Date Published December 20, 2016 - Last Updated April 19, 2019
Tech support professionals juggle a lot of responsibilities every day. They need to provide good customer service and get their end users/customers back to work quickly to meet goals on service metrics—at the same time. They have to implement specialist processes, such as knowledge management, to make their jobs more efficient and find ways to stay motivated to keep support center service at a high level of quality.
SupportWorld aims to address the needs of tech support professionals on the front lines. As the end of 2016 approaches, we reviewed the SupportWorld content that resonated most with the tech support community. The top five SupportWorld articles of 2016 covered themes we know our readers tackle every day:
Rethinking the Service Desk
The service desk has been traditionally viewed as the IT organization that helps employees of a company with computer-related problems. It has generally been accepted as the primary customer interface and touchpoint where people can get help with IT issues, problems, and requests. Randy Steinberg shows that this is a very limited view of what the service desk can be. In fact, the service desk is the only organization within IT positioned to be the strategic service management nerve center across the entire IT enterprise.
Focus on Self-Service: Level 0
As tech support embraces a shift-left strategy, self-service becomes an important part of the discussion. Roy Atkinson reminds us that well-implemented self-service will reduce the volume of simple, repetitive contacts, lowering overall volume and possibly reducing costs. If users can resolve an issue for themselves in less time than it takes to get through a phone queue (or receive a return email) and get a resolution, you will improve service and reduce costs.
6 Steps to Build a Knowledge Management Culture
Realizing that implementing knowledge management is a strategic initiative, and must be planned, designed, and implemented using a lifecycle approach, results in an organization-wide process that literally transforms your culture and the way people work. Instead of having to think about how to search the knowledge base for a solution or an answer, service and support staff will just do that as a matter of carrying out their normal routine. Paul Dooley gets you started.
Gamification: The Key to Support Center Employee Engagement
Gamification is about motivating people to accomplish high-value actions. It is one of many techniques you can use in your overall employee engagement strategy. Nate Brown orients you to the philosophy behind gamification and talks about some of the different ways you can own the magic for your support center.
Measuring Operational Efficiency and Value: Use Metrics to Tell the Business Story
The goal of operations is to run efficiently, provide consistent, high-quality services, and continually improve the customer experience. Reports should show that we are succeeding or identify areas for improvement. Although we have plenty of data to use for trending, improving services, and promoting value, many IT organizations struggle to deliver the right mix of metrics and give the right reports to the right audience. Rae Ann Bruno suggests that you learn what the business or IT partner wants to know, and then look at your current reports and metrics to see if they answer the question.
Amy Eisenberg is the editor for HDI, where she works with industry experts and practitioners to create content for technical support professionals. She has worked in B2B media and scholarly publishing for more than 20 years, developing content for print and digital magazines, print and email newsletters, websites, conferences, and technical seminars.