Five Tips To Improve The Customer Experience At Your Service Desk

Unfortunately, IT departments often don't understand the importance of delivering great customer service to their end users. It's not as if the customers could choose to switch to an alternative support provider.

Technically this is true however, it's also a mistake... Did you hear of a new-fangled thing called Google? At a recent IT service management (ITSM) conference in London an interesting point was made: "No ITSM tool vendor is the best in providing the technology needed to solve IT problems. This prize goes to Google." According to Forrester Research, only 17% of IT issues actually make it to the corporate ITSM. What happens to the other 83% go?

End-users have consumer-driven expectations of Support and Self-Help

End users are becoming increasingly technologically proficient and their expectations for IT are growing daily (to match the service experiences they experience in their daily lives). What is the reason they would choose to deal with an unhelpful service desk representative who doesn't respond within three days? They can input their issues in the search engine (although it is not recommended) and discover a solution or workaround for their issue in just a few minutes.

My opinion is that, with the continued rise of Shadow IT, personal cloud services, and BYOD IT departments of corporations cannot afford to ignore their end users nor to provide a poor service experience. Make the most of this opportunity to improve your customer experience today, before the 17% decline is so low that an internal service desk is necessary.

These five suggestions will assist you in thinking about and perhaps get going on the road to better customer service.

Listen

If you're offering support for internal or external customers the most effective customer support and experience is provided by those who listen more than talking. Let your customers fully explain why they need IT help desk so important for their issue to be addressed promptly. Even even if your IT problem isn't of importance to you, it does not mean that it isn't significant to the end users. Don't just blindly follow the resolution procedure in front of you or assign the issue a priority of low as you can for support at level 2. and actually pay attention to what the caller is saying and take action accordingly.

Don't be excuses.

The user isn't concerned whether it's your fault, their responsibility, that of your colleague or even your best friend's cat's fault. They only want you to resolve their issue. Be the one to take responsibility for the issue and understand their frustrations and don't make excuses or excuse-making. Like Nike would say "Just do it" regarding fixing the issue (of course keeping in mind my previous tip).

Manage expectations

Okay, so it's probably not ideal for the caller that you are unable to immediately resolve their issue, but do you know what is less ideal? They have to figure out when their issue will be fixed. Yes, they might be unhappy with you even if you claim it will take three days to resolve, but how upset are they going to be if you do not set the time frame for resolution, and then three days later they have to contact you for an update? Always let them know what time the issue will be resolved, and also any reason for delays - it could be a set service level agreement that stipulates that it can take up to three days depending on workload. I think that if you fail to manage the end-user expectations effectively, they'll get more annoyed and be in touch with you frequently to receive updates.

Communicate

In line with effectively managing expectations, make sure you keep your end users updated regarding the progress of their incidents. Do not leave them in the dark. They're probably not brain readers. Be aware whether there's going to be a delay and let them know what you've accomplished as you go best IT service desk in order that they don't believe that you're and doing nothing to help them.

Customer satisfaction surveys are a fantastic idea

In the first place, don't request feedback if it's not something you're going to do. If you're wondering how few people complete your post-service survey, this is probably the reason. If they don't see any action on their comments and comments, nobody will spend their time responding to your questions. Make your survey short and ask the appropriate questions. I suggest checking the net promoter score system , and then following up with answers. You can show end users you care by describing how you will address the concerns that you have identified and by providing proof of any changes.