DID YOU RESTART IT?™
HELP DESK ONLINE
OPEN A TICKET
QUEUE HELP-DESK-01
STATUS ACCEPTING TICKETS
SUPPORT TYPE HUMAN
FIRST QUESTION YOU KNOW THE ONE
HELP DESK

Yes. We’re going to ask.

QUESTION 01

Did you restart it?

Technical support for the everyday problems that stop work, interrupt meetings, confuse users, break printers, lock accounts, disappear files, disconnect VPNs, and somehow become “an IT emergency” five minutes before somebody needs to present.

[ OPEN A TICKET ] [ VIEW TICKET QUEUE ]
REMOTE SUPPORT READY ACCOUNT RESET AVAILABLE DEVICE SUPPORT ONLINE TICKETS ACCEPTED PRINTER BEHAVIOR UNPREDICTABLE
LIVE-ish QUEUE

Today in technical support.

FICTIONAL TICKETS
#6112 PASSWORD RESET
RESOLVED
USER REPORT

“My password stopped working.”

RESOLUTION

User was typing the password into the username field.

ATTEMPTS
14
PASSWORD
FINE
#6147 DISPLAY
RESOLVED
USER REPORT

“My second monitor died.”

RESOLUTION

Monitor was turned off. Power button successfully reintroduced to user.

HARDWARE FAILURE
NO
BUTTON
FOUND
#6173 VPN
RESOLVED
USER REPORT

“VPN is broken.”

RESOLUTION

Laptop was not connected to the internet. VPN declined to manufacture Wi-Fi from nothing.

VPN
HEALTHY
WI-FI
ABSENT
#6198 PRINTER
ESCALATED
USER REPORT

“It just says offline.”

CURRENT STATUS

Printer is powered, connected, reachable, sufficiently supplied, and choosing violence.

TECHNICIAN
PRESENT
DIPLOMACY
FAILED

All tickets are fictional demonstration content. The printer, however, knows what it did.

SUPPORT CAPABILITIES

Problems we would prefer you send us.

007 CATEGORIES / ONLINE
ID CATEGORY MODE STATUS
HD-101 Device Support REMOTE + ONSITE READY
HD-118 Account + Password Help USER ACCESS READY
HD-204 Email + Microsoft 365 APPLICATION READY
HD-226 Connectivity + VPN NETWORK ACCESS READY
HD-310 Software Support TROUBLESHOOTING READY
HD-404 Printer Support NEGOTIATION CAUTIOUS
HD-500 New User Setup ONBOARDING READY

“It was working yesterday” has been added to the case file.

OPEN SUPPORT REQUEST →
BETTER TICKETS

Give us something to work with.

A good support ticket does not need to be technical. It just needs to contain slightly more information than “computer broken.”

01 WHAT?

Tell us what is not working. “Outlook will not open” is significantly more useful than “email issue.”

02 WHEN?

Tell us when the problem started and whether anything changed immediately before it happened.

03 WHERE?

Tell us which device, application, account, location, or network is affected instead of making us conduct digital archaeology.

04 ERROR?

Send the actual error message. A screenshot is excellent. A phone photo taken from across the room is less excellent.

PRIORITY MATRIX

Everything cannot be urgent.

CURRENT PHRASE "NEED ASAP"
Company-wide outage or major business interruption.
Important system or multiple users significantly affected.
Individual user issue with a reasonable workaround.
Request, minor issue, question, or planned change.
Your monitor being slightly crooked is not a P1.
PRIORITY IS BASED ON
  • Number of users affected
  • Business impact
  • Service availability
  • Security risk
  • Available workaround
  • Not number of exclamation points
SUBMIT A TICKET →
SUPPORT KNOWLEDGE BASE

Common wisdom from the trenches.

TECHNICIAN APPROVED
KB-001 RESTARTS
VALID
CLAIM

“Restarting won’t help.”

TECHNICIAN NOTE

Unfortunately, restarting solves enough problems that we are contractually obligated to keep asking.

ANNOYING
YES
EFFECTIVE
ALSO YES
KB-017 UPDATES
VALID
CLAIM

“I always click Update Later.”

TECHNICIAN NOTE

We know. The operating system has been documenting your commitment to that strategy for eleven months.

LATER
ARRIVED
PATCHES
WAITING
KB-031 FILE STORAGE
VALID
CLAIM

“I saved it somewhere.”

TECHNICIAN NOTE

Excellent. We have narrowed the search to every writable location accessible by your account.

FILENAME
UNKNOWN
LOCATION
"SOMEWHERE"
HELP DESK AVAILABLE
NEW TICKET

Tell us what broke.

Include what happened, what you expected to happen, the device or application involved, and the exact error message if there is one.

[ OPEN A TICKET ] [ REVIEW MANAGED IT ]
BEFORE SUBMITTING We both know what the first question is going to be.