Work like a detective
Many issues can be resolved by the Service Desk with a quick phone call. Others need a little more investigation.
A screen shot can be very helpful, but do encourage the user to send a full-screen screen shot if you can. This can provide a lot more context than a clip of an error message in isolation such as: the URL in a browser bar; the time the error occurred (check the system clock in the bottom-right or top-right hand corner); or a breadcrumb trail showing how the user got to a particular page.
Following the pandemic, a lot more users are furnished with video conferencing tools like Google Meet, Microsoft Teams and Zoom that they are comfortable using and which allow the user to screenshare. Seeing a user recreate an error in real-time can be invaluable. It can help you rule out user error, confirms the issue is happening right now (it could be intermittent) and pleasant conversation will often trigger the user to impart useful information. You can also ask them to check other things, but they'll need to be reasonably technically savvy (or you'll need to be very clear when instructing them) for this to be of any benefit.
The ultimate support comes in the form of a visit to the user's desk, if that's possible. You get all the benefits of the previous methods but with the benefit of being able to talk to other team members (are they having the same problem?; do they know a workaround? etc) and if needs be, get to sit in the driving seat and switch on helpful diagnosis tools such as the Developer Tools in Chrome. Another plus is that users will generally be very thankful for the time and effort you've given them and are more likely to work with you to find a resolution, rather than get narked off about the lack of one - most of the time anyway!
So for those tricky issues, think like a Detective Inspector and visit the scene, look for clues and talk to witnesses.
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