1. Chapter 4: Technical Writing Skills for Support Professionals
A Guide to Customer Service Skills for the Help Desk Professional
Second Edition

2. Objectives
Describe the impact of technologies such as the Internet, , instant messaging, and knowledge management systems on the help desk and its customers and on the role of help desk analyst
Understand the most common help desk documents used by help desks to convey information
Understand the characteristics of good technical writing and use proven techniques to improve your writing skills
A Guide to Customer Service Skills for the Help Desk Professional, 2e

3. Technology-Delivered Support
Historically, customers called the help desk or walked in to the help desk area when they needed assistance or information
Today, companies are providing additional ways for customers to obtain support
Fax IM
Web sites
A Guide to Customer Service Skills for the Help Desk Professional, 2e

4. Technology-Delivered Support (continued)
Technology-delivered support services enable the help desk to:
Anticipate and proactively meet its customers’ needs
Reduce the overall cost of delivering support
Prioritize and manage its workload better
Ultimately, improve help desk services
A Guide to Customer Service Skills for the Help Desk Professional, 2e

5. Technology-Delivered Support (continued)
The effective use of technologies requires that help desks must:
Diligently capture and deliver high-quality information
Rethink the skills that help desk analysts must possess
Rethink the skills and knowledge that customers must possess
Used effectively, technology empowers both customers and help desk analysts
Used improperly, technology can frustrate everyone and can alienate customers
A Guide to Customer Service Skills for the Help Desk Professional, 2e

6. Technology-Delivered Support (continued)
Telephone, Internet, , and IM technologies all play a role in customer support
Telephone and IM - Provide immediacy and the ability to interact with a human being
- Provides the ability to send and receive detailed information
Web-based services - Provide customers with the ability to perform functions
Help desk analysts must feel comfortable communicating via all of these methods and must possess or develop the different skills that each of these technologies require
A Guide to Customer Service Skills for the Help Desk Professional, 2e

7. The Help Desk Analyst’s Role in a Technology-Centric World
Analysts must continuously learn new technologies and adapt those technologies to their work
Technologies extend the help desk’s ability to gather, organize, and use information
Information - Data organized in a meaningful way
Data - Raw facts not organized in a meaningful way
Information is an extremely valuable resource
Help desks rely on analysts to capture the high-quality data needed to create accurate and useful information
As a result, writing skills and keyboarding proficiency are important assets
A Guide to Customer Service Skills for the Help Desk Professional, 2e

8. Enabling Customer Self-Service
People have become accustomed to using self-services
Self-services - Services that enable customers to help themselves
Self-services benefit both customers and help desk analysts
Today’s demanding customers have come to expect self-services
A Guide to Customer Service Skills for the Help Desk Professional, 2e

9. Customer Support Via the Internet
The Internet has dramatically changed the way customers expect support services to be delivered
Some companies give customers access to secured information via an extranet
Internal help desks may enable customers to access a Web site via their company’s intranet
Help desks offer many self-services via their Web sites
A Guide to Customer Service Skills for the Help Desk Professional, 2e

10. Customer Support Via the Internet (continued)
Functionality and ease of use are the keys to a successful help desk Web site
Well-designed Web sites offer customers:
A variety of options
The ability to obtain assistance easily when they cannot obtain the information they need
The ability to personalize their support experience
Web sites enable companies to cost-effectively deliver support to their customers 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
A Guide to Customer Service Skills for the Help Desk Professional, 2e

11. Customer Support Via the Internet (continued)
A Guide to Customer Service Skills for the Help Desk Professional, 2e

12. Using E-mail Effectively to Communicate with Customers
93% of help desks use
Many use primarily for internal communication
Some companies use to:
Inform customers about the status of outstanding problems and requests
Enable customers to submit problems and requests
Automatically acknowledge that a customer’s has been received, logged, and assigned a tracking number
Conduct customer satisfaction surveys
Simultaneously inform large numbers of customers about a virus, product change, or new release that might affect them
A Guide to Customer Service Skills for the Help Desk Professional, 2e

