Provide remote help desk support

Unit of Competence
Provide First Level Remote Help Desk
Presented by jaleto sunkemo

Provide First Level Remote Help
Desk
Unit Descriptor
 This unit defines the competence required to
provide advice and support to clients including
the communication of comprehensive technical
information.
Learning Outcomes
 Analyze client support issues
 Provide advice on software, hardware or
network

LO1: Analyze client support
issues
1.1 Introduction to the client support roles in IT
Definition of Some Terms:
 Client
 Client Support
 Log
 Priority
 Service Level Agreement
 Help Desk
 First level support
 Escalation
 Communication Skills

Choosing the Right Business Record-
Keeping System
 One of the first things any new business must
decide on is how its records will be kept.
Accurate record keeping is a key to many
aspects of your business's success
 There are two main ways in which business
records can be kept: manual record keeping
and computerized (or automated) record
keeping.

Keeping System
 While some business owners prefer manual
record keeping systems, most businesses use
an electronic record keeping system - making
it easier to capture information.
 Here are a number of issues you should
consider when setting up an electronic or
manual record keeping system, as each has
certain advantages and limitations.

Keeping System
 Records may be created and maintained in a
variety of media, including electronic systems,
so long as their utility, confidentiality and
durability are assured.
 Practitioners establish and maintain a record-
keeping system that ensures confidentiality.
Records are kept in a manner that is safe and
secure, with properly limited access, and from
which timely retrieval (recovery) is possible.

 Practitioners are responsible for the content of
their records. Records are organized in a
manner that facilitates their use by the
practitioner and other authorized persons.
 Practitioners ensure that records are legible
and are completed in a timely manner.
 Practitioners take responsibility for their
clients' records, taking into account the
policies of any organizations where they
practice.

issues
8
Terms Should have to Know
 Client:-
 A Client is an individual, an organization, business
or an institution that may come in person or
communicate using any communication means like
telephone, e-mail, fax or online help desk to get
technical support and consultation on technologies
etc.
 Log
 means recording client support requirements based
on organizational rule, regulation and policies.

LO1: Analyze client support issues
9
 Escalate
 transferring a helpdesk that cannot be resolved to
personnel at a lower level such as an IT specialist or
IT manager.
 First level Support
 usually refers to the initial support offered to a
customer by a help desk operator; in this initial point
of contact, the officer determines the nature of the
call and will try to solve the problem if it is
straightforward; support organizations usually have
quite clear outlines of what constitutes first level
support.

issues
10
 Priority
 the value given to an incident, problem or change to
indicate its relative importance in order to
appropriately allocate resources and specify an
appropriate time-frame for resolution.
 Service Level Agreement (SLA)
 is a legal agreement / contract between a service
provider and a client detailing the level of service that
is provided, usually including what is covered, what is
not covered, the response time for resolution. It
describes the responsibilities and liabilities of all
parties involved.

11
 Some of the contents of an SLA usually include the
following:
Response-time guarantees (often based on the
type of call and the SLA)
Equipment and/or software that will be supported
Where service will be provided
Preventive maintenance
Diagnostics
Part availability (equivalent parts)
Cost and penalties
Time of service availability

issues
12
What is a client support?
 Client support is a service that computer and software
manufacturers, and other third-party service companies,
offer to clients.
 Providing good IT supports for clients is vital to the
effective operation of any organisations, so you may find
there are established procedures for determining and
addressing client support issues.

13
 For personal computer products, the following
are common client-support options:
 Mail-in service:
 The manufacturer will repair your equipment if
you mail it in. Typical turnaround time is about
four days. In some service plans, the
manufacturer charges you for shipping
expenses.
 Carry-in service:
 The manufacturer will repair your equipment,
but you must deliver it to a local service site.
This is sometimes called depot service.

issues
14
 On-site contract:
 For a monthly or annual fee, a repair person will come to your
site to fix problems. (The fee is included in the purchase price
of some machines.) Most on-site contracts guarantee that the
service will be rendered within a fixed number of hours from
when you report a problem.
 Hot lines:
 Many software manufacturers provide a phone number that
you can call for advice and trouble-shooting. Often the
number is toll-free. The quality of this type of support varies
considerably from one company to another. Some hot lines
are so good that they enable you to solve most problems
yourself. Others are so bad that you are unable even to get
through.

issues
IT Help Desk Support:
Introduction :
Help Desk is a single point of contact for end user
support.
 A help desk is intended to provide end user with
information and support as per their query or related
to a particulate company's or institution's products
and services.

