What Role does Support Desk Play in Your Organization?

Users frequently run into routine, easy-to-fix problems that can relieve some pressure on the IT help desk staff.

Fremont, CA: For many federal, state, and local government entities, the help desk is the center of their IT operations. In reality, the help desk has a direct influence on productivity. In addition, it is a crucial component of how an agency can satisfy its stakeholders' expectations due to its operation's cross-functional nature.

However, managers find it challenging to guarantee that their help desks are running as efficiently as possible due to the complexity of IT infrastructures. IT managers may use this checklist to ensure their help desks provide outstanding customer support while optimizing efficiency.

Create the right structure

An IT support desk's efficiency may be significantly increased by properly arranging it. Divide help desks into several tiers or levels. Tier 0 of a three-tier help desk, for instance, might be a self-service portal, with technicians in tiers 1, 2, and 3 having varying degrees of expertise.

Tickets' issues can get directed to the appropriate tier based on their complexity. A route for escalations and inter-level communication should be established by IT management as well.

Queue and assign requests

The majority of help desks prioritize tickets, with higher priority jobs using most of the technicians' productive time. Other requests might not get handled until a technician answers, increasing turnaround times and violating service-level agreements.

First-come, first-served ticket queues and automatic assignment models like load balancing and round robin should be helpful in managing demands. Ticket allocations may also be subject to priority-based business regulations.

Conduct end-user surveys

IT managers should examine crucial success aspects, including processes, personnel, and technology, to measure the help desk's effectiveness more accurately. For example, evaluation criteria for technicians should include their responsiveness and quickness in resolving tickets, as well as the simplicity with which a ticket can get submitted, a technician can get reached, and assistance can get obtained.

Send consumers a survey once their tickets are resolved to collect feedback on specific ones. Then, conduct annual or semi-annual surveys to get input on a larger scale.

Empower end users with self-service

Users frequently run into routine, easy-to-fix problems that can relieve some pressure on the IT help desk staff.

Create a self-service portal that offers information, solutions, and a service catalog so that end users can quickly browse and select the services they require to assist them in solving their problems. Additionally, a self-service portal could be helpful in creating organization-wide declarations to keep users.

Increase communication and collaboration.

In some instances, technicians and the requester have significant back-and-forth communication. Technicians may spend a lot of time composing emails and navigating between apps.

A help desk technology that sends and receives emails from within the request will reduce this overhead. In addition, emails can get physically typed less frequently if routine answers and solutions are provided in the canned text.