13. Using E-mail Effectively to Communicate with Customers (continued)
does not provide many of the capabilities of an incident tracking and problem management system
It cannot be used to automatically create trend reports or as a knowledge base
Help desk analysts typically log all requests in their company’s incident tracking and problem management system
Including status updates
A Guide to Customer Service Skills for the Help Desk Professional, 2e

14. Using E-mail Effectively to Communicate with Customers (continued)
Some companies use response management systems
response management systems:
Enable help desks to manage high-volume chat, , and Web form messages in much the same way that ACDs enable help desks to handle telephone calls
Provide analysts the ability to search and review customer messages and view a history of customer activities on the support Web site
A Guide to Customer Service Skills for the Help Desk Professional, 2e

15. Using E-mail Effectively to Communicate with Customers (continued)
Many incident tracking and problem management systems integrate with standard packages
Allows automation of common tasks
Downside of
Can be perceived as impersonal
Can elongate the problem-solving process
To minimize downsides, use common sense and courtesy
A Guide to Customer Service Skills for the Help Desk Professional, 2e

16. Using Online Chat and Instant Messaging to Facilitate Communication
Online chat and IM are:
Extremely popular methods of communicating in both personal and work settings
Cost-effective, simultaneous ways to communicate
Chat - A simultaneous text communication between two or more people via a computer
Chat room - A virtual room that provides users the ability to converse (chat) real time with one or more other users
Instant messaging (IM) system – A system that enables two or more people to communicate in real time on the Internet
A Guide to Customer Service Skills for the Help Desk Professional, 2e

17. Using Online Chat and Instant Messaging to Facilitate Communication (continued)
Help desks are increasingly using IM
Many use primarily to communicate with level two service providers
Like , IM does not provide many of the capabilities of an incident tracking and problem management system
Analysts are typically required to record status updates obtained via IM in the help desk’s system
A Guide to Customer Service Skills for the Help Desk Professional, 2e

18. Using Online Chat and Instant Messaging to Facilitate Communication (continued)
Factors causing companies to look more closely at using IM to communicate with customers:
Customers are increasingly demanding real-time communication
Analysts can often handle multiple conversations simultaneously
Companies are integrating IM into other systems
Integrating channels enables help desks to maximize their technological resources while reducing the overall cost of delivering support
A Guide to Customer Service Skills for the Help Desk Professional, 2e

19. Using Online Chat and Instant Messaging to Facilitate Communication (continued)
To use IM effectively, companies must:
Establish IM guidelines that address the cost, legal, security, training, and management challenges that companies face
Spell out the types of interactions that are appropriate for IM
Staff this channel appropriately
Ensure they can create a written transcript of communications between analysts and customers
A Guide to Customer Service Skills for the Help Desk Professional, 2e

20. Using and Creating Knowledge Bases
Few companies have the resources to:
Re-create solutions
Give analysts adequate training
Analysts must help themselves by learning to use and create online knowledge bases
A knowledge base can be built using sophisticated technology or it can be a collection of books and documents
A Guide to Customer Service Skills for the Help Desk Professional, 2e

21. Using and Creating Knowledge Bases (continued)
Knowledge resources include:
Class notes
Internet sites
Online help
Product manuals
Incident tracking and problem management system
Co-workers and other service providers
A Guide to Customer Service Skills for the Help Desk Professional, 2e

22. Using and Creating Knowledge Bases (continued)
Expert and knowledge management systems enable companies to:
Consolidate knowledge resources
Maximize their human resources
Expert system - A computer program that stores human knowledge in a knowledge base and has the ability to reason about that knowledge
Knowledge management system – A system that combines the reasoning capability of an expert system with other information sources, such as databases, documents, and policies and procedures
A Guide to Customer Service Skills for the Help Desk Professional, 2e

23. Using and Creating Knowledge Bases (continued)
Much of the flexibility and power of a knowledge management system comes from:
The search retrieval technology that it uses to retrieve data
The quality of the data available
Search criteria - The question or problem symptom entered by a user
A Guide to Customer Service Skills for the Help Desk Professional, 2e