IT Help Desk Support
Elements for Help Desk Support :
Four main component of Help Desk support are:
-Process
- Technology
- Information
- People
Effiencient Help support requires:
- 24/7 help desk support availability
- Featured Phone System

-Professional staffed help desk
- All raised ticket information
 Help Desk Support Must Include :
 -Service Provider
- Automatic task identification
- Secured remote access
- Supervisor
- Efficient Cost

-Great user Experience
- Facility to assign, track and escale
issues
- Secure client Information access
 Hierarchy of Help Desk

Customer’s
The users seeking
solution,
enters the problem or
searches solution for a
particular problem
Coordinator
Person who categorizes
the problem and assigns
it to a specialist also
updates complaint
status
Agent
Person who attends calls/mails
of customers and logs
complaint on behalf of
customers. Searches solution
from FAQ & provides instant
solution
Speciali
st
Specialized person with
ultimate
responsibility for providing
solution to customer. He
updates the library of FAQ’s

IT Help Desk Support:
Flow of Help Desk - Movement of Problem
Customer
’s
Agent
Coordinator
Specialist
Provide solutions
Problem solved/unsolved
Compliant
Through
phone/ma
il

Agent for Service of Process
A registered agent is an individual or business entity that is
authorized by a business entity to serve and receive
legal documents on their behalf.
Every company in every state is required to have a
registered agent.

Registered Agent
Having a registered agent is integral to the proper
operation of any business, so careful consideration
should be taken in choosing a registered agent. Some
considerations include:

1. A registered agent should be available for normal
business hours.
2. A registered agent must have a street address in the
state in which they are serving as an agent; a P.O. box
will not suffice.
This address is sometimes referred to as a “registered
office.”
3. A registered agent must be responsible and trustworthy;
a lawyer or a business that specializes in registered

4. If you conduct business in multiple states, you will have
to have a registered agent in each state.
A registered agent company can make this easier by
providing registered agent service for every state you
operate in.

Introduction to Help Desk Support Roles :
The term “help desk” means different things depending on
the context. At the core, help desk professionals provide
services to customers. These customers might be
internal employees or external customers of products
or services, but they are all customers.
In a small organization, the help desk might be a single
person doing everything.
In an organization with a large IT department, the help
desk might be

a large division of personnel dedicated to helping
personnel within the organization.
Some organizations, such as Internet service providers
(ISPs), provide services to their customers via a help
desk.
However, in any of these situations, help desk
professionals require a core set of skills to succeed.
The following diagram shows Help desk Skills:

Help desk
professional
s
Soft
skills
Commun
ication
skills
Persona
l skills
Training
skills
Writing
skills
Hard
skills
Technical
skills
Security
skills
Trouble
shooting
skills
Business
skills

Introduction to Help Desk Support Roles
Hard skills: are specific, measurable skills such as
configuring and troubleshooting systems.
Soft skills : refer to the ability to communicate effectively with
others.
 After landing any technical job, a good mix of both hard
and soft skills help individuals move up into higher-level
positions.

In contrast, a lack of a mix of skills, In both skill sets either
prevents people from getting jobs or keeps them stuck in
the same position much longer than personnel with a
good mix of hard and soft skills.
Some of the common hard skills needed by help desk technicians are:
-technical skills
-security skills
-troubleshooting skills
-and business skills

 Technical skills : refer to the technician’s ability to
configure, maintain, and troubleshoot IT systems .
 These skills vary between organizations and even
between specific jobs within an organization.
 For example, a help desk technician working at tier 1
needs to have in-depth knowledge about the systems
and products that end users operate.

