Copyright Goodheart-Willcox Co., Inc. 851 Chapter 24 Customer Support, Communication, and Professionalism CHAPTER SUMMARY Customer Support ■ Th ere are several standard organization models for customer support. Some of these models are a help desk, call center, small business service counter, depot technician, and corporate enterprise support. ■ A help desk or call center is usually the fi rst contact point for service and can belong to a single company or be part of a call center a call center typically provides support for more than one company or product. ■ A depot technician is one who performs repair work usually covered by warranty. ■ Level-one support is the initial technical support contact. Most problems can be corrected at this level. ■ Level-two support is when the problem is elevated to a person with more experience or expertise than the fi rst contact person. ■ Level-three support is typically provided outside the immediate technical support location. Documentation Best Practices ■ A knowledge base is a good way to capture counter- productive events, machine failures, and software issues. ■ Articles are another way to document known issues for all sizes of companies. ■ Incident documentation is a means for recording undesirable events, actions taken, and the results of those actions. ■ An acceptable use policy (AUP) is a set of guidelines used and defi ned most often by the administrator of a network or service. Change Management Best Practices ■ Change management refers to guidance from a business or organization that prepares, equips, and supports individuals within the business or organization to adopt or incorporate changes. ■ Best practices for change management include documenting business processes, stating the purpose of the change, outlining the scope of the change, performing risk analysis, planning for change, allowing end-user acceptance, creating and main- taining a change board, drafting a backout plan, and documenting the changes once they take place. Communication Skills ■ Eff ective communication skills include various aspects of communication, both verbal and nonverbal. ■ Professionalism concerning a person is identifi ed in a person’s attitude and dress in the work environment, it is identifi ed in its décor and general atmosphere. Dealing with Prohibited Content or Activity ■ Th e key steps for handling a prohibited activity or content incident are to precisely identify what happened when the unauthorized activity or prohibitive material was discovered, write a complete detailed description of the incident and the procedures you followed, and document the chronological order of the handling of evidence. REVIEW QUESTIONS 1. What is customer support? 2. Explain the diff erence between the help desk model and call center model. 3. List and describe three levels of support within a given organization. 4. List two proven methods of providing documentation to employees and customers. 5. What is an acceptable use policy? 6. List best practices for change management. 7. How should verbal communication with a customer be handled? 8. What are the key points of body language you should use? 9. What is attitude? 10. Diff erentiate between cultural awareness, cultural intelligence, and cultural competency. 11. What are the key points in communicating with customers and clients through e-mail? 12. What two qualities are required to deal with diffi cult people? 13. What is the goal of the customer support team? 14. Give at least fi ve examples of prohibited activity or content as related to computer use. 15. What are the three major steps for handling a prohibited activity or content incident?