Customer Service Commitment to Excellence

Plan for Good Service

• Commit to excellence regardless of circumstances or personalities
• Initial contact with a customer:
  • Answer phone calls by identifying yourself and your organization
  • Follow company policy to obtain the caller's name and number
  • Confirm authorization to help the customer and open the conversation for the caller to describe the problem
• Prepare for on-site visits by:
  • Reviewing information about the service call
  • Familiarizing yourself with the problem, urgency, and required computer, software, and hardware
  • Arriving with a complete set of equipment
• Greet the customer in a friendly manner, shake hands, and be cautious when working at a residence with a minor present
• Listen and ask questions to understand the customer's issue

Interview the Customer

• Take notes as you ask questions
• Have the customer reproduce the problem, noting each step taken and its results
• Use diplomacy and good manners when working with a user to solve a problem

Set and Meet Customer Expectations

• Create an expectation of certainty with customers
• Establish a timeline with the customer for project completion and keep them informed of progress
• Give the customer an opportunity to make decisions about repairs, with guidance from you

Work With a Customer On Site

• Avoid distractions and minimize personal calls on your cell phone
• Protect the customer's confidential materials and avoid taking over the mouse or keyboard without permission
• Ask permission to use the printer or other equipment

Documenting Changes

• Document everything related to changes
• Use change management software or manual documentation to manage all stages of change management

Working in Diverse Software Environments

• IT support technicians encounter a wide variety of hardware platforms, operating systems, and applications
• Operating systems have commonalities and diversities among them

Functions of an Operating System

• An operating system (OS) is software that controls a computer
• Four main functions of an OS:
  • Provide a user interface
  • Manage files
  • Manage hardware
  • Manage applications
• Every OS offers a command-driven interface and almost every OS offers one or more graphical user interfaces (GUI)

How an OS Manages Hardware

• The motherboard BIOS/UEFI provides three functions:
  • System BIOS/UEFI contains instructions for running hardware devices before an OS is started
  • Startup BIOS/UEFI starts the computer and finds a boot device that contains an OS
  • Setup BIOS/UEFI is used to change motherboard settings

How an OS Manages a Hard Drive

• Low-level formatting organizes the space in a long series of logical blocks using Logical Block Addressing (LBA)
• Partitioning systems:
  • MBR partitions keep a map of partitions in a partition table stored at the beginning of the hard drive called the MBR
  • GPT partitions use the newer Globally Unique Identifier Partition Table (GUID or GPT) system, which can support up to 128 partitions and is required for drives larger than 2.2 TB