 This knowledge ensures these technicians can help the
end users. However, tier 1 technicians should be able to
perform some basic troubleshooting steps to narrow
the problem.
-Restart your computer
-Remove viruses and malware
-Free up hard disk space
-Verify windows system files

-Uninstall unnecessary programs
-Adjust windows visual effects
-Run a disk scan.
A tier 2 technician needs to have in-depth knowledge
about much more, such as the network infrastructure
and servers operating within the organization.

Security skills:
Computer security, cyber security or information
technology security (IT security) is the protection
of computer systems from the theft of or damage to
their hardware, software, or electronic data, as well as
from the disruption or misdirection of the services they
provide.

 Attackers and criminals are constantly waging attacks
on individuals and organizations of all sizes.
 For example, malware is a common threat and
technicians need to be able to recognize malware
symptoms and resolve them.

Troubleshooting skills : refer to the ability of a
technician to identify and resolve a problem. The highest
tier in most organizations is tier 3 and administrators and
technicians at this level troubleshoot and resolve the
most complex problems.
 Business skills: refer to the technician’s
understanding of the organization’s vision, mission, and
values, in addition to the ability to use tools available
within the organization.

Successful technicians understand the elements of a
business and their role within the business.
Businesses often deploy (installs) tools such as help
desk applications, and technicians need to be able to
use them.
For a example, technicians should be able to enter all
appropriate information into help desk application and
use it appropriately. so that they can quickly resolve
some problems for users.

Soft Skills
Soft skills are much more subjective than hard skills. They
are typically associated with personal attributes (quality)
and indicate how successfully individuals are able to
work with other people in teams and how effectively they
are able to interact with users.

Common elements of Soft Skills are:
-Communication skills
-Personal skills.
-Writing skills
-Training skills.

Communication skills:
Effective communication is extremely important in IT
support job roles.
Technicians need to be able to question the user to get
adequate information on a problem without taking on a
tone of interrogation.
Two important communication skills are using open-ended
questions and active listening.

Personal skills:
Personal skills refer to someone’s ability to manage
different situations and manage themselves.
A core personal skill is attitude, which includes maintaining
a positive attitude in general and evoking an attitude of
service toward the customer.
Other elements of personal skills include the ability to
manage personal time, stress and the likes.

Writing skills
Superior written communication is one of the most
important soft skills for help desk technicians,
especially in organizations that use a searchable
knowledge base.
Technicians and administrators use these systems to
search for common problems and how to resolve
them.

In order for this database to be useful, support technicians
must document their actions after they resolve a
problem, and so strong writing skills are important.
Training skills
 technicians provide training to users so that the users
can resolve problems on their own the next time they
occur. This can be informal one-on-one training or in
some cases formal classroom training.

When an organization deploys new operating systems or
applications, they often provide formal classroom
training to the users before the deployment.
The goal is to help the users understand the product and
reduce the load on the help desk after the deployment.

introduction to Help Desk Support Roles
IT Tiers within an Organization
Organizations typically organize support to their customers in
separate levels, or tiers.
Most organizations that use tiers have three internal tiers, and
some identify a fourth external tier.
Technicians at lower-level tiers try to resolve the problem to the
best of their ability. If they are unable to resolve the problem,
they escalate the problem.
In other words, they pass the problem on to a technician at a
higher tier to resolve the problem.

 Support personnel at each tier might work on the same
incident or trouble call.
 For example, when the customer makes initial contact
with a tier 1 technician, this technician logs it as an
incident and begins working on it.
 If the tier 1 technician cannot resolve the incident, this
technician escalates the incident to a higher tier.

Figure 1-1 shows an overview of the tiers, and the
following bullets describe them in more depth.
Tier-1
Help Desk Technicians
First line of support to user
Tier-2
Mid-level support
Handle complex problems escalated from
tier 1
Tier-3
Top level of support within an
organization
Most advanced expertise and
privileges
Tier-4
Outside the organization
Often identified in an SLA

Tier 1. Help desk personnel are tier 1 and provide basic
support to users.
Technicians have basic skills, knowledge, and privileges to
resolve simple and common problems.
 Tier 2. Technicians with a higher level of knowledge,
experience, and permissions work at tier 2 and can
assist tier 1 technicians resolve more complex problems.

