I’m sure you have experienced a time when you called in your IT resource to help you troubleshoot an issue. Maybe you have called a Help Desk resource supporting one of your software applications.
The story often goes like this. The technicuian starts “working on things” before you even have a chance to fully describe the problem you have. Before you know it, he is either making settings changes to your PC or telling you over the phone to do things.
I call these guys “hip shooters”. They start doing things before they understand the issue. These types can be very dangerous, break a lot of things, and create much frustration.
After a lengthy time and getting no further than when you started, the support resource tells you that you need to reload the software or to rebuild your PC. I’ve only had this happen once or twice and glad I decided to seek a second opinion before going down this perilou path.
Today, I’m in a Dubai hotel and my Internet connection is lost. Everything was working fine last night and early this morning, but seems like I haven’t been getting to the Internet for a couple of hours. The three email messages I though I had sent are still sitting in my Outbox, , , OUCH!!
I hate it when this happens.
Well, when you travel you are going to have Internet connection challenges from time to time. I’m pretty comfortable doing the basic checks that end up getting me the connectivity I so desperately seek, so it wasn’t a big deal.
But today, , , all the troubleshooting ideas I could come up with simply didn’t work!!
Finally, after about an hour of doing my own troubleshooting, I call the Front Desk and ask if they have an IT Support Technician, , , knowing that this could be either a very good experience , , , or a very bad experience.
My support arrives within 10 minutes, , , a good sign.
The result, , , a couple of quick checks, , , a router reboot in his system room, , , and we are all squared away. In all, it took maybe another 10 minutes.
I plan to give the hotel manager a note of appreciation and a job well done. This guy was sharp, no nonsense, great communication skills, , , asked my permission to do certain things on my laptop versus just making changes on the fly, , , just a super professional. I was impressed!
Guys like this need to be appreciated, and I certainly appreciate his help, , , hence, you are getting this Blog post now and not many hours or days later.
A good IT technician is worth his weight in gold. When you have a really good one, treat him or her well.
ITLever™ 