Making Effective Requests for Technology Support

Help us help you!

One of the slowest parts of the technology troubleshooting process is the time it takes to exchange a volley of emails as we work with you to collect more specific and more detailed information about the nature of your technology request.  The Committee on Instructional Technology’s students, faculty and staff members have worked together to identify the kinds of information that you can include to reduce the number of “tennis” emails at the outset of troubleshooting your issue.  (Of course, if you need to talk to someone immediately, please call the HelpDesk directly 501-450-1340 or in a Teams Chat. If you use the Chat, calling is better than sending a chat message.)

• Goal: What is your goal? What are you trying to accomplish?

• Context: What is the context? The details that clarify the situation.

• Comparison: Include comparative information to highlight the variables affecting the issue.

• Verbs: Include verbs, especially in the subject line to focus on the nature of the problem and give direction.

• Error Message: Include any error messages or indicators.  Even if it requires some interpretation, the error message is always right.

Include what you are trying to do or to accomplish.  

• "I need to show a movie somewhere unusual." is more helpful than "I need to check out a projector." 
• "We need the lab tables to better support small group collaboration." is more helpful than "We need new computers and monitors for our labs."
• "I'm collaborating with someone outside of my Team." is more helpful than "I'm trying to share a file."
• What were you trying to do when this happened?  What was the last step immediately before this happened?
  
• Understanding what you are trying to do at the outset helps us pull together the right information and resources to provide a solution, not just a piece of equipment. 
  

Include the context of the problem. By context, I mean the nouns: person, place, thing, and time.   

• Person or Persons--something happening to more than one person raises the urgency and also locates the problem in the direction of the system.
• Proper names, if possible.  "Nomy Clarksdale is not in HIST 360 02 S22" may be immediately solvable, but "Student not on roster" is going to require some extra emails for clarification.
• Place, specifically. Room numbers are great, and for wifi, even the position within a room--or if you're next to a microwave--can be helpful information.  
• Things--you and your printer may be on casual terms like “printer” and “human” to each other, but HelpDesk does better with proper names like “Fausett 2nd Floor Color Xerox”. 
  • Include the make, model, OS, year, etc. for your phone, gaming device or computer.
  • If it is a Hendrix-provided device, include its inventory #. Ex. 19473LPU or similar.  (Clue: the "19" at the beginning of the inventory number indicates this device was purchased in 2019.)
• Exact times are super helpful, but time adverbs can also help: Suddenly, gradually, occasionally, sporadically, recently, instantly, always, never, since, until, after, before, etc. 

Include comparative information. 

• “Thing does x; suddenly it’s doing y.” vs. “Thing does x; occasionally it does y.”   
• “This-Thing does x; That-Thing does y.” vs. “Both Things are doing x, instead of y.”   
• “Thing works in location A, but not in location B.” vs. “Thing works in all locations except location x.” 
• Other recent changes?  "x changed or was updated, and now y doesn't respond."
• Again, time adverbs imply a comparison between before and after, as well as something about the nature of that change.

Choose a verb (with adverbs!) instead of using “issue” or “problem” or "doesn't work" in the subject line. 

• “Wifi problem” is less information than "repeatedly drops" or "downloads slowly" or "won't accept login" or "disappeared".  
• "Computer doesn't work" is less information than "not responding" or "beeping" or "frozen" or "booting up slowly" or "spinning wheel".
• "Can't print" is less information than "can't find printer" or "print job disappears" or "printing blank" or "printer shows job but doesn't print" 
• "Outlook problem" is less information than "can't open attachments" or "can't send/receive off-campus" or "not connecting"

Each verb suggests a different approach to a different problem and even more so when considered relative to the context, the comparative info and what you are trying to do. Also, the subject line becomes the title of your ticket, so like any title, make it catchy and relevant to themes.

And of course... include the error message as exactly as possible. 

Copy/paste, capture the screen, memorize and retype...  If the computer has a known-error error message, then that error should lead to a known solution or at least a solid clue. 

Solving problems always takes time to clarify and define the issue and to identify and test the solution, but starting with the kinds of details noted above can shave hours and potentially days off of a total solution time.  We appreciate your patience and assistance in gathering details at the outset and throughout the troubleshooting process.   

Thanks for all you do to help us help you! 

P.S. Remember that troubleshooting a technology problem is an application of the scientific method, just like fixing a toaster (and y'know Chemistry, Biology, Psychology, Physics, Mathematics, Sociology, Computer Science, Logic... am I leaving anybody out?)  

https://www.khanacademy.org/science/biology/intro-to-biology/science-of-biology/a/the-science-of-biology

The more details you can include in your Observations, the better Questions we can ask and more accurately form a Hypothesis about what is wrong.