24. Using and Creating Knowledge Bases (continued)
Search retrieval technologies include:
Case-base reasoning (CBR) - A searching technique that uses everyday language to ask users questions and interpret their answers
Decision tree - A branching structure of questions and possible answers designed to lead an analyst to a solution
Fuzzy logic - A searching technique that presents all possible solutions that are similar to the search criteria, even when conflicting information exists or no exact match is present
A Guide to Customer Service Skills for the Help Desk Professional, 2e

25. Using and Creating Knowledge Bases (continued)
Keyword searching - The technique of finding indexed information by specifying a descriptive word or phrase, called a keyword
Query by example (QBE) - A searching technique that uses queries, or questions, to find records that match the specified search criteria
Search operator – A connecting word such as AND, OR, and NOT
“Garbage In, Garbage Out”
A Guide to Customer Service Skills for the Help Desk Professional, 2e

26. Using and Creating Knowledge Bases (continued)
Many incident tracking and problem management systems have knowledge management systems built-in, or a knowledge base can be added on
Some companies purchase and implement standalone knowledge management systems
Knowledge management systems can be used to:
Record newly found solutions
Retrieve known solutions and procedures
Access existing knowledge bases
Help desk analysts benefit because the information they need is available when they need it
A Guide to Customer Service Skills for the Help Desk Professional, 2e

27. Using and Creating Knowledge Bases (continued)
Many companies designate a knowledge base administrator (KBA) or knowledge engineer to maintain their system
Knowledge engineer – A person who develops and oversees the knowledge management process and ensures the information contained in the help desk’s knowledge base is accurate, complete, and current
In smaller companies, an analyst with excellent writing skills may perform this role on a part-time basis
Larger companies may have one or more full-time knowledge engineers
The knowledge engineer role is:
Becoming increasingly important
A highly valued position in many organizations
A Guide to Customer Service Skills for the Help Desk Professional, 2e

28. Writing Help Desk Documents
The amount of writing done by analysts varies from company to company
A number of documents are common
Each document has a different audience and purpose
Before writing, ensure you understand the audience’s needs and how they plan to use the information
The goal of help desk writing is to accurately convey technical information in an interesting way that can be understood by readers
A Guide to Customer Service Skills for the Help Desk Professional, 2e

29. Writing Help Desk Documents (continued)
A Guide to Customer Service Skills for the Help Desk Professional, 2e

30. Writing Help Desk Documents (continued)
Trouble tickets:
Typically logged electronically at the time the request is received
Well-written tickets provide:
The information other analysts and service providers need to solve problems quickly
A historical accounting of steps taken to solve a problem
Analyst should clearly record:
All of the information the customer provides
All steps taken to diagnose and resolve the problem
A Guide to Customer Service Skills for the Help Desk Professional, 2e

31. Writing Help Desk Documents (continued)
A Guide to Customer Service Skills for the Help Desk Professional, 2e

32. Writing Help Desk Documents (continued)
Most tickets are made up of two basic parts:
Data field - An element of a database record in which one piece of data is stored
Text field – A field that accepts free-form information
Text fields are used to collect detailed information
Many companies establish standards for how to enter certain words or phrases into text fields
Standards help analysts write consistently and minimize confusion caused by inconsistent terms
A Guide to Customer Service Skills for the Help Desk Professional, 2e

33. Writing Help Desk Documents (continued)
Strive to understand how the data you collect is being used in an effort to ensure that you are entering information as accurately as possible!
A Guide to Customer Service Skills for the Help Desk Professional, 2e

34. Writing Help Desk Documents (continued)
Accuracy is important:
Entering inaccurate date and time data can make tickets appear late
Customers increasingly have the ability to check the status of outstanding tickets
Trouble ticket data is often automatically forwarded to customers via
A Guide to Customer Service Skills for the Help Desk Professional, 2e

35. Writing Help Desk Documents (continued)
Accuracy is important (continued):
Trouble ticket data is used by other service providers to diagnose and solve problems
Trouble ticket data is used by management to:
Create reports and analyze trends
Justify resources and measure performance
Fully understand your workload and your contributions
Identify improvement opportunities
A Guide to Customer Service Skills for the Help Desk Professional, 2e

