Never forget the human beings on the end of the endpoints

As Helpdesk Habits approaches 1,000 members / certifications, the effects of the programme are being felt around the world. I couldn’t be more proud of the way helpdesks and service desks are embracing the methods and ethos.

I wanted to reflect on an email sent to me last week from the MD of Network Bridge, here in the UK. Jay and his team went through the Helpdesk Habits programme a year ago.

“This is great work you are doing with Helpdesk Habits … it brings so much value. I really appreciate that we can participate in sharing your ideas.”

– Jay Bodys, MD Network Bridge

He wanted to share a specific change they’ve recently made, which he believes embodies their new ‘human customer service’ ethos.

Pretty much every helpdesk / service desk on the planet has some kind of automated response to ticket creation. I discuss this in the programme. The majority I’ve ever seen (and by shows of hands in real life keynotes – remember those?) use the default message shipped with the software.

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## - Please type your reply above this line - ##

Thank you for contacting Support. Your request (#2128552) has been received and is being reviewed by our support staff.

Yours sincerely, ABC Support.

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Urrrrrgh.

They are robotic sounding. They are impersonal and they give the impression your ticket has been fired into a black hole. This may absolutely not be the case – however any default message certainly doesn’t elicit trust.

Jay and his team didn’t have a default message. They’d made a really good attempt to help customers in the first instance and had worked hard at their message. The original version, in place a few weeks ago looked like this:

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Dear [contactfirstname]:

Your issue: [srsummary], has been created in our system as Ticket #[srnumber]/.

We understand it is important and will get to work on it. If we have more information about the problem, we can resolve your issue quicker! Please reply to this email with the following information:

1. Error message & user. Detailed error message with the issue and the name of the user.

2. More details. Details of what the user was doing at the time

3. Screen shots. Screen shots of your screen and/or error message.

4. Screen name. Name of the screen and tab where the issue occurred (e.g. Company screen/Activity tab)

Thank you in advance for your assistance and cooperation. Our goal is to provide you with world-class support. We would appreciate any feedback on how we are doing.

NBS Support Team

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It’s actually pretty good – it aims to get to the root of the issue early and it shows Network Bridge is a company which cares.

Jay wrote to me last week. He wanted to show me how Helpdesk Habits has changed their thinking. If you log a ticket with his team, this is the new response you’ll receive:

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Hey [contactfirstname]

Thanks for writing in! We have received your Support request ([srnumber]) for your records) and we are working hard to help you as quickly as possible. This note may be automated, but our Support team's responses never are!

Our goal is to personally check in with you about your request within 1-2 business days and most often much quicker than that. We promise we'll get to your ticket as soon as we can and we appreciate your patience in the meantime!

Please share with us any useful information that could help us to resolve your request quicker, for example:

· Error message (the more detail, the better)

· Any relevant context (details of what was being done at the time)

· Screenshots (picture tells a story)

· Applications and hardware details (names, etc)

Best wishes,

Jay & Team

P.S. While we get to your ticket, check out our Helpdesk to see if the answer to your question is there.

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The tone, warmth, human-ness and empathy dials have all been turned up to 100%. Whilst of course it’s automated, it now sounds like it’s written by a human for another human. Importantly, it’s also signed off by a real human too. Jay has also set timing expectations too – a really important part of the equation.

It may just be a tweak to a single auto responder message – however it’s much more than that. It's sent out dozens of times a day and importantly, now sets the tone for the whole organisation.

Helpdesk Habits. Tiny changes. Massive impact.