Help desk quality assurance position - a step in the right direction?

I've been working a tier 1 help desk position for about 6 months now, and my boss just offered me a position as the QA analyst. I'd be monitoring both tier 1 and tier 2 calls. I'm almost definitely going to be taking the position because I'm not a fan of answering calls all day, and this would get me off the phones. I'm quite good at my job, but my personality type finds talking all day very draining. I'll also be learning everything required of the tier 2 techs in order to analyze their calls properly.

At first glance, it seems like a win-win situation, but now I'm hesitating because it doesn't strike me as the "normal" IT career path.

I was wondering if anyone has any experience doing this type of job. How does something like this compare to actual experience in a tier 2 position? I'm hoping to move into the security field eventually once I finish at WGU, and I don't want to get too far off track.

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erpadmin

Arysta wrote: »

I've been working a tier 1 help desk position for about 6 months now, and my boss just offered me a position as the QA analyst. I'd be monitoring both tier 1 and tier 2 calls. I'm almost definitely going to be taking the position because I'm not a fan of answering calls all day, and this would get me off the phones. I'm quite good at my job, but my personality type finds talking all day very draining. I'll also be learning everything required of the tier 2 techs in order to analyze their calls properly.

At first glance, it seems like a win-win situation, but now I'm hesitating because it doesn't strike me as the "normal" IT career path.

I was wondering if anyone has any experience doing this type of job. How does something like this compare to actual experience in a tier 2 position? I'm hoping to move into the security field eventually once I finish at WGU, and I don't want to get too far off track.

Sounds like instead of you taking calls all days, you're gonna be listening in on those who do. When I did my desktop support gig, we didn't have a QA monitoring our calls, but we did have a QA team that would monitor the calls of the customer support reps. QA folks typically look for how long a rep was on the phone (did they meet their target time? If not, why?), were the reps bs'ing with the customer, was the "script" followed? Stuff like that. It's pretty much whenever you call tech support (like I just did a few minutes ago......) and when you get the prompt for customer service, you get the "this call may be monitored for Quality Control/(Assurance) purposes." That's for Tier 1. Tier 2 would have standard troubleshooting that they have to do. I guess you would have to make sure that your tier 2 tech follow standard troubleshooting protocol. (Did they use your knowledgebase, etc.)

If this is what your job entails, it's not terrible...a good QA analyst could see IT management in their future, if that's what you're looking for.

lsud00d

This seems like a good move 6 months in IMHO...this will further your skillset and knowledge, which will lengthen and strengthen your resume.

N2IT

I really liked the part where you said you wern't answering phones anymore.

I haven't answered phones for a while now and I don't think I could go back and do my job effectively.

CodeBlox

QA goons probably make enemies to those they flunk for silly things like "not following the callscript" even if following said script doesn't make sense with whats going on with that customer.

ptilsen

QA is a step up, period. Take the job.

Arysta

erpadmin wrote: »

Sounds like instead of you taking calls all days, you're gonna be listening in on those who do. When I did my desktop support gig, we didn't have a QA monitoring our calls, but we did have a QA team that would monitor the calls of the customer support reps. QA folks typically look for how long a rep was on the phone (did they meet their target time? If not, why?), were the reps bs'ing with the customer, was the "script" followed? Stuff like that. It's pretty much whenever you call tech support (like I just did a few minutes ago......) and when you get the prompt for customer service, you get the "this call may be monitored for Quality Control/(Assurance) purposes." That's for Tier 1. Tier 2 would have standard troubleshooting that they have to do. I guess you would have to make sure that your tier 2 tech follow standard troubleshooting protocol. (Did they use your knowledgebase, etc.)

If this is what your job entails, it's not terrible...a good QA analyst could see IT management in their future, if that's what you're looking for.

Where I work, it's a very small call center (gov't contractor) tier 1 has a lot of the typical tier 2 responsibilities. Basically, if T1 knows how to do it, and knows it won't take 30+ mins they're not supposed to pass it on. So there is a lot of troubleshooting on both T1 and T2 levels. My boss basically sees QA as a way to give people a pat on the back, and he's super excited about dedicating a person to it. I'm looking forward to vicariously learning the extra things T2 have been trained to handle... without the phone calls haha.