One of the most powerful tools a tech support specialist can utilize is remote technical support via the Internet. There are many solutions online, some for free, that let techies remote control the computer of a client, friend, or family member, and access the mouse and keyboard as if they were physically in front of the computer. Here are two of my favorite that I use together to service my clients the most efficiently and some tips to using them well.
After jumping on the “Hatin’ Vista’s Performance” bandwagon rather early on, I figured I should get some first-hand experience to backup my claims (besides the weak proof I held from RC1 months ago.) After installing Vista Ultimate on my laptop (Athlon 64 3000+ 1.8ghz, 1GB PC3200 ram, Radeon Mobility 9700.) I was pleasantly surprised with the performance. After enabling all the goodies (Aero, Dreamscene, etc.) I realized that my previous claim that at least 2GB of ram was necessary to run Vista smoothly was false.
I wasn’t sure if Microsoft really had optimized the new operating system to perform these visual goodies better, or if it was copying Apple’s infamous “technique” of smoothing the front-end to create the illusion of adequate performance. In any case, I was a happy camper. Vista’s DreamScene brought me a pretty snazzy feature. Nothing says smooth criminal like popping open my laptop in Econ class and having a cool, crisp waterfall cascading in the background of my work. While everything seemed to run smoothly, I still wanted to see what kind of effect DreamScene (and other visual enhancements) had on the system, so I decided to run some discrete tests.
My personal experience with a very special customer:
Originally posted at http://notalwaysright.com/i-once-had-a-customer-this-dumb/406Me: “Thank you for calling The UPS Store, this is Rick speaking, how may I help you?”
Caller: “Yeah, hi. I need to find out how much it will be to send something to Iowa.”
Me: “I’d be happy to get you an estimate on shipping. Could I get the dimensions and weight of the box as well as the ZIP code of the destination?”
Caller: “Yeah, it’s probably about 10 pounds, and about this big.”
Me: “Well, I need a ZIP code for the destination, but you didn’t really give me the dimensions of the box.”
Caller: “The ZIP code is 51365, and it’s about this big.”
Me: “Ma’am, I can’t see your hands, so you’ll have to give me some sort of numeric dimension to work with.”
Caller: “Oh, let me get a ruler–” *click*
Me: *sigh*
Customer in the store who overheard the phone conversation: “Are you serious?!”