Top 5 Steps to a Highly Effective IT Help Desk in 2020

It's time to sit back and evaluate the performance of the IT help desk over the past 12 months and create courses for a successful new year. Call it a New Year's resolution, a departmental priority, or just an action plan. Whatever its name, here is a list of the top five items we could focus on in 2020.

1. Understand the key metrics

You can't handle what you don't measure. Lists and measures a set of KPIs to help track the performance of the help desk service. Metrics help define the success of your help desk and hold everyone accountable. Knowledge of key metrics such as first call resolution rate, average resolution time, SLA compliance rate, average end user satisfaction, technician utilization, and cost per call can help you measure the effectiveness of your help desk. Useful Set clear and achievable goals for each indicator so you can plan a course to achieve them. Goals like a fast call resolution rate (FCR) of 80%, an SLA compliance level of 75%, and an average end-user satisfaction of over 90% are examples of specific goals.

2. Listen to the end user and act on the comments.

If you're not investigating feedback from end users, you're not a minority in the world of service management. You can implement a survey after each incident is resolved, or schedule an annual survey to measure overall performance and satisfaction. Effective studies are generally designed to capture input from end users regarding timeliness and resolution of the response, effectiveness of resolution, communication, and attitudes of help desk staff, but directly related to metrics. and the objectives. You can also include a question that is already set. Best practice is to ensure that results are translated into a service improvement plan. This helps help desks not only stay on top of complaints, but also address them.

3. Invest in the training of service desk personnel

Training is like car insurance. You may not need it now, but it will help you when you need it. The training helps service desk personnel confidently answer any questions that come and go. In addition to vocational training, formal training programs help develop the skills, knowledge, and confidence of the technical service team. Develop a training plan and a secure budget and time to train your service desk staff throughout the year.

 4. Encourage the submission of the knowledge base

An effective knowledge base effectively reduces the number of calls, increases technician productivity, and increases end-user satisfaction. You can start with a simple list of frequently asked questions that addresses the issues users frequently ask, and then add new documentation along the way. We recommend allowing administrators an easy way to publish, share and organize knowledge articles, making sure that the knowledge base is on a platform that end users can easily find and submit. Identify users who can collaborate with technicians and other staff to create and review content. Including a specific monthly goal for presenting the knowledge base as a KPI for technician performance is additional motivation.

5. Update help desk technology

If your help desk is still powered by legacy tools, you are missing out on a great opportunity to improve the efficiency of your help desk. New capabilities in leading help desk solutions allow you to automate workflows, provide remote support, and deliver advanced dashboards and analytics. The cloud is fast becoming a popular choice if you want to break the app maintenance chain. Choosing on-premises or in the cloud depends on your operations and IT budget.