Sittin’ at Ye Olde Help Deske

admin June 10, 2008 management stuff 5 Comments

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I forgot my computer today. I started to walk back to the car to go home and get it, but then I thought, “Why? I have 4 hours of meetings, I have my PDA, what’s the point?” So I went back inside and decided to sit at a vacant seat at the help desk to check in with my mail, calendar, projects, etc. Folks offered me a loaner laptop, but it’s a nice change to sit at the help desk.  Here’s what I’ve learned so far:

  • I seem to be an expert in PDA support relative to the other help desk’ers. I’ve actually helped!
  • Having students (or anyone who might not have sufficient knowledge) answer help desk calls is painful for everyone: frustrating for the customer and embarrassing for those answering the call.

We need to either increase the skills of those taking calls at the help desk or have different staff take the calls.  Perhaps students could be like apprentices, but without the screaming and abuse… yeah, a guild system.

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5 Responses to “Sittin’ at Ye Olde Help Deske”

  1. Sukey said:

    Jun 10, 08 at 4:40 pm

    Ye Olde Helpp Desk

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pyjRj3UMRM

  2. admin said:

    Jun 11, 08 at 4:46 pm

    Thanks–and there’s also a Star Wars help desk out there on You Tube somewhere!

  3. rufusb said:

    Jun 12, 08 at 10:06 am

    In my experience the best help deskers are people with an intimate knowledge of their customers’ machines, habits and temperaments. This requires an investment from the organization, but the help desk is truly where the “rubber meets the road” and is the first thing users praise or complain about.

  4. ihateyougoaway said:

    Jul 01, 08 at 6:32 am

    When I first came to University X (oh, I like that name!) I sat at the Help Desk for a week to get a handle on what was going on as there were major complaints. I quickly learned that work study students didn’t put forth much of an effort…err…neither did the full timers!! It was a pivotal moment in learning how broken the entire system was and to be able to restructure the entire department.

    Writing this made me think back 15 years ago when I was a systems admin…my manager was a total tool and thought it would be great to create a help desk newsletter and call it… “Beyond Help”.

    What’s worse? All the veeps loved the name….sigh.

  5. admin said:

    Jul 01, 08 at 5:13 pm

    Beyond Help. This is too good to be true. Or so good it couldn’t be fiction.

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