Handling tech escalations
As I approach the end of the first week of handling escalated calls where the first tech agent couldn't resolve the customer's issue, causing the customer to ask to speak with a supervisor, I've a couple of observations.

First, if you call for technical support, you should never be reluctant to ask for a supervisor if a reasonable amount of effort and trying what the front-line agent suggests doesn't resolve your issue. Sometimes those of us at the next level up have tools and options that the first line does not have.

Second, a lot of people who are getting slammed by Spyware. It can be so damaging that you won't even be able to surf the web. Here's the program that we recommend you download and run regularly to get rid of Spyware -- Spybot Search and Destroy. If you don't have it, you might want to go ahead and get it, just in case you become beset by this latest obnoxious Internet scourge. It is not the only useful program out there, but it works rather well, and for some people it is the only thing we can do to help them be able to surf again.

A second site that we in tech support find very useful is ModemHelp.net. The main advantage of this site is that provides screenshots of a large number of programs on which you can "click through" the menus to go to the next screenshot. In other words, it acts just like the application. So when you are talking with a customer, it is very helpful to be able to see the screens they are seeing and to follow them as you give instructions for which menu item to click on. Even if you are not doing technical support, you might find this site worth looking at.
- posted by Perry @ 9:00 AM