Date Published April 17, 2017 - Last Updated December 6, 2017
Are there teams we know are obsessed with service? Yes! Just look at this list of past winners of the HDI Team Excellence Award! (You don’t win that by not being 100% focused on supporting your customers.)
But how do you get your team obsessed with service? How do you get there? What are some hiring and training practices you should be following? Is hiring the most important part of the process? What are obstacles to overcome?
Last week, we were joined by Jeff Toister (@toister), who will be presenting on this topic at HDI Conference & Expo in just a few weeks. According to Jeff, two of the biggest challenges are (1) no clear definition of success, and (2) no empowerment. He also shared a Benchmark Portal report showing how new-hire engagement takes a big dip after initial training. Disengaged employees, Jeff said, either were hired wrong, or we “crushed their spirit after hiring.”
Here are some more highlights of the discussion:
- Nate Brown reminded us that not everyone wants to be obsessed with service; sometimes they just want to get through the workday and go home.
- Part of what it means to be obsessed with service is focusing on the people, not the technology. As Sanjeev NC said, “Tech is the easier part of tech support.”
- Daniel Perriton asked this: What if we talked about people instead of tickets? ‘How's Bob in accounting doing?’ rather than ‘What's up with ticket #10027?’"
Read all the insightful comments in the recap. Join us again this Friday, for our next #HDIchat!
Roy Atkinson is HDI's senior writer/analyst, acting as in-house subject matter expert and chief writer for SupportWorld articles and white papers. In addition to being a member of the HDI International Certification Standards Committee and the HDI Desktop Support Advisory Board, Roy is a popular speaker at HDI conferences and is well known to HDI local chapter audiences. His background is in both service desk and desktop support as well as small-business consulting. Roy is highly rated on social media, especially on the topics of IT service management and customer service. He is a cohost of the very popular #custserv (customer service) chat on Twitter, which celebrated its fifth anniversary on December 9, 2014. He holds a master’s certificate in advanced management strategy from Tulane University’s Freeman School of Business, and he is a certified HDI Support Center Manager. Follow him on Twitter @HDI_Analyst and @RoyAtkinson.