Remote operations
Marc Prempain
15 April 2024
Share this article
Share this article
A service desk is a service management system created for an effective and smooth internal workflow and customer support. Different from a help desk, a service desk looks more broadly at the needs of the organization and offers a wider, much more precise expertise to both the business and its customers. What approach should a company take for their service desk operations to become the most efficient and resolute? We’ll break it down for you.
Essentially, a service desk acts as a unique point of contact between the service provider and the service user. The operations undergoing on the company’s service level vary from managing incidents, handling communication inquiries, and taking care of service requests. A good service desk hence actively seeks to improve service processes across the organization, merging the customer perspective and the business performance. Ultimately, the most important goal of the service desk team is to efficiently provide customers with high-quality service request handling and the highest value of expertise.
The main activities performed by the service desk staff include:
A good service desk thus strives to efficiently complete all of these daily tasks in a way that customers never feel like they have to put any effort in throughout the whole issue resolution process. Your service desk agents need to be efficient, proactive, as well as show commitment and initiative towards improving the performance of their team and the company as a whole. In order to accomplish this, companies can implement a remote field service solution.
It is essential that your service desk staff relies on knowledge management so that the information they provide is always right and current. The way in which such knowledge is stored, together with all essential documentation of your business processes and records of previous customer experiences, will determine how efficient and confident the performance of your service desk staff is.
Hence, administrations have to remain organized and easy to navigate. For that, your service desk needs to use the right ticketing solution tailored to the particular business model and the needs and goals of the company. Furthermore, for operations to run smoothly through the service desk, external experts, and service agents, clear, cross-departmental communication is key.
Above all things mentioned, an excellent service desk is also one that actively seeks continuous improvement in order to always provide the business and its customers with superior expertise and support. Here are things you can do to ensure your company’s service desk will become better and better with every working day.
Staying up to date with how your customer base feels about your services and the current service desk is the best way to navigate around which areas of your service desk work well and which need revaluation. Keep track of your customers’ past experiences, as well as each step they took in their issue resolution journey – all to ensure you can then map out and analyze the levels of customer satisfaction every step of the way. What’s more, tracking your customers’ experiences allows you to be up-to-date with how your business is viewed and how highly your customers are willing to rank your customer service value.
Want to save time and boost workforce performance without sacrificing your service desk’s support quality? Then you should consider increasing your reliance on self-service. Making sure your knowledge about those smaller, less time-consuming tasks is outsourced to the customers saves valuable resolution time and extra effort that both of you would otherwise have to spend on solving the problem together.
Self-service allows the customers to resolve the issue from the comfort of their own home or preferred location, either on their own with clearly stated instructions or with the help of remote support solutions. All the while, customer self-service helps companies reach the highest value because the customer feels more independent and empowered, keeping in mind that the company has put trust in them and believes they will do a good job resolving an issue on their own.
An organized and thoroughly updated knowledge base is essential not only for achieving efficiency in company operations and ensuring the employees reach their fullest potential, but also for implementing self-service within service desks. Put special focus on creating a designated place with answers to frequently asked questions and clear instructions for the issues that occur most often, so that all the essential information is available anytime to whoever needs it, be it service desk agents or a customer – this is how you improve customer and employee experience at the same time. Work across all departments and ensure communication is clear along the way. Consider introducing a subject matter expert for more specialized or complex issues that require acute expertise.
As the famous saying goes, less is more – especially when it comes to service desk reporting. While it’s important to keep track of operational data, file all the essential documents, and reach for the highest KPIs, don’t spend all your time on creating reports and over-analyzing them. Ensure you regularly report on reoccurring issues, have a clear storing system for go-to files and data, and keep your documentation straight and to the point – this will also facilitate much smoother self-service operations. Focus on the quality of the performance results, rather than on the number of reports produced.
A ticketing system tailored perfectly to your business model, its needs and prospects, as well as your unique customer base is the best way for your company to manage all your customer support communication tools and service portals. Unique ticketing systems like ViiBE integrate features such as tagging, archiving, deep learning, or managing knowledge base systems, and help you navigate your service desk no matter the size of your business. Apart from controlling all business and customer operations, ticketing platforms also organize incoming requests into individual tickets. This allows support agents to efficiently solve them, one at a time – a resolution for an utmost organized workflow.
Since your organization’s service desk is a base for a smooth and successful operations execution on both fronts, – meaning your business and customers – a strong and thorough service desk strategy is essential. By using the right ticketing tool, focusing on boosting your knowledge management, providing a well-structured self-service feature, analyzing past customer experiences, and making sure the documentation of all business processes is clear and simple, you will create an environment where your service desk can provide support of the highest value and exceed customers’ expectations while continuing to flourish.
Join our newsletter to keep up to date with the latest news in the visual support industry.