"My laptop is broken"
That is the whole ticket. Who wrote it? What is broken? Since when? Is it one person or the whole floor?
A good support technician does not guess. They read the ticket, ask the missing questions, list the possible causes and test the likely ones first.
By the end of this lesson
Note
I can turn a support ticket into a list of causes, the tests to run and a range of solutions.
Key words
| Word | What it means |
|---|---|
| Ticket | a written request for help, with a number so it can be tracked |
| Triage | putting tickets in order, with the most urgent first |
| Impact | how many people a fault affects and how badly |
| Root cause | the real reason for a fault, not only what you see |
| Workaround | a quick way to get somebody working while the real fix waits |
| Escalate | pass a ticket to somebody with more skill or more power to decide |
The cells students fill in are left blank in this preview.
Starter
Have a go
Starter
3 questionsYour answers are marked here and are not kept. A college account keeps every student’s marks.
Worked example: read the ticket
| Part of the ticket | What it says | What you learn or still need |
|---|---|---|
| Who | Amy, in the finance office | One person so far. Ask if others are affected |
| What | Laptop shows "No internet" on the office Wi-Fi | It connects to Wi-Fi but cannot reach anything |
| When | Since 9 am today. It worked last night | Something changed overnight |
| Error | "Connected, no internet" | The link is up. The problem is further on |
| Impact | Amy cannot take card payments | High impact for one person: treat as urgent |
The cells students fill in are left blank in this preview.
List a range of possible causes
Do not stop at the first idea. List several causes, from the nearest to the furthest. Then test the cheapest and most likely first.
For Amy, the laptop could have a wrong setting. Wi-Fi could be fine but the office link out could be down. The laptop could have a wrong address. Her account could be blocked.
Worked example: causes, tests and solutions
| Possible cause | Test | Solution if true |
|---|---|---|
| Only Amy's laptop is affected | Does a colleague's laptop work on the same Wi-Fi? | Fix the laptop, such as renew its address |
| The office link out is down | Can anybody in the office reach the internet? | Tell the provider and use a phone hotspot as a workaround |
| A wrong address on the laptop | Look at the address the laptop has been given | Renew it, or set it to get one automatically |
| Amy's account is blocked | Can she sign in on another machine? | Unblock the account and tell her why it happened |
The cells students fill in are left blank in this preview.
Check
Have a go
Check
3 questionsYour answers are marked here and are not kept. A college account keeps every student’s marks.