 These technicians often have experience at the tier 1
level, or at least have experience providing direct
assistance to users.
 In most cases, these technicians have dedicated jobs in
other areas of the IT department, such as maintaining
servers or the network infrastructure.
 Tier 3. The highest tier in most organizations is tier 3.
 Administrators and technicians at this tier troubleshoot
and resolve the most difficult or complex problems.

Just as tier 2 technicians have other job responsibilities, tier 3
technicians also have other responsibilities.
For example, they might be working on IT projects related to
expanding IT services or migrating older systems and data to
newer systems.
Tier 4. Many organizations have service level agreements
(SLAs) with outside organizations.
When certain problems appear, they contact the outside entity
to resolve them.

For example, an organization could have an SLA with Microsoft
and work with Microsoft personnel to resolve problems related
to Microsoft operating systems and software.
Similarly, they might have an SLA with Dell to replace failed
hardware.

Incident & Incident processes.
An incident is an unplanned interruption to a service, or the
failure of a component of a service that hasn’t yet impacted
service”.
An incident, in the context of information technology, is
an event that is not part of normal operations that disrupts
operational processes. An incident may involve the failure of
a feature or service that should have been delivered or some
other type of operation failure.

Security Incident:
A security incident is a warning that there may be a threat
to information or computer security.
The warning could also be that a threat has already
occurred. Threats or violations can be identified by
unauthorized access to a system.
A computer security incident is a threat to policies that are
related to computer security.

When an incident affects a computer system, a computer
security incident response team (CSIRT) should be activated
to handle the threat.
Examples of computer security incidents include attacks such
as denial of service attacks and malicious code, which
includes worms and viruses.
Unauthorized access by someone who is not allowed to access
a computer system is also considered a potentially
threatening computer security incident.

A security incident may even refer to inappropriate use of a
computer in a system, such as an employee using a work
computer to access pornography when this is expressly
forbidden in the company's procedural guidelines.

Examples of security incidents:
- Attempts from unauthorized sources to access systems
or data.
- Unplanned disruption to a service or denial of a service.
- Unauthorized processing or storage of data.
- Unauthorized changes to system hardware, firmware, or
software.

Incident Management :
Incident management : is the process responsible for
managing the lifecycle of all incidents
The main goal of incident management is to resolve the
disruption as soon as possible in order to restore service
operations.
Due to the fact that even minor disruptions in service can
have a huge impact on the organization, it is necessary
to fix incidents immediately.

The process of incident management usually includes
recording the details of the incident and resolving it.
Incident management often involves level one
supports, which include:
Incident identification
Incident logging
Incident categorization
Incident prioritization

Initial diagnosis
Escalation, as necessary, to level 2 support
Incident resolution
Incident closure
Communication with the user community throughout
the life of the incident.

Client support roles in IT
 In-house and Remote. Remote help desk
technicians support technology customers via
phone, online and occasionally on-site.
 In-house technicians only provide support for
internal employees.
 Help desk technicians need a deep understanding
of computer hardware and software.
 Strong communication skills are also essential, as
help desk specialists must be able to effectively
communicate to both technical and non-technical
end-users.

 Help desk technicians diagnose PC errors and
provide technical support.
 Help desk technicians troubleshoot software,
hardware and network issues.
 Help desk technicians train end-users how to setup
and use new technologies.
 Help desk technicians backup and restore an
organization's data files and folders.
 Help desk techs install, configure and upgrade PC
software and operating systems.

 Help desk technicians clean and repair computer
hardware, such as keyboards and printers.
 Remote IT help desk specialists provide technical
support over the telephone or Internet.
 For instance, some problems that could be solved
directly over the phone without escalating the call to
an IT specialist are:

 deleting a job from a network printer
 saving a file to disk
 locating a file
 changing the screen
brightness/contrast/resolution
 changing the name of a file

 Remote help desk technicians may use
specialized help desk support software to take
remote control of end-users' computers to
troubleshoot, diagnose and resolve complex
issues.

