When you come across a computer problem and you need some help, what’s the first thing you do? No, I mean after you swear at it and sigh in disgust. Right, you put in a work order! That’s the signal flare in the sky that tells us you need us to come and take a look at something that isn’t working.
It’s really more than that, though.
Work orders are the way that you can communicate with us about problems that you’re having. When you put in a work order, the more you can tell us, the faster we can get it fixed. I’ve had some experience in elementary schools being referred to as “the computer doctor,” and that’s actually a really good way to look at it.
When you go to the doctor and they ask you what’s wrong, you don’t just say “It hurts.” You tell them what hurts, when it started, what aggravates it, what you’ve done on your own to try to alleviate the pain, any history you may have… all manner of things, right? So sticking with the medical metaphor, let me give you an example.
“I can’t log in.”
Okay, to what? What error message are you getting? Are you on a desktop, laptop, tablet, phone, Chromebook? Novell? iNow? Groupwise? Those are all important details that could help us get you back up and running much faster if we had them.
Okay, to what? What error message are you getting? Are you on a desktop, laptop, tablet, phone, Chromebook? Novell? iNow? Groupwise? Those are all important details that could help us get you back up and running much faster if we had them.
“I can’t log in to Groupwise. It’s prompting me for a password, but I’ve never had to enter one at school before. None of the passwords I know will work.”
Just from those three sentences, I know that you’re logged in “Computer Only” and that nothing’s going to work quite right for you. That little bit of extra info was all I needed to diagnose exactly what your problem is, and I can immediately respond in the work order and tell you how to fix it, which, for the record, is to log out, click on the “Log in to Novell Network” link, and log back in.
Don’t be afraid to put too much in there. There’s no character limit, and everything helps. Something that you might not think matters might be the exact thing we need to diagnose the problem and get you fixed. Like they used to say on those GI Joe PSAs that ran when I was a kid, “Knowing is half the battle!”
Erik Hammonds is a computer tech for the Tuscaloosa City Schools.
Erik Hammonds is a computer tech for the Tuscaloosa City Schools.
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