Starting a new helpdesk job soon? Congratulations. Here are some tips from the helpdesk experts on Reddit that can get you headed towards that first raise and promotion.
The infamous IT Helpdesk Wheel of Responses (hat tip: reddit/ITdept)
1. Document everything. Screenshots help. Managers and supervisors want to see what you’ve accomplished.
2. If you can’t fix it immediately, ask for help. Your co-workers will understand that you’re trying to learn so you don’t have to ask next time.
3. Learn Windows products like Office, Exchange, Active Directory, XP/Vista/7, Internet Explorer, etc. Familiarity with Google Apps is also becoming increasingly important.
4. Remember the 5 R’s: Reboot, Reinstall, Replug/Reset, Reimage, Replace
5. Understand how share folders/network drives/network printers work in a domain environment.
6. Become the helpdesk support person who’s known for explaining clearly to users what is wrong, why they have an issue, and how to solve it. By just fixing their problem, you aren’t teaching the user what happened and why it’s happening. Show the user basic things they can do themselves before submitting a ticket.
7. Reinforce the helpdesk ticketing system by prioritizing submitted tickets. Let users know that tickets submitted in your help desk ticketing system take priority over phone calls and office drive-by visits
8. Always follow up with help desk tickets, even after they are closed. It makes the end users happy and they’ll remember the courtesy when responding to your performance review.
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