Part I

Case Study: Allied

Part I

A NOC Technician leaned back in their chair, sipping what was left of their coffee as a they selected take new ticket. After examining the ticket, they see a SolarWinds alert Site_Monroe – WAN Down. Further review showed the timestamp, and cross-referenced it against the CSP for Allied Retail. The Technician was familiar with Allied Retail as they worked another ticket for Allied earlier in their shift, which was Site Jefferson. Without thinking twice, muscle memory took over and they clicked on the QUICK CALL on the left of the ticket.

Making The Call

Click Play to Listen to the Call

Play

What's your call?

Acknowledge the mix-up right away. Thank Mark for his time, and end the call courteously.

Option A

Option B

Blame the monitoring tools and brush it off as a system glitch.

Option C

Insist the site must still be down and push Mark to recheck anyway.

Arguing with the customer only escalates tension and damages rapport.By insisting the site is down instead of verifying the data, the technician turns a small mistake into unnecessary conflict.

Blaming the monitoring tools shifts focus away from accountability. Avoiding responsibility may seem like a quick fix, but it weakens credibility and trust with both the customer and your team.

INCORRECT

INCORRECT

Correct

Owning the mix-up immediately shows integrity and professionalism.By staying calm, polite, and transparent, the technician maintains customer trust and keeps the focus on swift resolution.

Flexibility and Owership

“Well, that went well,” they sighed. No time to panic—just process. Own it. Fix it. Document it. They reviewed the ticket and found the issue: Jefferson’s contact number was actually Monroe’s. That explained the wrong call. “Alright,” they muttered, “let’s clean this up.” They cross-checked the correct number through an additional resource updating and correcting Jefferson's site information. Once confirmed, they documented: “Discovered incorrect contact information for Jefferson. Verified correct number via secondary resource and updated the contact information." Another quick, internal note, was added: “After customer engagement – email Lead and Manager re: contact correction and initial misread.”

Making the Call

Click Play to Listen

Play

What's your call?

Option B

Apologize for the earlier mix-up before addressing the outage.

Honesty is important, but timing matters. Leading with the mistake distracts from restoring service and heightens frustration.

INCORRECT

Option C

Stay calm, acknowledge the frustration, and start Layer 1 checks with the site contact to get on the path to resolution.

Engaged customer after incorrect first call. Followed CSP by initiating Layer 1 troubleshooting with the local contact, Gary. Maintained professionalism, empathy, and forward momentum.

Correct

Unprofessional response. Dismissing customer impact damages trust and escalates tension, violating CIS communication standards.

Downplay the outage and minimize the customer’s frustration. It's not really that big of a deal.

Option A

INCORRECT

Closing the Loop

The NOC Technician ended the call and immediately reached out to the listed ISP. The provider identified a fault in their equipment and resolved the issue by moving their device to a new VLAN. Once service stabilized, the NOC Technician verified pings, confirmed connectivity with the site manager, and ensured operations were fully restored. The NOC Technician then updated the case with the following before setting it into monitoring:• Called the wrong site (Jefferson) initially; corrected immediately • Contacted Monroe manager and confirmed outage • Completed Layer 1 troubleshooting (modem, router, switch rebooted) – no resolution • Engaged ISP; provider ticket #984321 opened • Service restored after ISP VLAN adjustment; customer confirmed operational