Help desks
One of my favourite thing about the summer is the cricket test matches. Cricket on the radio is a true joy. And, if no time for the radio, I follow the matches on the Guardian newspaper blog. One of the art forms of both media is what to do on those long periods when nothing happens especially if it rains. And rain it did, on last weeks match in Cardiff! Almost all day until the match was finally abandoned at about 3 in the afternoon.
And so resident blogger Rob Smyth resorted to crowd sourcing content. “Something to talk about given that there is bugger all chance of a completed match today”. he said. . ..”what would you put in Room 101 and why?” Don’t know what Room 101 is? Here is the wikipedia entry.
I loved the replies about helpdesks.
Room 101,” says Daniel Maxwell. “How about putting in telephone helpdesk people who, after satisfying the most simple query, and despite the finality of your closing tones, insist on asking ‘Is there anything else I can help you with sir?’.”
When they do that you should just hit them with a list of problems. “Well the cream the doctor gave me isn’t really working. Also, I get a little lonely sometimes … I have intimacy issues … I cry myself to sleep most nights …
And this provoked a reply from Miv:
I’m at work on an IT helpdesk as we speak (well type) and the reason we ask if there’s anything else we can help with is because we are told to do so by strict call specs set by the client we work for,” says Miv. “Not doing so can lead to warnings & dismissals believe it or not. It’s not like we actually give a monkeys about the caller or their problems, I’m currently typing this, listening to my iPod in one ear while listening to some poor sod whine about lost emails in the other. A chat about his personal problems would be a godsend rather than take the next call from some muppet who can’t drag and drop. There I said it – I feel better.
