As an IT director, I encourage my techs first action to be to connect to the clients machine and ask them to “show me what’s happening.” Then they aren’t to interrupt the user until they complete their explanation except to ask for clarification.

You can see all the steps leading up to the error, the users workflow, typically the desired end result, and the error message.

You also are building rapport with the user making them feel listened to. Far too often I see techs assume something else is the issue, “fix” that, call it done and the user gets frustrated.

Even if you can’t fix it, like so many user issues, at the very least the support experience is a positive one for the end users. Sometimes it’s just that a specific preference isn’t in an applications options or they need to change a step in their workflow. But at least the end users was listened to and their experience and frustration was validated.

If you have metrics or surveys, it’s always interesting to hear a user write in that the issue was not resolved, but they were extremely satisfied.