12 Helpful Tips for Doing IT Service Desk
Over the years, the evolution of technology and the adaptability of the people to it, has been increasing drastically. This process has brought about a boom in the service sector, making the IT subunit of it, the most successful.
Customer retail outlets and the customer care service centers have shrunk in numbers owing to the availability of customer services both on call and online round the clock. This, therefore, insists the importance of IT service desks in providing help and assistance to the customers facing any difficulty with the product functionality or the service availability any time of the day.
Here are 12 helpful tips that can enhance the IT service Desk operations:
Availability
Customers might encounter a trouble with the product or have queries with the service delivery at any time of the day. Online solutions and customer support centers are more successful and are in constant demand due to their continuous availability round the clock. Making the service desk easily accessible and available for all customers 24/7 is mandatory to deliver quality service and ensure ultimate customer satisfaction. Opening out channels on various social media platforms as well will make you easily approachable to the customers.
Empathy
While working on a customer-centric service desk, empathy is one of the most important qualities to possess. Looking at things from their perspective and helping them out in resolving the issue genuinely and with politeness will satisfy them to a great extent. Despite the workload and the call traffic, it is essential to address every customer equally well and make them feel important.
Communication
To earn customer trust and to act as a reliable feedback mechanism, a good communication with the customers is extremely important. When the service desk comes out with a new portal, a new communication channel or on arriving at a permanent solution to a common problem, then it is necessary to communicate the progress and update the customers constantly on the changes that are being made in the service delivery.
Call Notes
When you are addressing a spree of customer calls, providing a quick solution is necessary. To make this possible, it is important to jot down notes on each call. While addressing the customers, referring the previous call notes for similar issues will help you assist them instantly. These call notes will play a vital role in resolving similar issues in the future as well. This will enhance the capabilities of the support team to provide appropriate solutions in a timely manner. Referring to the call notes repository will even guide you towards solving a more complex issue that might arise over time.
Clarity
When the customers call up the service desk with any discrepancy, it is important to address them immediately. When the solutions are being offered by the experts, one has to make sure that the instructions are delivered with clarity. The customers who call may have the technical intelligence of any level, some customers might understand the technical terms with ease while the others might have a tough time with it. Hence it is necessary to analyze and understand the technical intelligence of the customers and provide them with solutions that will be understandable and easy to execute, to their level of expertise.
Patience
Customers who approach the service desk might not have the same level of patience and time to spend on the call to resolve their issues. Hence, patience is an important attribute to be acquired by the support experts. Listening to their grievances with the utmost patience and making them feel heard is a great way to handle them efficiently while trying your best to deliver the solution will enhance your performance as an individual as well. Maintaining a soft tone and a polite approach to even the most impatient customers will make a great deal of difference in service delivery.
Analysis
For any IT service desk, the analysis of its performance and the rate of customer satisfaction is essential. An IT service desk software can be deployed for continuous and accurate monitoring of the process and to analyze the impact it creates on the overall performance. This continuous analysis will enable the support team to re-strategize accordingly, plug the loopholes in the service delivery and enhance the quality of service offered by them.
Self-Reliable Solutions
In order to serve the customers better and to reduce the influx of calls for simplest of issues, providing the customers with self-reliable solutions will help the service desk big time. Availing solutions through FAQ’s, videos or chatbots will reduce the time and increase the efficiency in the resolution process for both the customers as well as the support staffs.
Resolution Process
It is important to make the resolution process easy and hassle-free for the customers. Providing them with simplified workable solutions which will resolve their issues instantly should be worked upon with sterner efforts and a strong conviction. This requires employing the experts in the field for the task. Providing the customers with a well-backed-up feedback mechanism will help the service desk to enhance the delivery of customized services according to the needs and requirements of the customers and make the process more customer-friendly.
Apologize
Customers being the nucleus around which the entire support mechanism revolves, giving them the topmost priority is hence essential. When issues cannot be resolved in a timely manner or the unavailability of the experts should be explained politely to the customers and the support center should not mind seeking an apology for the same. This will portray the ethical values and the morals followed by the service desk to the customers and help you earn the most valuable good conduct from them as well.
Customer Service
A customer support center works on the principle of customer-centric approach in providing appropriate solutions to the occurring and recurring problems. Customers reach out to the IT service desks only when they have encountered a trouble. Hence it is important to resolve their grievances and provide them with a quick and a workable solution at the earliest. Addressing their issues and receiving their feedbacks and following up on them, rolling out an up gradation process and making the necessary changes in the organizational structure if required, will work the trick in the process of improving customer service.
Resource Management
To ensure the availability of services round the clock, it is vital to managing the available resources efficiently. There cannot be a deficit of employees at the service desk to receive calls or experts who can resolve complex issues. This makes resource management a key factor. A well-organized plan to utilize the available resources well and supplement it with a service desk software that can manage the traffic efficiently and re-direct the calls to the experts without much of a time lag is one of the topmost priority of a service desk.
These tips will enhance the working capacity of the IT service desks in providing its customers with top quality service that is both credible and reliable. Incorporating these measures into the functioning of the service desk will enable the support team to grow further in this most competitive field and emerge successfully among such similar IT service providers.