Technical support:
Technical support may be delivered by different
technologies depending on the situation.
For example, direct questions can be addressed
using telephone calls, SMS, Online chat, Support
Forums, E-mail and Fax are can be addressed over
the telephone or, increasingly, by using remote
access repair services; while more complicated
problems with hardware may need to be dealt with in
person.

Categories of technical support
Call in:(visiting)
 This type of technical support has been very
common in the services industry. It is also known as
"Time and Materials" (T&M) IT support.
 The customer pays for the materials and also pays
the technician based on the pre-negotiated rate
when a problem occurs.

Block hours:
 Block hours allow the client to purchase a number
of hours upfront at an agreed price.
 The premise(principle) behind this type of support
is that the customer has purchased a fixed number
of hours to use either per month or year.

Managed services:
 Managed services means a company will receive a
list of well-defined services on ongoing basis, with
well-defined "response and resolution times" for a
fixed rate or a flat fee.
 This can include things like 24/7 monitoring of
servers, 24/7 help desk support for daily computer
issues, and on-site visits by a technician when
issues cannot be resolved remotely.
 The companies that offer this type of tech support
are known as managed services providers.

Crowd sourced technical support:
Many companies and organizations, such as
Apple,Microsoft,Dell, HP and Mozilla provide
discussion boards for users of their products to
interact; such forums allow companies to reduce
their support costs without losing the benefit of
customer feedback.

Do-it-yourself or self-help
 Almost all tech brands and service providers give
free access to a rich library of technical support
solutions to users.
 These are huge databases of step-by-step
solutions, however if you visit the support sites for
big brands the solutions are more often for their
products alone.
 Apple , Microsoft , Dell and HP, all have their
DIY support gateway(access).

Outsourcing technical support:
 With the increasing use of technology in modern
times, there is a growing requirement to provide
technical support.
 Many organizations locate their technical support
departments or call centers in countries or regions
with lower costs.
 Dell was amongst the first companies to outsource
their technical support and customer service
departments to India in 2001.

Multi-tiered technical support:
Technical support is often subdivided into tiers, or
levels, in order to better serve a business or customer
base.
The number of levels a business uses to organize
their technical support group is dependent on a
business' needs regarding their ability to sufficiently
serve their customers or users.
The reason for providing a multi-tiered support
system instead of one general support group is to
provide the best possible service in the most efficient

CatLO1: Analyze client support issues
A common support structure revolves around a three-
tiered technical support system.
Tier 1
 Tier I (or Level 1, abbreviated as T1 or L1) is the initial
support level responsible for basic customer issues.
 It is synonymous with first-line support, level 1
support, front-end support, support line 1, and
denoting basic level technical support functions.
 The first job of a Tier I specialist is to gather the
customer’s information and to determine the
customer’s issue by analyzing the symptoms and
figuring out the underlying problem.

 When analyzing the symptoms, it is
important for the technician to identify
what the customer is trying to accomplish
so that time is not wasted on "attempting
to solve a symptom instead of a problem.
 This level should gather as much
information as possible from the end user.

 Technical support specialists in this group typically
handle straightforward and simple problems while
"possibly using some kind of knowledge
management tool."
 This includes troubleshooting methods such as
resolving username and password problems,
uninstalling/reinstalling basic software applications,
verification of proper hardware and software set up.

Tier 2
 Tier II (or Level 2, abbreviated as T2 or L2) is a
more in-depth technical support level than Tier I and
therefore costs more as the techs are more
experienced and knowledgeable on a particular
product or service.
 It is synonymous with level 2 support, support line 2,
administrative level support, and various other
headings denoting advanced technical
troubleshooting and analysis methods.

 Technicians in this phase of knowledge are
responsible for assisting Tier I personnel in
solving basic technical problems and for
investigating elevated(higher) issues by
confirming the validity of the problem and
seeking for known solutions related to these
more complex issues

 If a problem is new and/or personnel from this group
cannot determine a solution, they are responsible for
raising this issue to the Tier III technical support
group.

