Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Inquiry Technician

🎯 Role Definition

An Inquiry Technician is a frontline technical and customer-facing specialist responsible for receiving, triaging, investigating, and resolving customer or internal inquiries across phone, email, chat, and ticketing systems. This role blends technical troubleshooting, accurate documentation, cross-functional coordination, and customer service excellence to ensure fast resolution, compliance with service level agreements (SLAs), and continuous improvement of support processes. Ideal candidates combine CRM and ticketing tool proficiency with critical thinking, attention to detail, and strong communication.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

Customer Service Representative with technical exposure
Call Center Agent or Contact Center Specialist
Junior Technical Support Specialist or Help Desk Analyst

Advancement To:

Senior Inquiry Technician / Subject Matter Expert
Team Lead / Shift Supervisor (Support Operations)
Quality Assurance Analyst or Process Improvement Coordinator
Field Service Manager or Technical Services Manager

Lateral Moves:

Customer Success Specialist
Billing & Collections Specialist
Dispatch Coordinator
Compliance or Documentation Specialist

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

Receive and triage incoming customer and internal inquiries via phone, email, web forms, and chat, ensuring accurate classification, priority assignment, and SLA-driven routing into the organization's ticketing system.
Perform end-to-end issue resolution for routine technical problems and account inquiries, using diagnostic scripts and remote access tools to identify root causes and implement verified fixes.
Accurately document all interactions, diagnostics, resolutions, and escalation steps in the CRM/ticketing platform (e.g., Salesforce, Zendesk, ServiceNow), maintaining clear, searchable records for auditing and knowledge base updates.
Escalate complex or high-severity incidents to senior technicians, engineering teams, or field service; provide comprehensive technical notes, replication steps, and recommended next actions to expedite resolution.
Validate and process service orders, work authorizations, returns, and exchange requests while coordinating with dispatch/field teams to schedule appointments and follow-up activities.
Conduct initial technical triage for equipment issues (connectivity, hardware faults, software errors), including remote configuration checks, firmware verifications, and basic troubleshooting procedures to restore service.
Investigate billing and account inquiries related to charges, credits, plan changes, and refunds by collaborating with billing teams and verifying account history and transaction logs.
Monitor open tickets and SLAs proactively, escalate aging or blocked items, and drive timely closure through persistent follow-up and cross-team coordination.
Use diagnostic and monitoring tools to review logs, system alerts, and performance indicators, correlating customer symptoms to backend events and providing evidence-based conclusions.
Maintain and update a centralized knowledge base and standard operating procedures (SOPs) with step-by-step resolutions, troubleshooting tips, and escalation matrices to improve first-contact resolution rates.
Coordinate with warehouse and inventory teams to log and track replacement parts, spare units, or consumables, ensuring accurate inventory adjustments and RMA processing.
Deliver guided technical coaching and on-call support to less experienced staff during peak hours or high-volume incidents, ensuring consistent service delivery across shifts.
Support compliance and data privacy requirements (e.g., HIPAA, GDPR) by verifying identity, limiting data exposure, applying required confidentiality procedures, and recording consent where necessary.
Participate in incident post-mortems and RCA (root cause analysis) sessions to identify systemic issues, corrective actions, and preventative measures that reduce repeat inquiries.
Generate and analyze regular operational reports (ticket volumes, resolution times, SLA adherence, first-contact resolution) to identify trends, staffing needs, and process bottlenecks.
Execute quality assurance sampling and call/email/chat reviews to measure adherence to scripts, professionalism, and technical accuracy; provide feedback and coaching input to improve team performance.
Manage returns, repairs, and warranty claims by validating eligibility, authorizing RMAs, coordinating shipping instructions, and tracking repair status until final disposition.
Support product or service change rollouts by validating customer impact, communicating planned interruptions, and executing pre-checks and post-deployment verification tasks.
Handle escalated customer complaints and service recovery cases with empathy and authority, proposing remediation options, documenting agreed actions, and ensuring follow-through to customer satisfaction.
Maintain continuous learning on new product features, software updates, and internal tools by attending training sessions and studying release notes to ensure accurate customer guidance.
Collaborate with cross-functional teams (engineering, product management, sales, legal) to clarify product behavior, request feature changes, and validate fixes before communicating outcomes to affected customers.
Assist with ad-hoc projects such as data cleanup, process automation pilots, or pilot program validation to improve support efficiency and reduce manual workload.
Enforce quality control standards for returned equipment and test units by executing acceptance tests, logging test results, and escalating non-conforming items for R&D or vendor review.
Support multi-channel escalation patterns during major incidents by staffing incident command, updating status pages, and coordinating communications to affected customers and internal stakeholders.

