui

Originally posted by: Pepsi90919
no

And why is that?

I don't have to

 

[ViviTheMage]

to an extent, yes.

 

[Pepsi90919]

they don't speak english and assume i'm an idiot

 

[HammerCurl]

If they are prompt, yes. If not, then no.

 

[FoBoT]

who?

http://helpdesk.com/

?

i don't use that web site

 

[broon]

Not when they close tickets without doing anything and there is no way to escalate.

 

[trmiv]

As a 2nd level desktop support guy, no I don't. Help desk is supposed to be there to solve problems and pass only things they can't solve off to 2nd level. I see so many tickets that the help desk could have solved easily over the phone that end up get passed off to us, it's ridiculous.

 

[tfinch2]

Originally posted by: Pepsi90919
they don't speak english and assume i'm an idiot

With my former employer, that seemed to be the biggest problem.

 

[RadiclDreamer]

As a network admin, yeah I love em when they do things as they are supposed to. However when I get passed a call to install office it gets a tad annoying.

 

[IceBergSLiM]

Originally posted by: trmiv
As a 2nd level desktop support guy, no I don't. Help desk is supposed to be there to solve problems and pass only things they can't solve off to 2nd level. I see so many tickets that the help desk could have solved easily over the phone that end up get passed off to us, it's ridiculous.

Is it a problem with the tools or the process? both?

Track these hand offs and find out which ones keep slipping through and find out why. then fix it.

or just whine thats cool too.

 

[steppinthrax]

Originally posted by: tfinch2

Originally posted by: Pepsi90919
they don't speak english and assume i'm an idiot

With my former employer, that seemed to be the biggest problem.

I would imagine that be the case when someone in the IT department has to continuously tell you where the button to turn your computer on is located.

 

[steppinthrax]

It depends on what you mean by helpdesk.

Helpdesk (1): Knows little if any about computers and just passes the ticket onto the appropriate people.

Helpdesk (2): Knows a little and tries to do the best they can (level 1) but if can't passes onto another person.

But from an IT point of view helpdesk is supposed to create a bottleneck so that IT personnel that are dealing with much more important matters are not being continually littered with calls like (Where is the start button?, Where is the "Any" key?, I deleted my file by accident can I get it back).

 

[HannibalX]

The help desk is a systems administrator's best friend.

Back before the dawn of time the lone office systems administrator did everything, from building and maintaining the network including it's vital systems to putting toner in the those new fangled laser printers. He slept nor ate for days when client software had to be upgraded on every single PC in the office just so people could start faxing from their desks! Oh the help desk! How are you loved! You allow us Systems Administrators to get back to our real jobs which include surfing the web, fine tuning our Quake dedicated servers and errrmm.. all that other administration crap.

Thank you Help Desk!

 

[trmiv]

Originally posted by: IcebergSlim

Originally posted by: trmiv
As a 2nd level desktop support guy, no I don't. Help desk is supposed to be there to solve problems and pass only things they can't solve off to 2nd level. I see so many tickets that the help desk could have solved easily over the phone that end up get passed off to us, it's ridiculous.

Is it a problem with the tools or the process? both?

Track these hand offs and find out which ones keep slipping through and find out why. then fix it.

or just whine thats cool too.

These problems existed way before I started. I've only been at the company for 3 months so I can't say what it is. All I know is I've talked to co-workers about it and their response is "Yea, that's our helpdesk for you. Our managers have complained to their managers forever but nothing gets done." It came up in a meeting recently and were told to deal with it basically.

 

[amdskip]

Not the helpdesk here. They take your emails and calls but you will be lucky if anything gets completed in say 2-3 months from now.

 

[rivan]

I'm fine with them, as long as they can do something more than follow the script.

If they can a) listen to and b) intelligently react/respond to what I'm telling them, I'm rather fond of them.

Unfortunately, consumer-level help desks rarely are able to do either of those things, so no, not normally.

 

[IceBergSLiM]

Originally posted by: trmiv

Originally posted by: IcebergSlim

Originally posted by: trmiv
As a 2nd level desktop support guy, no I don't. Help desk is supposed to be there to solve problems and pass only things they can't solve off to 2nd level. I see so many tickets that the help desk could have solved easily over the phone that end up get passed off to us, it's ridiculous.

Is it a problem with the tools or the process? both?

Track these hand offs and find out which ones keep slipping through and find out why. then fix it.

or just whine thats cool too.

These problems existed way before I started. I've only been at the company for 3 months so I can't say what it is. All I know is I've talked to co-workers about it and their response is "Yea, that's our helpdesk for you. Our managers have complained to their managers forever but nothing gets done." It came up in a meeting recently and were told to deal with it basically.

I'm not pointing fingers I am just asking. What kind of improvement efforts are going on?(none?) What tools do you use for Knowledge management and scripts? (none?) Is it just a free for all?

 

[vi edit]

Originally posted by: djheater
Having done the job, I do appreciate them and try and make it as easy as possible on them when I call.

Ditto.

A quality help desk is an invaluable asset to an IT department. It just happens to be a high turnover position that makes it hard to keep great employees in that role.

 

[HannibalX]

Originally posted by: vi_edit

Originally posted by: djheater
Having done the job, I do appreciate them and try and make it as easy as possible on them when I call.

Ditto.

A quality help desk is an invaluable asset to an IT department. It just happens to be a high turnover position that makes it hard to keep great employees in that role.

Mostly because anyone on HD with any brains only took the job to get their foot in the door. They work hard for six months and then another IT manager hires them for systems work. We have people at the help desk in my IT department who have been doing it for almost 10 years...

 

[vi edit]

Originally posted by: Pale Rider

Originally posted by: vi_edit

Originally posted by: djheater
Having done the job, I do appreciate them and try and make it as easy as possible on them when I call.

Ditto.

A quality help desk is an invaluable asset to an IT department. It just happens to be a high turnover position that makes it hard to keep great employees in that role.

Mostly because anyone on HD with any brains only took the job to get their foot in the door. They work hard for six months and then another IT manager hires them for systems work. We have people at the help desk in my IT department who have been doing it for almost 10 years...

Exactly. We just lost 3 HD employees with about 20 years combined experience to other groups. They run about 20 employees down there but just losing those three has left the place in a state of chaos.