 This may include, but is not limited to onsite
installations or replacements of various
hardware components, software repair,
diagnostic testing, and the utilization of remote
control tools used to take over the user’s
machine for the sole purpose of
troubleshooting and finding a solution to the
problem.

issues
 Organization Can Have:
 Desk side team
 Sometimes known as "desktop support" is
responsible for issues related to desktops,
laptops, and the likes.
 The help desk assigns the desktop team the
second-level desk side issues that the first
level was not able to solve(Escalate).

issues
 Network side team
 Is responsible for the network software, hardware
and infrastructure, such as server, switches,
backup systems, and firewalls.
 Also responsible for the network services, such as
email configuration, file management, and
security issues.

issues
 Server side team
 Server team is responsible for all of the servers
within the organization. This includes network
authentication, network shares, network
resources, email accounts, and all aspects of
server software.

issues
 Client :-Client can be defined as the direct
receiver of "products", that often means
services - who engages in contact with service
providers to get services.
 Types of Client:
a. Internal :-
 Internal client are persons or departments who
rely on output from another department of the
same organization to accomplish their own
function.

issues
 Internal clients/customers are any persons who
either work for an organization. E.g. the Staffs,
workmates/colleagues/employees
b. External :-
 External client are those who do not work for
the organization, which are require the
product/service to fulfill their need.
 External client/customer are most common in
sales where a company sells a product to a
customer

issues
 Client communication
 Establish contact with clients
 Use verbal and non-verbal communication to
respond to the client requests and enquiries
effectively
 Receive requests and enquiries from clients in a
polite and appropriate manner
 Use appropriate questioning and active listening
techniques to understand client needs and
determine support requirements
 Accommodate cultural differences in the
workplace

issues
 Process information
 Answer enquiries promptly and appropriately
 Record information or messages and refer client
requests to the appropriate person in
accordance with organizational procedures
 Inform client of the progress of their request or
enquiry and advise them of the organizational
process for answering their request or enquiry
 Investigate the organizational follow up
procedure or policy and record follow up action
taken in

issues
 In your communication all the following
communication methods are used:
 Verbal communication includes:
‒ face-to-face
‒ telephone
‒ mobile phone

issues
 non-verbal communication
‒ body language is consistent and inconsistent
with verbal communication
‒ understanding body language
‒ interpreting
 subtext
 gestures

issues
 written communication
‒ Workplace forms/documents
‒ memorandum
‒ Messages
‒ Internet/intranet
‒ Electronic mail and extra

issues
 Skills of written communication should be:
 Accurate spelling
 grammar and punctuation
 Sentence construction (short, simple and correct)
 Legible handwriting
 Plain(simple) English
 Avoid jargon(slang)

Seven Cs of effective written
communication
 Completeness - The communication must be
complete.
 It should convey all facts required by the
audience.
 The sender of the message must take into
consideration the receiver’s mind set and convey
the message accordingly.
 A complete communication has following features:
Complete communication develops and enhances
reputation (status, name) of an organization.
Moreover, they are cost saving as no crucial
information is missing and no additional cost is
incurred in conveying extra message if the
communication is complete.

communication
 It leaves no questions in the mind of receiver.
 Complete communication helps in better
decision-making by the
audience/readers/receivers of message as
they get all desired and crucial information.
 It persuades the audience.

communication
 Conciseness - Conciseness means
wordiness, i.e, communicating what you
want to convey in least possible words.
 Conciseness is a necessity for effective
communication.
 Concise communication has following
features:
 It is both time-saving as well as cost-saving.
 It underlines and highlights the main message
as it avoids using excessive and needless
words.

communication
Concise communication provides short and essential
message in limited words to the audience.
Concise message is more appealing(attractive) and
comprehensible to the audience.
Concise message is non-repetitive in nature.
 Consideration - Consideration implies “stepping into
the shoes of others”.
 Effective communication must take the audience into
consideration, i.e, the audience’s view points,
background, mind-set, education level, etc.
 Make an attempt to envisage(imagine, predict) your
audience, their requirements, emotions as well as
problems.

communication
 Ensure that the self-respect of the audience
is maintained.
 Features of considerate communication are
as follows:
 Emphasize on “you” approach.
 Empathize with the audience and exhibit interest
in the audience.
 This will stimulate a positive reaction from the
audience.
 Show optimism towards your audience.
 Emphasize on “what is possible” rather than
“what is impossible”.

