27 May 2007 | Work | Suneth Mendis

I have been working as the Support Engineer at Ephox for about 8 months. Prior to that I worked as a Software Engineer at Panasonic Singapore and to be honest i didn’t quite enjoy the job. I was tiny little plankton in the massive ocean of Panasonic…just one of the many faces. The job was challenging, but lacked the “X-factor”! On top of that, I didn’t quite fancy the Japanese culture within the company. But it was a great starting point.

 Then in the middle of getting married and moving to Brisbane permanently, I found Ephox. Within 2 days of arrival, I had an “interview” (not the kind of interview we know of… it was more like a “lets-pretend-to-have-a-coffee-and -see-if-the-guy-gets-along-fine!?”) One week later, I walked in to their office in Paddington and I knew that was it! They had a small cosy working environment and super friendly engineers and managers. I knew I was going to be an important fish in the small pond!

I must admit the job is much more challenging than I first imagined. After 8 months on the job, I still learn new things about EditLive! every single day. Quite honestly, I love the fact that something challenging awaits me…something to solve or learn. That’s the “X-Factor” I was talking about earlier.  And also, I take pride in my work since i know my job will help the company to grow. Happy customers equates to more deals and more money! Once in a while, some customers appreciate my help and that’s very rewarding. So what’s the formula to become a good tech support?

• Be direct, plain and simple (Use “flowery” language only when you want to tell the customer to bugger-off!)

• If possible, call the customer and have a chat. Nothing good may come out of the conversation, but letting the customer know that you are paying special attention to their problem carries a lot of weight. No matter what is said and done, having a human to human conversation is always more reassuring.

• Never ever give an answer if you are not 100% sure.

• Give the customer a few options if available. People don’t like to be told what to do.

Well, that’s about it. Having a good knowledge of the product you support does help, but you can always learn that yourself or from seniors. Speaking of seniors, I must name a couple of people at Ephox, who in one way or another helped me to grow and taught me a few things in tech support. Firstly….Jack Mason. I must have asked him millions of questions and he never once denied me! Andrew Herron (aka Andy, Spyder) is the other man I must mention. He is just brilliant. I once heard that the human brain can store an unlimited amount of data. I didn’t believe it till I met Andy. This man just does not forget!!  

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