Why Service Desk Options are Valuable

It’s no surprise the rapid advancement of technology has transformed service expectations and the way users want to interact with their service desk. Today, the user demands more, and you need to provide answers to their IT questions – fast. Why? Service desk support is not one-size-fits-all, and different users prefer different methods of support. Fortunately, with today’s technology, a number of customer contact options are available to help address the needs of your employees. Here are a few that are in demand today:

• Self-service: Did you know that the most common service call is for a simple password reset? By providing secure self-service tools, password resets and unlocks can be expedited on-demand by the user, while enabling your IT team time to focus on more strategic initiatives. 

  Another option for instantaneous self-service is for users to have access to a thorough and regularly updated knowledge base that also includes answers specific to your environment. Knowledge articles should provide quick resolution to users who prefer to resolve their IT issues themselves. 

• Chat: Chat provides one of the most efficient use of users’ time — they can get fast answers while multi-tasking. Using chat provides users with quick responses, often at less than a 60-second wait, without pulling all their attention away from being productive.

• Digital: A convenient and easy-to-use method to communicate IT questions is to provide an integrated button to send email inquiries to your service desk. Alternately, web-based ticket submissions provide another convenient and integrated option that users can leverage. Both methods are familiar to users, easy-to-use and provide quick resolution. 

• Telephone: Contacting a service desk directly by telephone is a traditional option, though it is often the most expensive. However, it remains one of the best options for those with urgent needs and provides resolution, even to workers who may not be able to access the internet. 

Why offer multiple options? The benefits of offering multiple contact options, such as those listed above include:

1. Empower users with choices: Workforces are comprised of a broad mix of age groups, various workstyles, and multiple work environments. Providing numerous contact methods empowers your end users to choose the communication option that best suits their needs at any given time. For example, chatting about a service desk request is a practical choice while in a meeting, rather than announcing a problem over the phone, when the whole room can overhear it.

2. Cuts costs: Different contact options vary in the amount of effort required to support them and therefore vary in price. Choose a service desk provider that proactively helps you shift users to lower-cost and faster contact methods with ongoing analytics and user education.   

3. Save time: “Time is money!” We’ve all heard that phrase before. Providing multiple contact methods empowers users to choose the most expedient method to suit their need at the time. Select a service desk provider that offers ongoing analytics and user education to help shift your users to faster (and lower-cost) contact methods. This will save your users time and help your business reduce costs over the long term, so your organization has money for more strategic initiatives.

Today the user is in control and anytime, anywhere workforce enablement is the norm. It’s all about the user experience. Providing multiple contact options empowers users to solve their IT issues or reach out for help in the most effective and expedient method possible, while efficiently saving your company money and returning users to productivity.

Is there a contact option that you prefer? Comment below – we’d love to hear your thoughts.