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Worst morning ever
Nov. 14th, 2007 11:21 pmJust call me Super Support Su - er - Lily.
So, the office was practically empty today, because half of the company was off in Sydney demonstrating our software to a new client, and another significant portion is on holiday.
This leaves me as not only the person on phone/email monitoring duty, but as the only technical person in the office capable of solving customers' problems and the closest we have to a business savvy person in judging the urgency of having those problems addressed.
Of course, this morning between 9am and 10am, just before the boys' plane lands, is the time that every customer we have suddenly strikes some inexplicable problem, which must be solved instantly because (a) they're leaving for New Zealand in half an hour, (b) the event for which they're using our software started ten minutes ago, or (c) they want to change the details of the demonstration the boys are about to give.
The phone was ringing hot, to the point where I finish solving one client's problem and hang up only to find that there's a new message been left while I was on the phone with them. My inbox filled to the brim with client's messages requiring responses, timestamped things like: 9:10am, 9:13am, 9:18am, 9:23am, 9:28am...
Of course, after 10am, there was no more email and only one call for the rest of the day - that one from a telemarketer. Hah. Just goes to show how awesome I am at getting everyone's problems sorted.
General notes for future troubleshooting:
1) By default, Vista does not give users write permission to the root directory of an external drive. A good thing to know before half an hour of stuffing around with an increasingly frantic client on the other end of the line.
2) Half my video is gone, you bastards, is likely caused by running low on hard drive space and thus not having anywhere to put your bloody video.
3) If in doubt about the urgency of an email, check how long it's taken that person to reply to the previous respondant. If it's more than twenty-four hours, you don't even have to think about responding until the immediate crisis is over.
4) Being CCed on the itinerary for the boys' flight to Sydney is a fantastic thing, because knowing when their plane lands means that I can follow them up if they don't check their messages.
5) Don't panic. It's not the end of the world.
I kept my head above water. Just.
Next time the boys go to Sydney, though, I'm bringing a snorkel to work, just in case.
So, the office was practically empty today, because half of the company was off in Sydney demonstrating our software to a new client, and another significant portion is on holiday.
This leaves me as not only the person on phone/email monitoring duty, but as the only technical person in the office capable of solving customers' problems and the closest we have to a business savvy person in judging the urgency of having those problems addressed.
Of course, this morning between 9am and 10am, just before the boys' plane lands, is the time that every customer we have suddenly strikes some inexplicable problem, which must be solved instantly because (a) they're leaving for New Zealand in half an hour, (b) the event for which they're using our software started ten minutes ago, or (c) they want to change the details of the demonstration the boys are about to give.
The phone was ringing hot, to the point where I finish solving one client's problem and hang up only to find that there's a new message been left while I was on the phone with them. My inbox filled to the brim with client's messages requiring responses, timestamped things like: 9:10am, 9:13am, 9:18am, 9:23am, 9:28am...
Of course, after 10am, there was no more email and only one call for the rest of the day - that one from a telemarketer. Hah. Just goes to show how awesome I am at getting everyone's problems sorted.
General notes for future troubleshooting:
1) By default, Vista does not give users write permission to the root directory of an external drive. A good thing to know before half an hour of stuffing around with an increasingly frantic client on the other end of the line.
2) Half my video is gone, you bastards, is likely caused by running low on hard drive space and thus not having anywhere to put your bloody video.
3) If in doubt about the urgency of an email, check how long it's taken that person to reply to the previous respondant. If it's more than twenty-four hours, you don't even have to think about responding until the immediate crisis is over.
4) Being CCed on the itinerary for the boys' flight to Sydney is a fantastic thing, because knowing when their plane lands means that I can follow them up if they don't check their messages.
5) Don't panic. It's not the end of the world.
I kept my head above water. Just.
Next time the boys go to Sydney, though, I'm bringing a snorkel to work, just in case.
