IT Support – It’s a dirty job but somebody’s got to do it…Part Two.

So, last time we looked at some of the many reasons Support as a job role has a lowly reputation in the IT world. This time, we look at why it deserves a fresh take and how a change in perception might be achieved within your company.

Why is Support important?

• The Service Desk is the first point of contact for your customer – first impressions count
• Every incident is an opportunity for the Service Desk to demonstrate your company’s ethos and a customer-driven approach
• Customer Feedback Surveys provide feedback on every incident – the ideal way to listen to and get to know your customer
• Builds customer connections – daily contact with key users at all your customers keeps the communication lines open
• Develops customer engagement:
  • regular service meetings provide an opportunity to share your company’s philosophy and discuss new ideas
  • any incident or problem that’s resolved helps to strengthen the trust between you and your customer
  • recurring incidents identify underlying problems which leads to a greater understanding of your customer’s processes
  • new projects initiated to resolve incidents or problems lead to improvements to your customer’s system and to the lives of the users
• Identifies trends in project delivery, post-deployment:
  • if there is a surge of incidents reported after go-live, what was the cause?
  • what types of incidents have been raised?
  • what could be done differently next time?
• It’s process-driven. Following aspects of the ITIL framework provides structure for your internal procedures and adds credibility to your Service Desk and organisation
• Annual renewals of Support Contracts encourage a long-term view of the customer relationship leading to a more strategic partnership

How to change attitudes to Support within your company?

• Change comes from the top. So, having a CEO who promotes the role, performance and benefits of the Service Desk sends a powerful message through your organisation
• Customer Feedback Surveys – the ideal way to illustrate the great job being performed by the Service Desk
• Annual renewals of Support contracts mean that, as your connection to the customer strengthens, the Support team becomes a more influential contributor within your company
• Include the provision of a Support Contract within Statements of Work/Project Bids to demonstrate to colleagues and customers that your company sees Support as an integrated part of any project
• Use your Service Desk!
  • Encourage interaction with other internal teams so that contacts identified via the Service Desk can be developed into new connections with your customer
  • The Service Desk experience first-hand the outcome of project deliveries – this feedback can prove enlightening to your Project teams for future implementations
  • The Service Desk’s Knowledge Base can prove a valuable source of troubleshooting information for consultants facing issues on-site at other customers with similar environments
  • The Service Desk’s reputation for customer care can be used to emphasise the importance of customer satisfaction across your business
  • The ITIL procedures in use by the Service Desk can act as a role model to other teams

Conclusion

We began with looking at the perception of the Support function within IT. We then highlighted its importance and potential. We’ve seen that, as part of an integrated service within your company, IT Support can build customer relationships, foster a long-term engagement, enable customer insight, provide staff with a structured working approach and increase communication across departments with your customer! So, maybe Support can be seen not as an obligation but rather an opportunity. The next step is to boost the image of Documentation but I’ll leave that for someone else to blog!

Here at Aiimi, by applying the steps above, we’ve developed a support-friendly culture. If this approach to IT support is of interest to you, do please get in touch via our website.