Basic Computer Troubleshooting

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Basic Computer Troubleshooting

Basic Computer Troubleshooting. This is part of my online class and goes along with a PowerPoint. I discuss the basics of computer repair as well as some sound customer service tips.

Step 1:: Introduction; Hi, this is Mr. Ford from mr fords class dot com and for this presentation, we are going to talk about two subjects that are very important - troubleshooting and customer service. If anyone out there has been in customer service, you know that the job would really be great if it wasn’t for the customers. Now, that’s not necessarily true. I find that we can make a difference in how the customer behaves and acts toward us. They can either be your best buddy or they can be your arch nemesis, it all depends on how you treat them, for the most part, some people are just jerks.
Step 2:: Troubleshooting A Computer; Anyways, we’re going to talk about troubleshooting a computer. If you were to go to a medical doctor, a physician, and they came into the patient room and they started poking and prodding you, without even talking to you, you’d probably find a new doctor. They go through a series of steps to diagnose your problem. They listen to you, they ask specific questions. All of this is leading toward the diagnosis. Computer work should be no different. It’s going to be slight variations, but we should be thinking critically of what’s going on, what it could be, as well as alternative diagnoses - if it’s not this, then it could be that. We also need to keep the customers in the loop on this, but that’s kinda getting ahead of ourselves.
Step 3:: Things To Ask; Things to ask. First of all, before you start talking to your customer, before you start getting into your whole, you know, geek mode, listen to them. They’re going to come in with complaints, they might have been having this problem for a while and they want to talk to you about it. They’re going to say, you know my computers got this problem, I’ve got these pop-ups, every time I try to check, you know, my bingo scores and I try to get onto sewing websites and all these things pop up and my computer is running slow when I boot it up and bla, bla, bla, bla, bla.

You want to listen to what they have to say - this is called active listening. Once they’re done talking, you want to sum up what they said back to them. You want to confirm what you think they said they actually said. So, they may go on for five minutes, basically talking about spyware and viruses. You sum up and you say, hey, if I’m understanding you correctly, You’re saying that you’re getting pop-ups, that you computer’s really running slow. Am I right? Am I right, and they’ll say yes or no. If they say yes, you go “cool”. Now you start asking specific questions. You start to say “when did this problem first occur, when did you first notice this problem? Today, last week, a month from now? And they’ll let you know.
Step 4:: Diagnose when the Problem Occurred; The next thing you should ask is, “has the computer ever worked?” Now, if they told you the problem happened today, before the computer is working fine, you the computer was working. But I’ve had some situations where a customer comes in and says “this computer won’t boot, this computer won’t boot, this computer won’t boot.” and I’ve seen technicians go through this whole list of things only to find out that the computer never booted. Like out of the box. It happens sometimes. So find out if the computer’s ever worked before in the past. Something else you should consider is, has there been any new software or hardware installed BEFORE this problem occurred? For example, if you have a customer come in who says that their video game doesn’t work. And you ask, “was there any new software or hardware, installed before this problem occurred”, and they go “yeah, my video card, I put my video card in and now my computer won’t play the game. Well, hopefully you’re thinking video card’s the problem. Notice I’m avoiding the word “what did YOU install”, we’ll talk about that in a minute.
Step 5:: How often does this problem occur?; “How often does this problem occur?” Does this problem occur every time you boot up? Does this occur every thirty minutes or so? If the computer’s shutting itself down every ten to twenty minutes, you might want to think overheating. If the computer has a problem during boot up, that’s a whole different ball of wax which we’ll learn through this course. If the problem exits only when you launch, lets say, Microsoft Office, you know there’s a problem with Office.

These questions kind of lead you to the diagnosis. In fact, I’ve heard some people say that seventy to eighty percent of your diagnoses is going to come from your history. If you listen and ask the right questions, you should almost know what it is before you even turn the computer on or open the computer case. This is how important it is to listen to the customer. Also, if you’re in a situation where you don’t get to talk to the customer before working on their computer, for example, you’re working in a high volume tech bench and somebody checks the computer in and you don’t get to talk to that person, you better make sure everyone who’s checking in the computer is getting good notes, write down what the customer says. You might want to write down what you think it is, kind of a preliminary “this is what I think is the problem”. If you’re not talking to the customer, make sure whoever is, is taking really good notes, because, like I said, seventy to eighty per cent of your diagnoses is going to be done by talking to that customer.
Step 6:: How to Ask the Question; Alright, HOW to ask the question is as important as what to ask. If I have a customer come in, they are probably going to be frustrated with their computer. They’re thinking, ‘Oh, man, I’ve got to bring this computer in, this is going to cost money, blah, blah, blah, these computer people are rude. And if I’ve got a person across from my table and I start asking ”what did YOU do to the computer, what did YOU install into the computer”, he’s not going to be a very happy person. Try to avoid anything that sounds like you’re accusing the customer of messing up their computer. Instead, notice before I said was, “was there any new software of hardware installed before this problem occurred?” I’m not saying “did you install it?” I’m saying “was there any hardware or software installed?”

Avoid saying “YOU” to the customer. Don’t say “what did you do, what did you install, how did you screw up the computer?” You’re new, don’t do that! The customer won’t be happy with you. Avoid accusing the customer of anything. Also, use the word “we”. Did you ever notice doctors used to come into the exam room and say “how are WE feeling today?” You want to kind of sympathize, empathize with the customer. You want to be kind of not on this side of the table, but next to them, as their buddy, don’t physically get next to them but you want in your mind to be next to them as their buddy talking about their computer. You don’t want to go, you know, back over here, I’m the computer expert, you want to be part of their problem, you want to be part of their world at that moment.

