I open the request and take a look. The category falls under my application, but the description of the problem is vague, confusing, and doesn't sound like it involves my application at all.
<sidenote>
There are many applications on campus and sometimes the users don't know all the names so it gets confusing. However, if you have any sense at all, you can usually talk to them for a few minutes and ask some specific questions and find out what it is they're using and what they're trying to do with it.
That assumes you take the time to ask the questions. But I guess some people can't be bothered by that. Even if it is there job. "Let's pass it to someone else till the user gets so frustrated that they hate and bad-mouth us all over campus."
</sidenote>
So I call the user to find out what it is she's doing so that maybe I can help fix it or (if I can't fix) direct it to the right person.
I find out that it's not my application at all that she's having a problem with. I put her on hold and see if I can find the person in our office that handles that (so she doesn't have to wait around for a phone call again). I find the person. After they speak, it turns out that the root of the problem is not something that she can fix either. So I get back on the phone with the customer to see if I can gather a little more info before sending her back into the queue.
We have this desktop streaming software that allows us to see the end user's machine (on request). So I desktop stream with her and have her duplicate what's she's doing so that I can figure out the best person for the job.
After some confusion, I finally found out what was happening.
Me: "Go ahead and log in and do what you do to duplicate the problem."
Customer: "K, I'm logged in, now I type this and I should see a list of students, and I don't"
Me: "You don't see a list of students?"
Customer: "Nope. I see XYZ, but I don't see their names."
Me: "You're not seeing John, Joe, and Susan? I do."
Customer: "No, that's the problem."
(Note: All student names are in RED on the screen.)
Some of you who know computers may have figured this out by now. If you have, you are a great candidate for customer service and listening to the user. If you haven't, here it is.
Her monitor is not display RED. Monitors use RED, GREEN, & BLUE. She can't see anything in RED. Monitor is broken. Need new monitor.
That last part of the process (her real problem) took about 10 minutes to figure out. The request did not get around to me for about an hour and a half. Almost 2 hours to diagnose a problem that could have been fixed in 10-15 minutes if someone capable person along the line (and there were a couple) had taken the time to MAKE AN EFFORT.
BTW: I fixed the problem by changing the color palate of the session in the application she was using.
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