36. Writing Help Desk Documents (continued)
Messages:
Well-written messages:
Are as clear and concise as possible
Convey a positive, friendly tone
Provide as much of the needed information as possible the first time
Try to anticipate follow-up questions a customer may ask and volunteer the information!
A Guide to Customer Service Skills for the Help Desk Professional, 2e

37. Writing Help Desk Documents (continued)
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs):
Well-written answers to the most common customer queries
Well-written FAQs:
State both the question and answer clearly and in a language that is appropriate to the audience
Use jargon and technical terms in the answers, as long as the terms are defined for the reader
FAQs are a basic self-service
FAQs enable customers and co-workers to find solutions and answers to questions on their own
A Guide to Customer Service Skills for the Help Desk Professional, 2e

38. Writing Help Desk Documents (continued)
Knowledge base solutions:
Must be accurate and complete
Solution - A definitive, permanent resolution to a problem, or a proven workaround
Typically stored as records in a separate file than trouble tickets
Enables a one-to-many relationship
Solutions do not:
Describe things to attempt when diagnosing problems or responding to inquiries
Contain the details of a single specific problem
A Guide to Customer Service Skills for the Help Desk Professional, 2e

39. Writing Help Desk Documents (continued)
A Guide to Customer Service Skills for the Help Desk Professional, 2e

40. Writing Help Desk Documents (continued)
Many help desks develop standards that describe how to write solutions
Standard solutions contain two types of information:
Fields that are used to index the solution and link it to the type of problem being solved
Text that describes the solution
The description of a solution may contain links to online documents, or a multimedia presentation of some kind, such as a video or audio clip
A Guide to Customer Service Skills for the Help Desk Professional, 2e

41. Writing Help Desk Documents (continued)
A Guide to Customer Service Skills for the Help Desk Professional, 2e

42. Writing Help Desk Documents (continued)
A Guide to Customer Service Skills for the Help Desk Professional, 2e

43. Writing Help Desk Documents (continued)
When working in a help desk:
Strive to use all available knowledge resources
Contribute to the creation of your company’s knowledge management system
Respect the fact that your coworkers and other service providers are just as busy as you are; look in the knowledge base for answers to routine questions
Seek help if you have difficulty finding solutions or using your company’s knowledge management system
A Guide to Customer Service Skills for the Help Desk Professional, 2e

44. Writing Help Desk Documents (continued)
Reports:
Entry-level analysts may not prepare reports but senior analysts and managers often do
Reports may be statistics or detailed accountings produced from the data collected in an incident tracking and problem management system
Creating this type of report requires:
Knowledge of the system
The available data
Knowledge of the reporting package used to pull the data out of the system
A Guide to Customer Service Skills for the Help Desk Professional, 2e

45. Writing Help Desk Documents (continued)
Reports may also reflect the results of a study, the status of a project, or the analysis of statistics
Preparing these reports requires:
Writing skills
An understanding of the recipient’s expectations.
Common reports an analyst may create include:
Progress reports
Requirements reports
Feasibility reports
A Guide to Customer Service Skills for the Help Desk Professional, 2e

46. Writing Help Desk Documents (continued)
When asked to prepare a report for the first time:
Find out exactly what is expected in terms of format and content
Ask to see a copy of a similar report
Prepare an outline and ask for feedback and approval prior to preparing actual report
Be open to and ask for specific, constructive feedback
A Guide to Customer Service Skills for the Help Desk Professional, 2e

47. Writing Help Desk Documents (continued)
Policies and procedures:
Help desk staff are often involved in the development of policies and procedures.
Policies and procedures may be used by customers, the internal support organization, or simply within the help desk
Procedure - A step-by-step, detailed set of instructions that describes how to perform a task
Many companies develop a standard format, or template, that is used to prepare procedures
A Guide to Customer Service Skills for the Help Desk Professional, 2e

48. Writing Help Desk Documents (continued)
Well-written procedures:
State every step explicitly
State the result readers can expect when a task is complete
Let the reader know what to do if they do not get the expected result
May include information about what not to do
May include detailed warnings
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49. Writing Help Desk Documents (continued)
A Guide to Customer Service Skills for the Help Desk Professional, 2e

