Writing down what happened so somebody can help you
Describe a fault in five short lines, so that whoever helps you spends their time fixing it rather than interviewing you.
Whoever helps you — a son, a neighbor, a stranger on a support line — cannot see your screen. Everything they know, they know because you told them.
"It is not working" is not a small amount of information. It is no information, and it means the first forty minutes go on questions. Five lines, written when the fault is in front of you, replace all of them.
If typing feels slow, or the message is long, take a picture of the screen with your phone. It is not a lesser method — support desks prefer it.
The computer can also take a picture of itself, which comes out sharper and can be pasted straight into an email.
On a phone, the two side buttons pressed together do the same thing: the volume-up and the side button on an iPhone, volume-down and the power button on most Android phones.
Key points
- Describe a fault in five lines that anybody can act on
- Record what you have already tried, which is the line that changes the conversation
- Photograph a screen with your phone, or capture it with two keys
- Ask for help as somebody reporting a fault, not somebody confessing to one
What to remember
- Write it while the fault is on the screen. Afterwards, everybody remembers it slightly wrong.
- Facts, not apology. The fault is the machine’s; the description is your contribution.
Try this
Make a note on your phone called When things go wrong and put the five headings in it now, while nothing is. Filling in a form you already have beats composing one while a printer flashes at you.
Practice: Writing down what happened so somebody can help you. Your first lesson is free, with no account or card; the rest are part of a Lantern plan. Interactive lessons require JavaScript.