Help!

Help Desk professionals need technical aptitude and good communication skills. Above all, a sense of humor helps when those odd questions come in. Here are some examples from a nationwide survey — and a few that are closer to home.

By Laura French, Star Tribune Sales and Marketing

Last update: December 8, 2008 - 10:02 AM

Technical support professionals need to stay up-to-date on their applications and equipment. They need excellent communication skills to diagnose problems and communicate solutions. It takes all of those traits, plus a good sense of humor, to deal with a question like, "How do I get my computer's coffee-cup holder to come out again?"

That was an actual response from a telephone survey conducted by Robert Half Technology. More than 1,400 Chief Information Officers (CIOs) were asked to provide their strangest Help Desk requests.

Strange Requests

In addition to mistaking their CD-rom drive for a cup holder, callers asked:

"Why isn't my wireless mouse connected to the computer?"

"Can you rearrange the keyboard alphabetically?"

"My computer is telling me to press any key to continue. Where is the `any' key?"

"Can you reset the Internet for me?"

"How can I block e-mail from my manager?"

Project Manager Cathy Oster, now an independent consultant, fielded lots of odd questions while working in the information technology department of Dayton-Hudson Corporation in the mid-1990s. Back then, Dayton's shoppers had to make an appointment to meet with a gift registry consultant. Together, the customer and the consultant walked through the store, and the consultant would use a scanner to add items to the registry.

Oster headed a project that enabled the consultants to create registries on a personal computer. "Most of the consultants had been doing their job for a long time," Oster recalls. "Few of them had ever touched a computer."

Mouse Problems

The mouse was a troublemaker for a lot of Oster's new users. One consultant who couldn't get the mouse to work was actually running it over the monitor screen. Another user knew the mouse was supposed to be used on the desk. But, she asked the support team, "What do I do once the mouse gets all the way to the edge?" Yet another user asked if it was OK to take off the "dust cover" - the plastic wrap the mouse was shipped in.

Those questions were baffling, but even more difficult was a call from a team that had just set up a new PC and couldn't get it to start. They had checked everything, they insisted. Eventually, a support person was dispatched - and discovered that they had plugged the surge protector into itself.

Laura French is principal of Words Into Action, Inc., and is a freelance writer from Roseville.

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