More on Troubleshooting

The following is a list of additional ideas and philosophies about troubleshooting collected from computer geeks all over:

• Always back up user data before anything else.

• Assume that their data contains malware and use caution and your own updated antivirus to scan their stuff.

• Always protect customer passwords, data, billing, and personal information as if it belonged to your mother. When you no longer need this information, destroy it—the passwords, not the customer.

• Use open-ended questions (such as, “Tell me what you were doing when the problem first occurred”) and closed-ended questions (such as, “Does the problem happen before or after you send email?”) in your information gathering from the customer.

• If the computer worked before and doesn’t work now, something changed. Find out what.