communication
 Clarity - Clarity implies emphasizing on a
specific message or goal at a time, rather
than trying to achieve too much at once.
 Clarity in communication has following
features:
 It makes understanding easier.
 Complete clarity of thoughts and ideas enhances
the meaning of message.
 Clear message makes use of exact, appropriate
and concrete words.

communication
 Concreteness - Concrete communication
implies being particular and clear rather than
fuzzy (unclear) and general.
 Concreteness strengthens the confidence.
Concrete message has following features:
 It is supported with specific facts and figures.
 It makes use of words that are clear and that build
the reputation.
 Concrete messages are not misinterpreted(wrong
idea).

communication
 Courtesy - Courtesy in message implies the message
should show the sender’s expression as well as should
respect the receiver. The sender of the message should
be sincerely (truthfully, honestly) polite, judicious,
reflective and enthusiastic. Courteous message has
following features:
 Courtesy implies taking into consideration both
viewpoints as well as feelings of the receiver of the
message.
 Courteous message is positive and focused at the
audience.
 It makes use of terms showing respect for the receiver
of message.

communication
 Correctness - Correctness in communication
implies that there are no grammatical errors in
communication. Correct communication has
following features:
 The message is exact, correct and well-timed.
 If the communication is correct, it boosts up the
confidence level.
 Correct message has greater impact on the
audience/readers.
 It checks for the precision and accurateness of
facts and figures used in the message.
 It makes use of appropriate and correct
language in the message.

issues
Barrier to effective listening
 Focusing on your own concerns instead of the
user’s
 Allocating insufficient time to a user’s problem
 Talking too much instead of listening
 Talking to avoid silences
 Avoiding eye contact
 Speaking rapidly
 Using overly technical language or jargon

Ways To Overcome Barriers To
Communication
 Communication barriers exist all around us.
 These barriers exist because we put them
there.
 There are many ways we interpret information
given to us by others, and these cause us to
have a miss- understanding.
 How can we reduce the barriers that
effectively blind us to meaning and
comprehension?
 Here are ways:

Communication
 1) Understand others see things differently to you.
 Try to predict the feelings and attitude of the receiver.
What will their expectation be? What about their state
of mind when you are communicating? What
prejudices(narrow-minded) might they have? If you
know these things before communicating, you reduce
the risk if misinterpretation.
 2) Get feedback from the receiver.
 Don’t just ask, ‘Do you Understand?’. They will more
often than not say ‘yes’ because they see things in the
way they want to understand it.
 Ask instead what is their understanding of the
message, and how they see it.

Communication
 3) As often as possible, speak face-to-face.
 This will allow for questions and, most
importantly, allow you to see the body
language, which will convey much more
meaning than over the phone or through email.
 4) Use language that fits the audience.
 Don’t try to impress by using language and
words that may be distorted by the listener(s).
 It simply makes them confused and
inadequate. Plus, they won’t be listening to
you.

Communication
 5) Use the right communication channel.
 Don’t send an email if it’s quicker to pick up
the phone or go and talk to the person.
 Use email for its proper purpose.
 6) Have integrity and honesty in your
communications.
 If you are seen as being someone who lacks
integrity, this will immediately be noticed and
even more barriers will be built up between
you and the listener.

Communication
 7) Make it easy for others to listen to you.
 Make your communication style that one of a
conversationalist, one who is able to make a point
quickly, conviction (assurance, certainty).
 If your key message is lost in the mess of a
thousand words, people will wonder what you
mean and what the purpose is..
 Be aware that barriers exist in every contact, and
it may not be possible for you to ensure clarity
every time, because others will have their own
subconscious agenda.

Customer Service Skills for the Help Desk
Professional
 A help desk professional is someone that balances
customer service skills with technical competency
to assistant internal employees or external clients
with computer or technological issues.
 Internal help desk professionals participate in
hardware and software purchases and installation
and work with employees to resolve IT problems.
 Customer service help desk professionals support
business customers by helping them work through
technology or service problems at home or work.

