Companies are interested in deploying IT helpdesks and they are keen on the future of IT service management (ITSM). It might be because it appears to be more appealing than the current ITSM state of affairs. It might also be that people don’t want to retrace their steps. Continue reading to learn about five of the most common service blunders, as well as what you and your firm can do to avoid them.
And if you’re getting answers like “failing to document incidents and service requests individually,” you need to broaden your horizons.
- Limiting IT to just support, like it was in the early 2000s.
We’re approaching the conclusion of the 14th year of “consumerization of IT,” and a lot has changed for the better in terms of IT assistance. However, many corporate IT groups and service desks must recognise that it isn’t only about accommodating and supporting employees’ devices, applications, and cloud services. Instead, consumerization – people bringing their personal lives and expectations into the office – necessitates a rethinking of services, support, and customer care.
Consider customer service and support experiences in the real world: Service desks must examine how they work, the service/experience they deliver, end users’ perceptions of the service/experience, and the gap that exists between the present and future necessary state. For certain service desks, this will necessitate a major rethinking of operations as well as considerable investments in people, processes, and technology.
- Investing in the technology rather than the people
Whatever the practical realities, IT support has never been about “supporting the IT.” When it comes to IT support, it’s all about keeping the business and its employees running, not just mending faulty technology. But how many service desk agents can honestly state that they use this approach and that they focus on the end-user – yes, we still struggle to call them “customers” – while providing IT support?
Make support about people: As a result of the aforementioned pincer movement of consumerization and customer experience, end-users not only demand more from IT support teams, but they are also less inclined to accept subpar circumstances and are more willing to express their dissatisfaction. As a result, service desks must recognise that perceiving end-users as customers – or at the very least consumers – and, of course, as people – is a critical component of achieving customer-experience-related needs. With an emphasis on their circumstances and the fact that they require aid in regaining productivity.
- Investing in Service Desk Personnel in Inadequate Amounts
IT support, like the service desk, is all about people – service desk agents. Yes, self-service and self-help, knowledge management, and automation may be used to “deflect” an increasing number of requests (more and more use of artificial intelligence, machine learning, and chatbots). However, not every problem can be solved without a human-to-human interaction.
What’s crucial to remember is that the things that require an H2H approach are now the more complicated issues and requests – there will be very few simple issues that come via the service desk.
There are fewer H2H possibilities to impact the business’ impressions of IT; historically, the service desk, as one of the few personal touchpoints, has played a large role in shaping this. Due to the first reason, these fewer H2H connections will be more difficult and time-consuming.
Recognize the value of service desk personnel: Recruitment and retention tactics for service desk workers should be adjusted to focus on a higher class of agents first, and then to assure that what will become a scarce resource (as opposed to script readers) would demand stronger incentive and recognition programmes. Service desk agents will need to be appreciated more in the long run.
- Following the Process Blindly
ITIL has already aided the improvement of tens of thousands of companies throughout the world. Is your company, on the other hand, taking the proper strategy to implement it? Has the service desk of your company mindlessly “adopted” incident management and service request fulfilment without properly comprehending ITIL or knowing that there is so much more best practice to be exploited inside ITIL?
Examine how well your company follows ITIL recommended practices: To begin with, keep in mind that ITIL procedures are only a means to a goal, not the end in and of themselves. ITIL isn’t about following a set of procedures; it’s about improving IT service delivery and support, as well as satisfying customer and business IT enablement needs. Next, realise that you don’t have to follow the diagrams in the ITIL books to the letter. Rather, tailor the ITIL best practice to your organization’s specific demands and working styles.
Finally, don’t limit yourself to the ITIL processes that are widely used (about half of the 26 in the books); seek for areas where extra procedures might make a significant impact in your IT operations. This might be problem management for the service desk. This might include finance, availability, and/or capacity management, in addition to the service desk.
- Struggling with an Outdated ITSM or Service Desk Tool
How many service desks use a tool that is slowing them down? It’s possible that the wrong tool was picked as a result of a sloppy selection procedure, or that the tool hasn’t evolved with IT support. Of course, there’s the perennial problem with on-premise ITSM tools: they’ve been overly modified to the point of being worthless. And, given the current economic context, justifying a new tool is challenging.
Determine how much the obsolete tool is costing your company: Not simply the monthly subscription for software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions, but also the continuous support and maintenance fees. It might be slowing down operations because it’s difficult to use, relies too much on manual processes, or lacks modern features like usable self-service or knowledge management. While a modern ITSM product may appear to be an additional expenditure that is difficult to justify, the opportunity cost of continuing to use a tool that is holding you back may be much greater.