Remote Technical Support Requires Diagnosing the End User (Customer) as well as the Computer

Abstract

A cognitive task analysis (CTA) and a laboratory study examined the cognitive and communicative processes technical support workers use when providing remote, Internet-based technical support, with a particular focus on the role of the end user who is receiving technical support. In the CTA, 6 experienced technical support employees communicated with end users to solve 4 technical support problems while providing the task analyst with a verbal protocol of their thoughts and actions. The results of the CTA include procedural diagrams illustrating the technical support process and the concept of “user diagnosis.” The subsequent laboratory study examined how two characteristics of technical support end users, their emotional state and the level of detail in their problem descriptions, affected stress levels and performance of technical support personnel. Angry end users caused more subjective stress to technical support workers than happy users, and technical support employees perceived problems to be more difficult when they were interacting with vague users or angry users. When end users were vague or angry, technical support workers' problem-solving time and performance ratings were significantly worse. Taken together, the results from these studies can be applied to improve the technical support process by providing interfaces that scaffold the communicative aspects of the technical support process and adding training and evaluation for support workers in communication and interpersonal skills.