The 12 Most Important Pieces of Information to Share with Support Services to Reduce Downtime

Time loss can be one of the most expensive burdens businesses encounter today. Keeping businesses functioning with the least amount of downtime is mission critical.

Customer service and technical support teams are reliable resources to utilize when you encounter software issues. Such support services are essential for any size of business. From small to large, support services are often utilized even when companies have budgets to hire fully equipped IT departments to fill these gaps. Single users and smaller organizations that do not have IT budgets tend to contact and use support services with manufactures with which they have contracts or products more often to resolve issues.

In order to assist with reducing time loss, then, here is a list of the 12 bits of information and guidance to have ready to help expedite requests the next time you’re in need of contacting support services.

1. What is the issue?
   1. Be as descriptive as possible.
2. Who is experiencing the issue?
   1. Contact information, phone number, email address, and what time of day that works best for contact?
3. When did the issue first start to occur?
   1. Dates and times
4. Has this issue happened before?
   1. If yes, when?
5. What impact is the issue having on you, your team, or department?
   1. Somewhat functional, non-functional or complete shutdown?
6. Is the issue affecting a single user or more than one person?
   1. Are there any correlations between these users such as computer type, changes in environment or recent upgrades to hardware or software?
7. Do you experience this issue on another computer\device\network?
   1. Is it location or area specific, building-related, or specific to a group of users?
8. Has anything else changed since this issue started?
   1. Have there been any recent software changes (including installations, deletions, reconfiguration, other modifications)?
   2. Have there been any recent additions to the system (adding hardware, upgrading hardware or hardware drivers, adding peripherals)?
9. Does rebooting the computer fix the issue (on the Server or Client machines)?
10. Are there other applications preventing the software from working?
    1. Virus, Malware, Firewall or other applications running on the server or the client’s machine?
11. Is the issue web browser related?
    1. Trying another browser for Server portal issues can sometime resolve issues.
12. Is the issue network related?
    1. Have there been any changes to the network or network hardware?
    2. Recent changes or issues with their Directory Services?
    3. Can they log in to another shared application or drive?
    4. Has the computer been moved recently causing loose cables or other connections?
    5. Are cables being unreasonably stretched or crimped?
    6. What type of environment is the computer set up in – Wi-Fi or Wired?

When submitting complete information, support agents are better able to assess what next steps are required to get your software running again.

Extensis strives to make the best products in our marketplace. Nevertheless, in a constantly changing software ecosystem, calls to support services may be necessary to eliminate any downtimes you may be experiencing. And when those calls occur, having these 12 pieces of information ready will help speed your along to a solution that meets your needs.

To learn more about how support services at Extensis can help reduce downtime, check out our Support page!