Communicating with Headquarter (Field Engineer)

When product issues are beyond our capabilities to resolve, we will seek help from the Headquarters.

Because the headquarters (HQ) of reputable brands usually are located in Europe, the US, and China, Singapore becomes an attractive regional hub as for technical and sales activities. Mainly because of our bilingual capabilities and stable operations.

To seek advice, we usually email HQ first. Unless urgent or necessary, we will arrange a voice or video call. Time zone is a crucial factor here.

1) The reasons for seeking their advice are;

i) The headquarter oversees the manufacturing of products and systems. Thus, they should be aware of the problems during manufacturing and software configurations.

ii) There may be a lack of steps taken during a manufacturing or configuration process, which may cause anomalies. 

iii) It may be a setting issue when HQ forgot to configure it back to its original state after testing is done

iv) It may be a compatibility issue if newer versions of their products cannot communicate well with older systems. 

v) The new product was launched too quickly and was not fully tested in actual scenarios. Hence, the error occurs, and a new form of solution has to be devised.

2) To ensure proper communication;

i) In our email, we ensure that the issues are stated and elaborated clearly by 

- Stating how the problem was surfaced

- Details of the problem

- Attempted troubleshooting carried out

- Stating relevant observations 

ii) Enquiries will usually take up to 3 days, depending on the complexity of the issue

iii) Sometimes, a system patch could solve the problem

iv) If necessary, certain components and parts that HQ couldn't solve are replaced with versions they are more confident with