Secondary Functions

Support ad-hoc data requests and exploratory data analysis.
Contribute to the organization's data strategy and roadmap.
Collaborate with business units to translate data needs into engineering requirements.
Participate in sprint planning and agile ceremonies within the data engineering team.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platforms: Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics, or Zendesk — ability to log detailed case notes and run basic queries.
Ticketing and ITSM tools: ServiceNow, Jira Service Desk, Zendesk — triage, routing rules, SLA management, and escalation flows.
Technical troubleshooting: network basics (TCP/IP, DNS, DHCP), diagnostics, basic hardware troubleshooting, remote desktop tools, and configuration verification.
Diagnostic and monitoring tools: log review, syslog interpretation, device status checks, and basic performance analysis.
Knowledge of telephony and contact center systems: VoIP, ACD, IVR, call recording playback, and CTI integrations.
Data entry and validation: high accuracy in inputting customer information, order numbers, serial numbers, and resolution codes.
Office productivity: Microsoft Excel (pivot tables, v-lookups), Word, Outlook for reporting and data analysis.
RMA, returns, and warranty processing: familiarity with return authorizations, shipment tracking, and repair logs.
Security and compliance: understanding of data privacy best practices (HIPAA/GDPR basics), secure handling of PII, and access control policies.
SLA and KPI monitoring: experience tracking metrics such as first contact resolution, mean time to repair (MTTR), and ticket backlog.
Scripting or automation basics (desired): familiarity with macros, simple scripts, or automation platforms (Power Automate, Zapier) to streamline tasks.
Mobile device and IoT troubleshooting (if applicable): basic configuration, firmware updates, and connectivity checks.

Soft Skills

Strong verbal and written communication with clear, customer-facing explanation skills and professional tone.
Empathy and active listening to de-escalate frustrated customers and build rapport during troubleshooting.
Problem-solving mindset with methodical troubleshooting and a bias toward root-cause identification.
Time management and multitasking skills to handle high-volume queues while meeting SLA targets.
Attention to detail for accurate documentation, order processing, and compliance adherence.
Team collaboration and cross-functional coordination to drive issues to resolution across engineering and field teams.
Adaptability and learning agility in fast-changing environments with frequent product and process updates.
Conflict resolution and negotiation skills to handle service recovery and compensation discussions.
Analytical thinking to identify patterns in inquiries and propose process or product improvements.
Customer-focused mindset with a drive for quality and continuous improvement.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

High school diploma or GED required.

Preferred Education:

Associate degree or Bachelor's degree in Information Technology, Communications, Business Administration, or a related technical field.

Relevant Fields of Study:

Information Technology / Computer Science
Telecommunications
Business Administration / Customer Service Management
Health Sciences (for healthcare-focused inquiry roles)
Electronics or Engineering Technology

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range: 1–3 years in customer support, technical support, field coordination, or contact center roles.

Preferred: 3–5+ years supporting technical products or services, experience with CRM and ITSM platforms, and demonstrated SLA-driven case management. Experience in regulated industries (healthcare, utilities, finance) is a plus.

If you’d like, I can adapt these responsibilities and skills into a full job posting, a short-form job ad optimized for Indeed/LinkedIn, or a searchable keyword-optimized job brief for applicant tracking systems (ATS).