{"id":19123,"date":"2015-12-01T14:37:56","date_gmt":"2015-12-01T14:37:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/greenpages.com\/?p=6416"},"modified":"2015-12-01T14:37:56","modified_gmt":"2015-12-01T14:37:56","slug":"are-your-users-happy-tips-for-running-a-successful-it-help-desk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/icloud.pe\/blog\/are-your-users-happy-tips-for-running-a-successful-it-help-desk\/","title":{"rendered":"Are Your Users Happy? Tips for Running a Successful IT Help Desk"},"content":{"rendered":"

What do you think of when you hear the term Help Desk<\/a>?\u00a0 Is it a room full of technicians with noise-cancelling headsets, logged into an IT Service Management (ITSM) system, talking with their hands and guzzling Red Bulls?\u00a0 In your vision, do they appear haggard, glassy-eyed and stressed?\u00a0 Do they participate in the corporate culture, or languish in that basement call center the rest of the company thinks is some super-secret laboratory?<\/p>\n

That may seem a little outrageous, but consider this: Google and Bing searches on \u201chelp desk\u201d don\u2019t show a real human representative until almost 20 images in.\u00a0 And even then, the images are stereotypical and generic. \u00a0So you have to ask yourself, is that how the rest of the organization sees your help desk team?\u00a0 Are they relegated to anonymity?<\/p>\n

Back when I started my career in the IT industry as a service technician in the 1980s, I was a pretty popular guy when I strolled in the door to solve someone\u2019s computer issue.\u00a0 I would come in with my bag of tools, some floppy disks, and my trusty degausser.\u00a0 I was that guy who could perform the voodoo ritual that would breathe life back into their systems while they went off and filed something or made some sales calls, and, because what I did was largely a mystery to them, they were (generally) pleasant and patient.<\/p>\n

{Register for Geoff’s upcoming webinar<\/a>, “IT Help Desk for the Holidays: The Strategic Gift That Keeps on Giving”}<\/em><\/p>\n

There is a new reality today, one born out of the following facts:<\/p>\n

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  1. Little productive work can be done without a functioning system today<\/li>\n
  2. Users are more sophisticated with the basics of computer functionality<\/li>\n
  3. Systems are more integrated and inter-dependent<\/li>\n
  4. Remote support capabilities and call center technologies have matured greatly<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    These are not unique to IT; there are many parallels to other industries.\u00a0 Are you more patient today when visiting the doctor, getting your car serviced, or when your Internet goes out?\u00a0 Or do you find yourself self-diagnosing, visiting the forums, or fiddling with the cables first, and then when you do call or visit the specialist, you\u2019re frustrated and impatient?<\/p>\n

    With these new realities, IT help desks have to mature to maintain value and provide good client satisfaction.\u00a0 Our customer base is better educated, more dependent, and less patient than in the past.\u00a0 However, we have new technologies to reduce wait times and improve resolution times and can leverage data and analytics to identify trends and predict usage demands. I’m actually hosting a webinar next week to go over strategies for reducing wait times and improving resolution times if you’re interested in learning more<\/a>.<\/p>\n

    The development of help desk services has been traditionally based on user counts and request quantities: X amount of users placing Y amount of requests equals the number of people I need to staff my service with. But there are other factors that can complicate that seemingly simple calculation, such as the ebbs and flows of requests by time of day, day of the week or month of the year, usage spikes due to new platform and application roll outs, and the geographic dispersion of users to be supported.\u00a0 Other factors include the types of requests and length of the typical resolution cycle, technologies being consumed, potential complications from BYOD and mobile workforce requirements, and the quality of support artifacts.\u00a0 And that doesn\u2019t even consider staff burn out, attrition, and career advancement impacts on delivery capabilities.<\/p>\n

    So, as the person responsible for the delivery of a seemingly basic, vanilla and anonymous service, how do you create something that is world-class, aligned to your specific business outcomes, and is the face of all IT support to a sophisticated, diverse and impatient workforce that needs to work anytime, from anywhere on any type of device?\u00a0 Seems a pretty daunting challenge.\u00a0 Here are some tactics you can use:<\/p>\n