50. Writing Help Desk Documents (continued)
A Guide to Customer Service Skills for the Help Desk Professional, 2e

51. Writing Help Desk Documents (continued)
Many help desks create and maintain a Help Desk Analyst’s Guide
A Help Desk Analyst’s Guide:
Spells out the policies and procedures of the help desk
Contains information analysts need to do their work
Ensures the knowledge and experience of help desk management and key staff members is always available
Is often used to orient new help desk staff members
Should be considered a “living” document
Helping to create a Analyst’s Guide is an excellent way to practice and improve your writing skills!
A Guide to Customer Service Skills for the Help Desk Professional, 2e

52. Improving Your Writing Skills
Well-written materials are:
Simpler to comprehend
Provide needed information
Leave a good impression
Writing becomes easier with practice
Hone writing skills by paying attention when you are reading
Excellent books and classes are available
A Guide to Customer Service Skills for the Help Desk Professional, 2e

53. Technical Writing Best Practices
A Guide to Customer Service Skills for the Help Desk Professional, 2e

54. Technical Writing Best Practices (continued)
Know your audience:
Determine the skill and education level of the intended readers
Reader should understand your main ideas
Define technical terms the first time you use them
Strike a balance between a very simplistic writing style and one that is highly technical
Tip: Know how much information your reader wants and needs
A Guide to Customer Service Skills for the Help Desk Professional, 2e

55. Technical Writing Best Practices (continued)
Use the active voice
The subject of a sentence causes or does the action
Our help desk analysts update our Web site every Tuesday
Use simple language
Communicate more efficiently and effectively
You can use these procedures to fix the problem
A Guide to Customer Service Skills for the Help Desk Professional, 2e

56. Technical Writing Best Practices (continued)
Be concise
The fewer words you use, the better
Attempts to resolve this recurring problem have not been successful
Be specific
Readers of technical writing seek detailed information, such as facts, figures, data, recommendations, and conclusions
how good, how bad, how fast, or how slow
A Guide to Customer Service Skills for the Help Desk Professional, 2e

57. Technical Writing Best Practices (continued)
Avoid or define jargon, technical terms, and acronyms
Use terminology that is compatible with the readers’ technical background
Define technical terms or acronyms the first time you use them
Turn up the brightness on your monitor
A Guide to Customer Service Skills for the Help Desk Professional, 2e

58. Technical Writing Best Practices (continued)
Break up your writing with lists and short sections
Numbered sequence:
Check the following for a blank screen
1. Is the monitor plugged in?
2. Is the monitor powered on?
Bulleted list:
Consider the following when establishing a help desk:
Your company’s goals
Your customer’s expectations
A Guide to Customer Service Skills for the Help Desk Professional, 2e

59. Technical Writing Best Practices (continued)
Be consistent
Inconsistencies cause confusion
Once you have used a name or title, do not use a different name or title to refer to the same thing
A technician will be on-site tomorrow afternoon. The technician will fix your printer and monitor.
Use the same grammatical construction for each item in a list
A Guide to Customer Service Skills for the Help Desk Professional, 2e

60. Technical Writing Best Practices (continued)
Inconsistent
Reasons companies establish a help desk include:
To provide customers a single point of contact
Minimization of support costs
Minimize the impact of problems and changes
Consistent
Provide customers a single point of contact
Minimize support costs
A Guide to Customer Service Skills for the Help Desk Professional, 2e

61. Technical Writing Best Practices (continued)
Check you work for accuracy and completeness
People use the answers, solutions, and procedures to do their work, use software, and operate hardware
Ask a coworker or subject matter expert to review complex documents for accuracy and completeness
Check your grammar, punctuation and spelling
Proofread every document to eliminate any errors
When in doubt about grammar, punctuation, or spelling rules, check a style guide or dictionary, or ask an experienced coworker for feedback
A Guide to Customer Service Skills for the Help Desk Professional, 2e

62. Best Practices
has transitioned to a serious business tool
Companies are under tremendous pressure to respond to s quickly and professionally
absorbs a significant amount of time during a typical work week
is a written document and so technical writing best practices apply
A Guide to Customer Service Skills for the Help Desk Professional, 2e

