The impact of an IT service desk is sometimes underestimated – until its services are urgently needed. An effective service desk manages mundane, everyday tasks, executes and supports planned transitions, and many times quickly assumes the role of a “command center” to put out any “fires” in a corporate IT network.
Can your IT service desk, either internal (managed by company employees) or external (outsourced to a service provider) meet these challenges? It may depend on whether it was planned and implemented effectively.
More than effectiveness: excellence
An effective service desk strives to provide excellent customer service to users.
With the advancement of technology, and with tools based on chatbots, voice recognition, natural language processing, machine learning, and artificial intelligence, users have experienced a shift in the way their requests are answered and processed – and may not realize that behind every great technological solution is a team of humans who create and execute those solutions. That team managing your service desk can be the real differentiator – the X Factor.
Empathy, accountability, and communication
Tools, technology, and methodologies are the basic tools of a working service desk, but true excellence comes from its people. When they embrace empathy, accountability, and open communication, these teams deliver excellence.
Empathy helps service desk members understand the environment and challenges of requestors, and it empowers them to work their hardest to resolve issues.
“Empathy makes you a better innovator. If I look at the most successful products we have created, it comes with that ability to meet the unmet, unarticulated needs of customers.” Microsoft Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella
Accountability puts the onus on the service desk to drive the reported issue to the appropriate track – first-contact resolution or escalation. A feedback loop to the requestor provides important information: Someone is responsible and working towards a resolution.
Communication also plays an important role in shaping the customer experience. An active and regular channel of communication helps the user understand the progression toward resolution.
Teamwork delivers the best customer experience
When working together as a team, members share their knowledge, experience, mistakes, and successes; they then work together to deliver the best customer experience.
“The ability of a group of people to do remarkable things hinges on how well those people pull together as a team.”
Author and inspirational speaker Simon Sinek
An outsourced service desk works as a true extension of the organization it is serving, by not only meeting its commitments, but also understanding a customer’s corporate culture. This helps in developing better coordination with the users and creating a cohesive work environment.
And finally, the leadership team. It is responsible for creating and supporting an environment that encourages professionalism and mutual respect, and nurtures the leadership potential in each of its team members. They inculcate leadership qualities by providing opportunities to thrive and grow.
When building or selecting an IT service desk, assessing the tangible factors is important, but if you can find the X Factor, it will assure the highest level of customer experience.
Learn more
With more than 20 years of experience, Hexagon IT Services is comprised of customer-centric professionals who work closely with organizations of all types and sizes, working to help them to identify and deliver solutions that best fit their IT support needs.
Learn more about Hexagon IT Services here.
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