The entire Information technology business has turned to service desks, otherwise known as help desks, to be their customer facing front line.  As a frequent user of and sometimes manager of computer help desks, I thought that I would share some suggestions for their operations. 

It can be helpful to remember who exactly it is that answers the average call to an Enterprise Service Desk.  A generic profile would be: young (18-24), male, completed technical training and basic certifications within the past year, no more than five years even using computers, and no management, field, or engineering experience whatsoever.  The help desk is usually the first step into the workplace for most IT Professionals.  It is also grueling, thankless work with long hours dealing with most irate users who only call when they absolutely need to just to be told that their problems cannot be fixed on the phone or before they need them to be.  On top of that, they get monitored for performance by so many impersonal, metrics based, automated systems that they are frequently incentivized much more for efficiency than for effectiveness.  Measures such as “first call resolution” and “number of resolutions per hour” are just euphemisms for flipping customers to get their numbers up.

So here are some suggestions for our newest members of the Information Professional community sitting their help desk shifts:

  1. Please treat the caller like they know more, not less, about their problem than you do.  Seriously.  They have probably been trying to fix it for hours before they called you.  They may have even have experienced it before. 
  2. Seek first to understand, and only then to be understood. You would surprise what you might learn.
  3. Consider the more than 50/50 possibility that the caller actually knows more about computers, networks, manners, and even the weather than you do.  Do not be condescending.   If it makes it easier for you, try the following question next time: “What do you think that the problem might be?”  At best, they will give you the answer saving you troubleshooting time.  At worst, it only took 2 seconds and showed a little consideration for their time.
  4. Evoke the golden rule – treat the callers like you would like to be treated yourself.  Be polite.
  5. Remember that the customer is always right.  Seriously.  When you cannot give them what they want – give them what they need by providing a point of contact, tracking number, or promise that you have taken down their issue for management.

Now to be fair, here are some suggestions for all you users out there who call in:

  1. Permit the help desk technician to be just that.  They are “tier 1” support only and probably are not permitted to vary from a script with “if..then” statements to follow along.  It will be quicker for everyone if you just let them say their lines.
  2. If you know what the problem is, but cannot fix it yourself because of permissions, say so.  Often times, their scripts have in and off ramps for self diagnosed problems that are common.
  3. Remember that you are speaking to a technician and not IT Management.  The person on the end of the phone did not, could not, and will not ever write the business rules, security requirements, or system permissions that they are telling you about.  Complaining to them about the rules in your IT Department is like complaining to the clerk at a 7-Eleven about the brands of milk that they stock or the price of the Slurpees.
  4. If you want something done that requires money such as a new computer, monitor, Blackberry, or printer, please talk to your supervisor first before you call.  I guarantee that their permission, at a minimum is going to be required.  Most likely in your organization, new IT purchases probably are not even handled by the help desk so this will save everyone time.
  5. Don’t dial the help desk (or anyone else) when you are angry.  No one likes having their work interrupted.  Yes, Murphy’s Law is in effect and your system always has problems at the worst possible time.  It is true.  You are much more likely to get what you need, quickly, out of the person at the help desk by being the only polite and patient caller today than by being the fiftieth that yelled at them.

Help Desks are not user pleasing.  We all use them because they are efficient, somewhat effective, and ensure that our most trained assets are only deployed for our toughest problems.  As professionals, we all need to work with our users to accomplish the mission of our companies.  In this regard, we can all get along. 

Do you have suggestions for your Enterprise IT Service Desk?  What about any good service stories to share?  Does the help desk model actually work?  Tell us what you think, please.

That is my Information Technology Thought of the Day (ITTOD) for May 23, 2009 ©Scott Coughlin Murphy’s

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