Notes from the Tech Support Desk

If you use Fluke Calibration electrical calibrators or software, chances are you and I have talked on the phone at least once.

 

I’ve been providing technical support for calibration products for the last 14 years; the last five as manager of a five-member team at Fluke Calibration. Together we field approximately 65 telephone calls each day, plus more than 2,300 emails per month (more than 8,000 emails in 2012). My team supports the Fluke Calibration electrical calibrators and standards, data loggers, arbitrary waveform generators and calibration software (MET/CAL®, MET/TRACK® and MET/TEAM™).

 

Everyone on my team is a trained professional who can help you on your first call. In addition to our product training, the things we have in common are the ability to think independently and logically; a desire to solve problems; and a desire to help our customers.

 

When a customer calls, we first try to identify what product and what version of it the customer is using. Then we ask about the customer’s goal: “What are you really trying to do?” I’ve found that if we don’t ask this question, we can get side tracked and end up moving down the wrong path.

 

In general, most of our calls center around the question, “How do I…?” In other words, the customer is trying to perform a test, measurement or some other task, and he needs help completing it. We also receive calls because “an error message came out of nowhere” and the customer needs help understanding what it means and how to deal with it.

 

We get about one question a week from a customer who thinks his calibrator is broken but, when we investigate, we find out it’s the unit under test (UUT) that actually caused the problem. This is an easy one to troubleshoot. We’ll ask the customer to substitute a different UUT and see if the problem continues. If it does, it’s the calibrator that caused the problem; if it doesn’t, it’s the UUT.

 

For example, a customer tried to output 100 milliamps from his calibrator, but the calibrator gave him an over-compliance error. As it turns out, the problem was that the current fuse in the UUT had blown.

 

Think about it this way: if you turn on a light switch and no light comes on, you might think the power is out. But if you take out the old bulb and try a new one, you might find that the problem just was a blown light bulb.

 

 

To help us solve your hardware and software problems as efficiently as possible, here are a few things you can do before you pick up the phone or compose an email to request support:
 

1.      First, try your task again. Make a note of the steps you took to produce the error.
 

2.      Be physically near your hardware and software when you call. We might want you to try different things while we’re troubleshooting your problem. That might sound obvious, but you’d be surprised at how many people call and then tell me their test setup is in another building.
 

3.      Know the model number and version of the product you’re using. This is especially important with software, because of the different features and bugs inherent in each version.
 

4.      You might find it useful to refer to your product’s manual. We’ve also published many application notes and white papers that you might find useful and/or interesting. You can find all of these materials on our website at FlukeCal.com/literature. Software users can ask questions and initiate peer discussions on our Community Forum.