Hi, i’ve been doing computer software | website technical consulting|training|tech support for over 13 years now and want to share a few tips.

When you call for help with your computer or with your website/email, here’s what you can do to make the experience smoother:

1. Be ready — Login to your account(s) before calling! For example, if you’re having trouble with your website, then make sure that you are logged in to your hosting company’s control panel or dashboard before you call.  The biggest time waster for me is frequently waiting 1 to 2 minutes or sometimes even more for a customer to search for the password that they wrote down and then lost.  It’s rude to call and then make the tech support person wait (as well as other customers that are waiting in the call queue.) So be logged into your control panel or dashboard BEFORE you call — then your call is shorter AND the people waiting in line behind you will thank you!   P.S. If you can’t find your password look for the “forgot password” link on their website.  They always have one!
2. Call the same day of the problem. If you’re getting an error message when you send email or on your website, then the tech support person needs to look at the logs for it.  Most companies will archive their logs files after 24 hours.  Searching through the current day’s log file(s) is much faster than having to go to the archives, then find the appropriate day, and then unzip the archive before you can search through it.
3. Have the details ready — were there any error messages that you need to type down or write down first so you can email it?  Sometimes it’s easier to have you email it to us instead of being read a really long error message.
4. (stay tuned, this is a work in progress!  let me know what you think, thanks!)