Use the term “we”. “How can we help you today? That does sound like a bad problem. I think we can take care of that for you.” Be in their shoes when you’re dealing with them If they’re talking about something being very frustrating, say “ no kidding, I hate when that happens, too, in my computer. Yeah, those viruses, man, those things are nasty, I’m constantly fighting them on my computer as well. Be part of their world, don’t be that computer geek back there who’s a rude little punk. Be their buddy when dealing with them.
Step 7:: Labor Charge; Which also brings us another point. The customer knows this is going to cost money to fix the computer. What I typically do, since I’ve done this, I’ve never had a customer get angry at me. If I’ve got a customer, who, let’s say, it could be a problem with their hard drive, or it could be a problem with their ribbon cable, or it could be a problem with their mother board. Well, a ribbon cable is like a buck, two bucks, to put in, plus a little labor cost. And you want to charge labor by the way, because you are getting paid for your expertise. Maybe the total price was twenty to fifty bucks. You let them know, this could be, there’s three possible scenarios here. The best scenario is it’s a ribbon cable, we put a new ribbon cable in, you’re good to go, and you know, you may want to give it to them if they are a good customer or you’re feeling particular generous, you might want to throw the ribbon cable, let them have a nice day. It’s up to you.

Remember, you’re the expert, you’re going through school, you should be paid for your time. But, in my own office, in my own practice, I’ve given work away for free, just to be a nice guy. So I tell the customer, look, it could be a ribbon cable, give them a ribbon cable, you’re good to go. If it’s not the ribbon cable, then it could be the hard drive. If the hard drive’s bad, you’re looking at like eighty bucks, a hundred bucks for a new hard drive, plus labor , plus you got to reinstall the operating system, plus you might lose some data. Total cost there, say two hundred dollars. So the customer has a fifty dollar option, a two hundred dollar option.. Then you say, in the WORST possible scenario, your motherboard’s dead. If you motherboard’s dead, that’s a hundred to two hundred dollars for a new mother board, plus your labor, cause you’ve got to reinstall everything, your looking at four to five hundred dollars. The customer knows there’s three possible problems with this computer. He knows that he wants the first problem, he knows he only wants to spend fifty bucks. The second problems is not that good, but it is still better than the third problem. And you’re not making this stuff up, these could be actual problems with the computer.
Step 8:: Calling the Client; When you call that client up, you say “hey, I’ve got some great news for you.” And they’re like “really?” “Yeah, its not the worse problem. It’s not the motherboard, its not the hard drive, it’s just the ribbon cable, fifty bucks and you’re done.” They’ll be happy to spend fifty bucks at that point in time. Let’s say is a worse case scenario, let’s say it’s the hard drive. You say “ I’ve got some good news, some bad news for you. The bad news is it’s not the ribbon cable.” They’re like “Oh, boy”. “The good news is it’s not the mother board.” So they go like, “ it’s the hard drive” you go “yeah, that’s a hundred bucks.” And they’ll be happy to pay it, they’re not angry at you, they’re not yelling at you. Let’s say it’s the worst possible scenario. You call them on the phone, you go “remember what we talked about, the three possible problems?” They’ll go “yeah”. And you say “Well I’ve got bad news for you. It’s the worst case scenario, it’s the motherboard, it’s dead. What do you want to do?” Here is where you’re being honest, you should be honest throughout the process. You tell them, “look, a new motherboard costs you two hundred dollars, plus all the install”. A new computers only going to cost you four or five hundred bucks, or a thousand dollars, depending on what kind of computer they want. “Do you want me to fix this computer or do you want to buy a new one?” Yes, you’re giving money away, potentially giving money away, but you know what? The customer will appreciate it and you will be their computer person from now until whenever. So be honest with these customers, give them the options.
Step 9:: Keep the Client in the Loop; Every time I’ve seen a customer angry, it’s because a tech has told them one thing, oh, it’s probably their ribbon cable, then when they go to make that phone call, they’ve to tell them, oh, its their motherboard, and all of a sudden out of nowhere this customer got to deal with a two, three, four hundred dollar shock. Now they’re angry, now you’re the incompetent tech. Keep them in the loop about what could be the possible problems, what are the possible prices and you will not have an angry customer at you. And one last note, repair time.

I have fixed many computers that have viruses and spyware. It typically takes to clean up viruses, to clean up spyware, update the computer, when everything is said and done, it typically takes about four to five hours to do, to do it right. I’m not going to tell a customer it’s only going to take five hours. Add time to your estimation, because the minutes you go right to the wire on how much time it’s going to take is the minute that something happens, That’s when something weird happens. I’ve never fixed the same computer twice, meaning I’ve always had different problems with the computer. It may look like the same problem, but there’s little kind of twists to the scenarios. You’ve got to make sure you add time to your estimate. Now I’m not talking about you add two days, but add some hours, or maybe add a day to your estimate. When you under promise and over deliver, you’re a hero. When you promise and deliver at the same time, you’re good, The worse thing is when you over promise and under deliver. Then you’re incompetent. So always do what Scotty on the Enterprise used to do. Say, Captain, ah, its going to take this much time and do it in a lot less time. You’ll be a hero, you’ll keep your customer happy, and you’ll be a valuable tech at wherever you work.