Become a better Telecom Engineer

Key points that helped me succeed in the Telecommunications field

In this post, “Become a better Telecom Engineer,” learn the key points that helped me improve throughout my years in this field as a Telecom Technician, Project Engineer, and now, a Senior Convergence Specialist. how these key points or strategies played a role in helping me maintain various stable telecom positions since 1999 with three different organizations. You can achieve similar results if you apply some of these principals to your professional life.

In our field, we get to meet all kinds of customers. Most recently, I was facing a big challenge with one of our T&M Customers (Time and Material Charge). This Customer had different remote sites where they had lost the ability to call from one of the LSP sites back to the Core or Main site. In the end, the problem was solved and the customer was satisfied, after finding one of the G700 VoIP engines was defective.

Learn how you too can successfully complete your tasks whether you can or cannot solve the problem, maintaining a good relationship with your customer by following these 4 key points

• 1.- Create Empathy
• 2.- Get Familiar
• 3.- Collaborate
• 4.- Execute

1.- Create Empathy

It is easy to get caught up with everything that goes on in our daily work life and become almost automatic when dealing with multiple service requests in one day. To help avoid falling in this frame of mind, you should reset every so often and create space between jobs/service tickets, etc.

By creating a buffer between service requests, it will help you be more in touch with each request. One thing that I always try to do is to treat each contact as if he/she were standing right in front of me. Create empathy by listening, try to understand their point of view, etc. This could be hard in some cases; especially if you already know the solution to the problem.

2.- Get Familiar

As we work for the same employer, we are very likely to serve the same customers more than once. Take time to get to know the them on a professional level as well as understanding their technology. I use a note-taking application that helps me track each service request. This application helps me communicate better with each customer by just looking at their past history.

3.-Collaborate

Not every customer is the same. Some might be bothered if you try to engage them to help you troubleshoot their issues, while others welcome getting involved and this creates a good opportunity for you to teach them along the way.

For those customers that don’t want to be bothered, I suggest that you communicate with them via email to keep them informed of your progress. If you happen to be in person helping these type of folks, I suggest that you come up with an overview list of what you will do to fix their issue, then at the end come back and explain how things turned out.

For those customers who like to be involved and help you fix their problem, start by creating a conference call and let them in as you work the ticket. If for some reason you get stuck, then I suggest that you re-schedule the call until you get clarification on how to solve the problem.

Onsite technicians with these types of individuals could be a challenge, as they tend to breathe behind your neck while you are trying to get things done. I suggest that speak to them and explain how you need to find the solution first, then you will get with them for an update and get their assistance if needed. If that does not work, just tell them nicely that you really need some time to work on some issues on your own, but always get back with them.

4.- Execute

A key factor to fix a problem is to know where to start working each trouble. You have to really pay attention here. Some customer feel that you should start in a particular area, but your expertise tells you that you should start somewhere else.

If possible, try to start where the customer asked you to. Depending on the trouble, you might be forced to execute your point of view first, so try to present your idea then see if they feel that it is worth trying.

How about you? – What method do you use?