The service desk is the front gateway to an organization’s business where both the customers and internal staff members approach to get their queries solved. It is of prime importance that a service desk officer needs to be acquainted with soft skills in combination with technical IT skills. The primary role of service desk staff involves:
- Performing day-to-day activities such as configuring operating systems on computer systems;
- Setting up the network system;
- Working on incoming queries and assigning jobs to concerned staff members.
The job of a service desk in an IT firm isn’t limited to the above roles. There is still a lot to learn. While carrying out the above tasks in day to day activities is of mere importance, here we have compiled a set of some of the most effective service desk tips for IT operations staff:
Automating the queries through ticketing
Queries can come in at any time of the day with the specified deadline. And it’s not necessary that a concerned help desk staff member is always on the seat to get those queries solved the moment they are assigned.
An ideal helpdesk should have an effective internal ticketing system for staff members to keep track of queries that are assigned on a regular basis. Now, an ideal ticketing system would entail an email integration, a responsive web portal, or any other means of electronic communication. The phone calling method, however, needs to be kept in the least priority as it is the last resort to a service desk employee when everything else fails.
Ticketing systems now are more inclined towards cloud servers thanks to the recent innovation deemed as conversational AI. It involves lesser troubleshooting processes and automates the entire ticketing medium. This it is of great importance that a service desk staff receives sufficient amount of IT Ops training for getting accustomed with ticket automation.
Here’s one tip: Assigning different levels of priorities such as high, medium, and low and the response time in which a help desk technician would respond to the user (customer or staff) need to be configured properly.
Focus and implement new shape-shifting trends
It’s not about focusing on what’s going around in today’s world. It’s about knowing the trends that are going to be implemented in the years ahead in order to get ready for future help desk challenges. An ideal service desk employee should have a forward-thinking approach in mind.
Apart from being knowledgeable about future help desk trends, a trained help desk employee would be able to plan the implementation of these developments and aid your IT firm to decide what changes should be implemented to sustain in the future.
As discussed already, cloud storage is the new hot topic of the town. Getting your help desk staff enrolled in online IT technical training courses would arm them with the right set of tools to keep up with the future trends such as the wearable technology which is changing the future from a different perspective.
User-friendly documentation processing
A well-documented help desk infrastructure is the key to success to any IT enterprise. Without a clear set of processes defined within the help desk department, the first-class service to users is not deliverable. Your SOP (Standard Operating Procedures) and other manuals should be so scalable that whenever a new innovation hits the market, your help desk department is 100% ready to get into it.
Robust internal communication is necessary
A help desk staff should be aware of possible future changes to company systems and the overall working environment. Setting up a standard automated email template would be a big help in keeping everything aligned. We recommend using a portal or a distributed webpage to announce the updates so that all concerned help desk technicians are in the loop. The idea here is to pre-define an internal communication method for avoiding miscommunication consequences.
Use an as-per-need technology
The future of ITSM is already here at our disposal and about to be implemented far-wide soon. Your help desk technicians should be able to use ITSM tools that have developed over the past recent years. Getting them enrolled in different courses that come under IT OPS training is an ideal approach for a quick start. With the help of these courses, your help desk technicians would be able to make the most out of every technology being used in your IT firm, automated bots to online portals and even your core help desk software.
Develop an on-hands learning portal
An on-hands learning portal is quite effective at making your help desk technicians keep up with the trend. An effective learning portal should entail a wide communication method that delivers course outline materials and other necessary documents. Including a series of technical tests and concerned reading materials is an approach that you need to follow.
It’s not just about educating your service desk technicians about maintenance or outages or any other everyday activity. Things do not end here. You need to be assured that what your help desk department would do in case of a ransom-ware attack or a network theft. Make sure that your employees are subscribed to a weekly newsletter which should cover all updates about information security threats and their best possible remedies. Many IT professionals are dedicated to self-studying on a wide range of concerned topics. You as an IT firm should take that learning approach to the next level by developing an internal on-hands learning.
When you are in a service industry, providing great customer service becomes a hardcore responsibility of all field staff. That’s the reason why you need to keep your service desk department running on the right track and the tips listed above should prove to be a big help in the said dimension. However, an online IT OPS training session would be an all-in-one approach combining the best of business practices for help desk technicians working in different IT enterprises around the globe.