Unfortunately, many IT departments don't see the importance of providing great customer service to their customers. In the end, it's not as though the end customers can choose to switch to another support provider, right? It's true technically however, it's also a mistake... Did you hear of the latest gadget known as Google? A great point was made at the recent ITSM conference in London: "No ITSM tool vendor leads in solving IT issues." This award is given 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 expectations from consumers for assistance and are able to self-helpEnd users are becoming increasingly more tech-savvy and their expectations for IT are growing each day (to match the service experiences they experience in their daily lives). Why would they need to deal with a potentially ineffective service desk agent who isn't able to respond to their request for three days, when they could simply type the issue in a search engine (although we don't actually recommend this) to find a workaround or fix for their issue within a matter of minutes? My opinion is that corporate IT departments can't afford to ignore their end-users or offer poor service due to the rise of Shadow IT and personal cloud services. Take advantage of this opportunity to enhance your experience now, before the 17% drop to a point where the need for an internal service desk becomes mandatory. These five tips can help you think about and perhaps get moving towards more efficient customer service. Pay attention It doesn't matter whether you provide either external or internal support services people who listen more than they talk are those who can provide the highest quality customer service. Allow your end users to fully explain why they need IT help desk so important for their issue to be fixed quickly. After all, just because their IT issue doesn't seem important to you does not mean it's not disruptive and important to them, their working is likely to be a crucial business process or service. Don't just read the solution script or assign the issue a low priority. Listen to the caller and then take the appropriate decision. Don't make excuses. The customer doesn't care whether it's your fault, his/her fault, the fault of your coworker or even your best friend's cat's fault. They just want you to resolve their issue. So take ownership of the issue, understand the reasons they're upset Do not be defensive or make excuses. In the words of Nike will say "Just do it" regarding getting things resolved (of course, keeping the first point in mind). Manage expectations Okay, it's not ideal for the customer that you cannot immediately solve their issue, but do you know what's less desirable? They need to guess when the issue will be solved. Sure, they'll be disappointed when you tell them that it's going to take three days to resolve, but how upset are they going to be if you do not set a resolution timeframe and three days later they need to call you for an update? It is important to let them know when the issue will be resolved , and the reason. Depending on how busy they are it could be a goal for service levels that states it could take up three days. I believe that if you don't manage end user expectations effectively, they'll be more upset and call you on a regular basis for updates. Communicate In keeping with managing expectations, make sure you inform your users on the status of their issues. Don't keep them in the dark, they're likely not mind readers. Be sure to let them know if there will be delays, and also tell them what you have achieved along the way, ideally aitsm to ensure that they don't think that you are just lying around doing nothing. Use customer satisfaction surveys The first and most important thing to remember is that you shouldn't ask for feedback if you're not planning to take action on it. This is the main reason that so few people complete the post-service survey. If they don't receive any response to their feedback there's no way to waste their time answering your questions. Your survey should be brief and ask appropriate questions (I advise checking out the net promoter score as well as the system) Then, make sure that you keep track of the responses. Show end users that you're listening by communicating how you intend to tackle the issues that were highlighted and then provide evidence of improvements once completed.
1 Comment
4/3/2023 02:00:29 pm
If they don't receive any response to their feedback there's no way to waste their time answering your questions. Thank you for taking the time to write a great post!
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