We have all heard the adage “Do unto others….”. We go into a fast food restaurant and we want to assure our food is both good and fast. So we naturally turn the charm up a bit more or we conduct ourselves as professionally as possible. Not too much is different when seeking computer tech support from a live technician. A good technician is already aware that if you are bringing the issue to get help on it, there is a problem. It is his job to fix it. However, it always help to deal with a courteous and patient customer and perhaps these five tips will help us all become that courteous and patient person in crisis.

Define the Problem
The first step for anybody seeking help is to define the problem. Perhaps though the biggest stumbling block a customer can put in front of a PC technician is to abdicate any responsibility for participating in the troubleshooting process, claiming that they lack the necessary expertise or it simply saying “isn’t that your job,” rather than defining the problem at hand. Simply put, would you go to the doctor and say “I’m in pain,” and then refuse to respond when the doctor asks, “Where does it hurt?” By defining the problem at the beginning of a help session you can point the Technician in the right direction and thereby save time and resources for both parties.

Eliminate the Obvious
With MinuteFix, specifically, we are more likely to solve a problem through remote desktop assistance than by simple chat or telephone. Therefore, it is incredibly advantageous if log into MinuteFix on the computer you are having issue with. If you can’t get on the internet with that computer but can on another, then the situation will be accommodated. However, the success rate is lessened when a help session for one computer is carried out on another.
If you approach a help session having already gone through the obvious fixes you are steps ahead to a certain fix. We have all sat and listened with frustration as a tech support person asks us if we have rebooted, restarted, refreshed, etc. If you have already gone through a litany of those ‘quick fixes’, be sure to let the technician know immediately. Perhaps you could start the session out by identifying your problem and what you have already done? For instance, you could say, “My computer continues to give me an error message on my desktop. I have no programs running. I have rebooted the computer but still get the same window. I have all my antivirus programs turned off and there are no external devices attached to my computer.” You may not know all of those things but it will help to state what you do know.

Courtesy Never Hurts, And Sometimes Helps
It is important to remember that each live Technician is just that - live. He or she has feelings and can easily be swayed by discourtesy. Therefore, try and ask your question with courtesy. Use “Please” and “Thanks for your attention” and you will be amazed at how far the tech is willing to go for you.

Follow The Leader
As human beings we all tend to get excited and even get ahead of ourselves. In a PC help session you can’t do that. It is best to do only as the technician tells you. Remember, you contacted him because he is the professional. If you knew how to solve the problem all along it would already be solved and you wouldn’t be in a session with tech support. This kind of falls in line with not always questioning the tech. Granted you are generally paying for tech support. However, it severely slows down the help session and confuses the technician when a customer chooses to ask “Are you sure?” or “Have you done this before?” after each instruction given by the tech.

Don’t Go Far From Home
Because a majority of the tech support issues are handled by remote desktop assistance is fairly advantageous for the session to take place on the computer “in question”. If you can log on to the Internet from the computer you are having issues on you are much more likely to get a correct fix and in a shorter amount of time. It is tempting to want to be away from the troubled machine and just log in on one you know works (perhaps at work or a friends house) but the issue will be much harder for you to possibly remember and for the tech to accurately diagnose and fix. Now, if you can’t log on to the Internet with that computer then, of course, you should seek a different computer. However, trying to stay with the bugger machine is probably the best option for a reliable course of action.