Lessons · IT support · the first reply
The first reply: what you understood, what you will do, when they will hear
The first message back to a user does three things in three sentences: it says what you understood the problem to be, what you will do first, and when they will hear from you again. If you need one thing from them, ask for it in a fourth.
Hone is a place to practise a career, one idea a day. This is one of its lessons, written out in full and free to read without an account.
What it is for
A user who has sent a ticket into silence sends a second ticket, then walks over, then emails your manager. None of that is them being difficult; it is what anybody does when they do not know whether they were heard. A reply in ten minutes that says 'I have it, here is what happens next' ends all three before they start.
How to think about it
Read the ticket twice. Write the problem back in one plain sentence; if you got it wrong, they will correct you now instead of after an hour of work. Say the first thing you will try. Give a time, and make it one you will keep even if the news is 'not yet'. Ask the one question you need, and only one.
Worked example
'Hello M., I understand your laptop shows a black screen right after sign-in, since this morning.'What you understood, so a misunderstanding is caught in the first minute.
'I will check first whether it is the display or the sign-in, from my side.'The first step, named. It tells them something is happening.
'I will update you by 10:30 either way.'A time, with 'either way' so the promise holds even without a fix.
'One question: does it do the same on the docking station and off it?'One question. Two questions get one answer.
Your turn
Write the word that goes in the promise so it holds even if there is no fix yet.
'I will update you by 11:00 way.'
Solve one, graded on the server
The trap
Replying with 'have you tried restarting'. It is the one thing every user has already done, and it tells them you did not read the ticket where they said so.