How to Increase IT Help Desk Customer Satisfaction and IT Help Desk Performance
The problems IT Help Desk customers often encounter
If your company or organization has an in-house or outsourced IT Help Desk, chances are that some of your Help Desk customers are dissatisfied with the service they are receiving. Some of the many possible causes of dissatisfaction with IT Help Desks include:
1. Long wait times when calling the Help Desk or after submitting a service request by e-mail or using a Help Desk Web portal or ticket system
2. CSRs that do not understand their customers’ problems
3. Rude CSRs
4. Closing IT incident tickets before the problem is resolved
5. Lack of follow-up by IT Help Desk CSRs
6. IT customers (IT users) having to deal with recurring problems for which the cause never gets addressed and/or eliminated
7. IT Help Desk CSRs that are not adequately trained and that lack knowledge required to solve problems
8. IT customers having to explain their question or problem to multiple CSRs and IT technicians
9. IT customers having to wait a long time for Help Desk problem resolution, hardware repairs, software installation, and other IT support provided at their desk or by phone/e-mail
10. IT Help Desks not being staffed when customers need support (nights, weekends)
11. IT Help Desks having CSRs with difficulty communicating with IT customers in English (e.g. IT Help Desks often outsourced in other countries)
Assessing IT Customer Satisfaction and IT Performance
The best way to assess IT Help Desk customer satisfaction and IT Help Desk performance is to conduct anIT customer satisfaction survey. An IT customer survey gathers IT customer / IT user perceptions, experiences and suggestions about IT Help Desk performance, along with the performance of other IT services. The collective information and insight provided by IT customers provides IT Help Desk and other IT managers with the ammunition they need to make changes to increase service levels and customer satisfaction.
In a well designed IT survey, IT customers indicate their satisfaction level with the in-house or outsourced IT Help Desk and with the other IT support services including Desk Side Support, Application Support, Network Support and any other IT services. IT customers also include comments and suggestions related to the specific issues included in the survey questions.
The IT survey should include questions about IT CSR knowledge, problem handling and resolution effectiveness, CSR courtesy and professionalism, timeliness in actually contacting the Help Desk, timeliness in getting problems resolved, ability of Help Desk CSRs to understand the customer’s problem, follow-up by CSRs and other pertinent questions.
To achieve the best results, IT survey responses should be anonymous. IT customers are more likely to respond to IT surveys and to provide honest feedback when they know their responses are anonymous, eliminating any chance of retribution from IT staff if negative ratings and comments are given.
Most organizations that conduct IT Help Desk surveys conduct the surveys annually or semi-annually, using the same questions in every survey. Some organizations do a great job of taking action based on the survey results, while other organizations take minimal action. When we conduct IT Help Desk surveys for our customer companies and other types of organizations, we provide them with trend reports that track progress in addressing problem areas and opportunities needing improvement. Help Desk managers receive survey data that identifies areas of strength and weakness, where improvements have been made since previous surveys, and where Help Desk customer satisfaction levels have decreased.
Most IT Help Desk customers respond to surveys with the expectation that their feedback will be taken into consideration and acted upon. When IT Help Desk managers take action on survey results and Help Desk performance and service levels are visibly improved, IT customers are more likely to respond to future surveys.
Following are some important issues to consider when designing and conducting IT Help Desk surveys:
1. Asking the right questions and knowing how to effectively word the questions.
2. Making the survey responses anonymous. IT Help Desk customers are more likely to respond to an IT survey and to provide honest answers when an outside company conducts the survey and they are comfortable that their responses will be anonymous. Trovare lavoro
