Sanchez A.R. Technical Support Essentials: Advice you can use to Succeed in Technical Support

CA Press/Apress, 2009. -289 p.Thank you for taking the time to pick up this book. I invite you to read the chapter introductions to get a sense of the themes discussed in the topics. Being a support person myself, I know how short we are on time and how much our days are interrupted by cases, issues and technical problems. For this reason, I wrote self-contained and concise topics of typically no more than 1,300 words each. You can read them in sequential or random order and still get the same value. Each topic does not assume that you have read the prior ones in the chapter so you can pick and choose.
Do not let the name Technical Support Essentials fool you; this is not a beginner’s guide to technical support. The essentials refers to the core of our profession including the challenges, opportunities, and peculiarities. I wrote this book with the experienced professional technical support person in mind. In these pages, I will not tell you what support is; I assume you already know and I assume that support is what you do for a living. What I will do is expand your view of technical support and present the essentials, the fundamentals that make this a great profession.
I also do not assume that I am preaching to the choir. I want you to analyze what you are reading and make up your own mind. It is possible, and likely, that you come up with some new ideas out of reading the next twelve chapters. The text is deliberately written in a style that leaves it open to criticism and to entice you to think more about the topics as they apply to your own work and the products and technologies you support.
The book is intended for the general support profession. Some of the examples pertain to the software support field but that is only because that’s where my experience lies but the topics are intended to provide value regardless of your line of technical support and its subject matter.Advice for Dealing with Yourself and Your Work
Your Work Ethic
Intricacies of the Field
Your Work Practices
Working with Others
The Technical Support Group
The Technical Support Colleague
Leadership in Support
The Support Organization
Support Roles and Behaviors
Structures and Tiers
Process and Practice
Working with Customers
Customer Service
Communications
Perspectives.