by Steve Hansell

Created on: June 10, 2009   Last Updated: August 02, 2010

Good IT techs love a good puzzle. They like problem solving. Having a good memory, being able to apply lessons learned, and mad Google skills, are all traits of good IT techs.

Great IT techs know the secret that every great service professional knows; customer service.

My background is in IT and a lot of my jobs were as application administrators working with someone on the business end of enterprise applications. That would be a non-technical user usually. More often than not, someone like a 47 year old mother of two who works for the sales department or is writing policy for the HR department. The understanding of this person of what they do everyday is usually a well documented routine and they only called for help when the routine didn't work. The description of the problem is something like, "The go button on the website won't work....". Working with end users can be tough, I totally get that.

If you want to make a difference to the business you work for and the user who is in trouble, this is where it happens. Communicate with the customer.

So, what do you do?

If you want to be a good, reliable, and sought after technician, you do something that we as a group have avoided at all costs; use your customer service skills. I know it sounds crazy, but if you try your best to understand what is frustrating the customer,personalize your communications (Use their name and words like "Hello" and "Good Morning") , and try to explain things so they don't feel like they are wasting your time, something good will happen. Your customer will; get their job done, feel good about the interaction you provided and if they fill out a survey, score you and your group at a higher level. You might even get recognized. It really isn't much harder than this.

This customer service idea gets planted a lot of different ways. Every one of us has been through the voodoo sessions with corporate cheerleaders trying to create company moral and synergy. IT people are extremely cynical, so generally we think of those things as "a bunch of crap."

But here is the bottom line for anyone trying to cobble together a serious career in a technical field; most of management would rather train someone in a technology who can effectively communicate than try to train someone to communicate who may be outstanding technically.

The things you can do to stay employed, stay relevant, and be one of the best in your job are all those simple things. The following list is in no real order, but they are all

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