63. E-mail Best Practices (continued)
A Guide to Customer Service Skills for the Help Desk Professional, 2e

64. E-mail Best Practices (continued)
Manage customer expectations
The help desk must communicate its policies
response times may be dictated by a SLA
Acknowledge the person
Just as you would if you were interacting in person or over the telephone
In business, it’s best to take a formal approach
A Guide to Customer Service Skills for the Help Desk Professional, 2e

65. E-mail Best Practices (continued)
Use a meaningful subject line:
A generic subject line may get mistaken for unsolicited , or spam
"RE: Backing up your data (ticket )"
A Guide to Customer Service Skills for the Help Desk Professional, 2e

66. E-mail Best Practices (continued)
Personalize your response:
Use the customer’s name respectfully
Dear Ms. Boyet
Dear Professor Levy
Dear Rae
A Guide to Customer Service Skills for the Help Desk Professional, 2e

67. E-mail Best Practices (continued)
Personalize your closing:
Use a positive tone and make it easy for the customer to obtain assistance in the future
"Your ticket number is Please refer to that number if you need to contact us again concerning this matter.
If we may be of further assistance, please contact us by or by phone at between 7 a.m. and 9 p.m. Central Standard Time.
Sincerely,
Karen Dingman
Customer Support Help Desk"
A Guide to Customer Service Skills for the Help Desk Professional, 2e

68. E-mail Best Practices (continued)
Be practical and be patient
is not always the best way to communicate
Use common sense
Check your grammar, punctuation, and spelling
Form and accuracy matter
The quality of an message constitutes a “first impression”
Be forgiving
When necessary:
Simply ask for clarification or missing details
Tactfully point out errors and offer specific suggestions
A Guide to Customer Service Skills for the Help Desk Professional, 2e

69. E-mail Best Practices (continued)
Avoid lengthy discussions and debates
Limit the number of subjects in a message
Clearly distinguish a change in subjects
Consider restating your requests at the end
Verify that you have answered all of the customer’s questions in the order they were presented
Anticipate any additional questions the customer may ask
When needed, pickup the telephone or schedule a meeting
A Guide to Customer Service Skills for the Help Desk Professional, 2e

70. E-mail Best Practices (continued)
Verify your distribution lists periodically
Make sure you’re sending messages to the correct recipients
Many companies provide easy ways for customers to opt out of mailing lists and specify their preferences
Standardize your signature
Include all the ways to contact the help desk
Use the help desk’s telephone number and address
A Guide to Customer Service Skills for the Help Desk Professional, 2e

71. E-mail Best Practices (continued)
A Guide to Customer Service Skills for the Help Desk Professional, 2e

72. Writing for a Global Audience
The Internet and make it possible to interact with customers worldwide at any time of the day or night
How you use expressions, dates, times, and even numbers can confuse your customers
Avoid idioms
Internationalize dates, times, and numbers
A Guide to Customer Service Skills for the Help Desk Professional, 2e

73. Chapter Summary The Internet, e-mail, and IM:
Complement the telephone and onsite services as a way to communicate with customers
Extend the help desk’s ability to gather, organize, and use information
Enable companies to provide self-services that customers can use to obtain the information they need, when they need it
Information is a valuable resource, and people with good writing skills can capture it easily and accurately
A Guide to Customer Service Skills for the Help Desk Professional, 2e

74. Chapter Summary (continued)
In a help desk, good writing skills are needed to log trouble tickets, send messages, develop answers to FAQs and knowledge base solutions, prepare reports, or prepare policies and procedures
When preparing documents, always be aware of the document’s target audience and purpose
Learning the rules of writing will provide you the foundation needed to write any document and to make a positive impression with your writing
A Guide to Customer Service Skills for the Help Desk Professional, 2e

75. Chapter Summary (continued)
Writing improves and becomes easier with practice
It also helps to know the rules
Technical writing best practices
best practices
In today’s digital age, good writing is quickly becoming a critical success factor
A Guide to Customer Service Skills for the Help Desk Professional, 2e