Professional
Technical Proficiency:
While help desk professionals are customer service
employees, their ability to help stems from a foundation of
technical proficiency.
This means they not only have current education and
training on the technology they serve but they continue to
learn.
Computer support professionals, for instance, must keep
up with new bugs(infections) and viruses to help
customers work through malware dilemmas. Without the
technical knowledge base, the other soft skills involved in
service are useless.

Professional
Training and Support:
 The ability to communicate well and train users on
proper use of products is critical to some help desk
professionals.
 Training and support helps clients learn how to use
newly purchased technology products and services.
 This gives them a much better experience, which
contributes to repeat business and
referrals(transactions).
 Help desk pros with these skills can go step-by-step
through training processes and help new customers
get online or to a point where they can use their

Professional
Troubleshooting and Prevention:
 Troubleshooting and prevent skills combine
technical proficiency and soft service skills.
 Troubleshooting is the ability to listen well to a
customer's unique problem and effectively match
the right service process or solution to it.
 Troubleshooting technical problems is common for
help desk professionals.
 Preventative support skills happen together with
troubleshooting.

Customer Service Skills for the Help
Desk Professional
 Once an issue is resolved a good help desk
professional assists his client in taking preventative
measures to prevent similar issues from recurring.
 For instance, if a virus is removed from a
computer, the help desk professional may
recommend certain antivirus software and other
protections against such attacks going forward.

issues
 Obtain approval from the client to
implement the solution for:
 client verification of their requirements to ensure
:
-solution is within company/organization policy
- costing of the solution is understood and
allocated
- timeframes for implementation of solution are
acceptable

issues
 After documenting the solution, client approval
must be obtained before proceeding. The
purpose of obtaining this approval is to:
 ensure that the client accepts that the solution
meets their requirements
 ensure that client accepts the cost of the
proposed solution
 ensure that the client accepts the proposed
timeframe for the implementation of the
solution.

issues
 Methods of investigation to support issues:
• Interview the client using open, closed and
reflective questions combined with active
listening
• On-site observation/examination
• Contacting vendor/maintenance
organization
• Refer existing documentation.

issues
 After examining the help desk calls which have
been logged today, check the log file of previous
calls to see if any similar problems have
previously been reported.
 If one of the new problems is similar to a
previous problem, make a note of how the
problem was resolved.

issues
 Complete a Job description form for each
new job logged. When filling in the Job
description form you will need to:
a) Complete a possible solution:-this is a
preliminary investigation, so if a possible
solution cannot be found within a few
minutes of research you should complete
the form to this stage, and further research
will be required.

issues
b) Write down questions you need to ask the client to
further your investigation, using the appropriate
space on the form. Make sure your questions will
help you to be aware of all the issues involved.

issues
c. To ensure that clients know the status of their
call, contact each client via an email. In the
email:
notify the client of the results of your
investigation so far
provide them with advice and support based
on your findings
Include the additional questions you need to
ask.

issues
 Previous help desk calls
Job.No date
logged status
priorit
y
user location proble
m
date
closed
resoluti
on
1 20/03/20
07
Closed Robel IT-2 Word
won’t
start
21/04/20
07
Uninstal
l &
reinstall
word
2 21/04/20
07
Open Natnael IT-1 Window
will not
accept
my
passwor
d
21/04/20
07
Reset
user
passwor
d

Assignment – 25%
 Create any problem issues corresponding
to IT dilemmas.
 Prepare problem investigation methods of a
client
 Explain briefly the problem that you are
selected.
 -tell him how you troubleshoot it.
 -give your recommendation to end user and
other protections against such problems going
forward.

LO2: Provide advice on sw, hw
or network
 Provide advice on software, hardware or
network
 Confirm software, hardware or network requirements with
client
 Investigate and document a solution
 Document additional requirements discovered in the
investigation and refer them to the client
 Obtain approval from the client to implement the
solution

LO2: Provide advice on sw, hw
or network
 Investigate and document the amount of technical
support the client may require
 Discuss and agree the level of technical support
identified with the client
 Arrange a time with the client when support will take
place
 Provide technical support as part of group or one to one
instruction to the client
 Provide manuals and help documentation to the client

Provide remote help desk support

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