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- Title
Communication Strategies for Diagnosing Technical Problems at a Help Desk.
- Authors
Robles, Vincent D.
- Abstract
Purpose: This study intended to help technical support providers understand different communication strategies for diagnosing users’ technical problems and how users may communicate those problems. Also, the study intended to help future researchers to better understand users’ experience in seeking technical help. Method: To contribute to this research area, I examined 18 help desk visits between 11 users and 6 technical support providers in an in-person help desk at a four-year university in the Midwest United States. I analyzed the communication for stages of the conversation in which the component devoted to diagnosing technical problems existed, closely analyzed the dialogue of both speakers during this stage, and explored associations between the communication strategies they used and the user satisfaction based on a customer-support satisfaction survey. Results: The statistical tests suggested that more dialogue about the users’ technical problem seems to associate with user satisfaction. The tests did not reveal a strong association between specific communication strategies and user satisfaction. The analysis of the visits showed how users shared their experiences through narratives and minimal responses, and how technical support providers used inquiries to understand user needs and experiences, providing a framework for understanding what the strategies look like. Conclusions: This research provides a reliable way of identifying and categorizing the ways two speakers communicate to diagnose a technical problem, which provides a framework for new technical support providers to communicate during this part of the discussion.
- Subjects
COMMUNICATION strategies; HELP-seeking behavior; COMPUTER technical support software; CONVERSATION; SATISFACTION
- Publication
Technical Communication, 2019, Vol 66, Issue 4, p375
- ISSN
0049-3155
- Publication type
Article