Meet help desk challenges with our IT Help Desk Survival Guide, Second Edition

by Toni Bowers | Apr 16, 2004 7:00:00 AM

Tags: Call centers, Toni Bowers, information technology, help desk

Takeaway: Everything you need to run your help desk efficiently

Editor's note: If you'd like to learn pointers for optimizing your help desk, you'll like our help desk content package. Included are three free-with-membership articles—"Create structured training for new help desk staffers," "Write your help desk's mission statement to raise team awareness," and "Managers offer suggestions for motivating your help desk staff"—as well as a call tracking sheet. You can also order our help desk technician hiring package, where you'll find a help desk tech job description, a list of interview questions you can use when talking to job candidates, and a candidate tracking spreadsheet. And lastly, for a comprehensive look at help desk issues, buy our IT Help Desk Survival Guide, Second Edition CD-ROM.

Help desk analysts are a unique breed. Not only must IT support professionals thoroughly understand enterprise computing systems, they must also convey their technical expertise clearly and succinctly to end users. Above all, help desk professionals must possess top-notch customer-service skills and stay cool under fire.

To help you hire the best people for these critical spots, use our Help Desk Tech Hiring package. In this package, you'll find a ready-to-use job description that lists all the skills the perfect candidate will have, as well as the duties that person is expected to be able to do. In addition, you'll find a series of interview questions geared to help you zero in on the right candidates. Our weighted spreadsheet allows you to enter information about the help desk candidates so you can keep track of the leading ones.

Of course, quickly and efficiently resolving users' technology problems is a challenging and often thankless job. While you're expected to manage a wide range of issues, from deploying new solutions to calming irate users, few resources exist to help you overcome not only technical hurdles, but interpersonal issues as well.

TechRepublic understands the needs of today's support and help desk professionals. Our technical editors and contributing IT professionals have teamed up to bring you a newly updated version of our popular support reference. The IT Help Desk Survival Guide, Second Edition includes the critical templates, checklists, tips, proven advice, and information you need to:

Improve communication with end users.
Isolate the real issues motivating help desk calls.
Evaluate and prioritize incoming support calls.
Track reported problems and their outcomes.
Minimize support calls by teaching users basic skills.
Develop effective help desk policies and procedures.
Eliminate common Microsoft Windows and Office application issues.

This CD-ROM includes templates, checklists, tips, advice, and information that will help you maximize productivity, increase positive results, and support users with top-notch service skills. You'll find ready-to-use templates, such as a hardware check-out/check-in form and reference tools that can help you develop the right end-user/IT support staff ratio.

Buy our IT Help Desk Survival Guide, Second Edition and start strengthening your help desk today.

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