Service Desk Rightsizing & Optimisation

CIOs and IT Service Directors are facing a common challenge in 2023. This is modernising the IT Service Desk and Support function in order to deliver the required business benefits.

The key drivers around this for most are as follows –

-?????????Cost reduction

-?????????Speed of response

-?????????Customer satisfaction

Cost reduction, speed of response, and customer satisfaction are not terms that naturally go together, so companies must be careful around how they align the three. This article discusses some key points for consideration when approaching this.

Strategy & Goals

This is a key area where Service Desks often fall short. Many IT Leaders start the year with a view of providing `Grade A` service to all users and customers, but without considering how this will be done. Grade A service to a user or customer can be translated as meaning excellent levels of service through the channel of their choice, i.e., phone, chat, self-service, etc, so you must be careful in defining what this means. Setting expectations is important, otherwise you run the risk of over-promising, with the danger of customer expectations not being met and costs further increasing as a result.

Critical Success Factors & Measuring Customer Satisfaction

Linking closely to Strategy & Goals is Critical Success Factors and Customer Satisfaction. Measuring Customer Satisfaction is often based on three areas -

-?????????Means/Modes of receiving Service Desk Support

-?????????Response & Communication

-?????????Time to Resolution

When measuring customer satisfaction, you need to bear some key variables in mind. If you are committed to using alternatives to person-to-person support, e.g., Chat, you may receive low satisfaction scores for the means of contacting the desk, but receive positive, upward scores for Response & Communication and Time to Resolution. In this scenario, you need to consider if the sacrifice of customer satisfaction is an acceptable price to pay for the cost savings being made and increase in productivity of Service Desk personnel. We also discuss this under Technologies later in the article.

Rightsizing the Service Desk

It is important to review your Service Desk model on an on-going basis. Again, if you are favouring alternatives to person-to-person support, you need to consider and factor in the number of people you need and the required skills at any given time. This may fluctuate based on business peaks and troughs but needs to be factored into your planning as you don’t want to over or under-staff the desk. If you outsource your Service Desk or parts of your support function, this is a key feed into your supplier agreements and calculated expenditure. Creating a Service Desk Cost Model is a good step to take, including forecasted costs and Return on Investment. Furthermore, implementing an on-going Incident reduction programme alongside this will help you increase the accuracy of your forecasting.

Technologies

When putting technological innovations into play, you need to consider the cultural impact to your company. Although non-person-to-person support channels, such as agent-based chat, AI chat bots, and self-service are the current trend, if your users prefer person-to-person support, then you need to think about how, and when you start introducing these innovations. Yes, modern innovations in technology provide a compelling and cost-effective alternative to person-to-person support, but will they achieve the customer satisfaction levels you are looking for? For example, if you implement self-service capabilities and your users do not utilise it, then it is potentially expenditure for little/no benefit.

As mentioned earlier, are you prepared to sacrifice customer satisfaction in certain areas if it means cost savings and optimisation of Service Desk personnel? This needs to be addressed at the start. When introducing a new innovation, it is advisable to scale this up, rather than go for a big-bang approach, so that your users and customers can acclimatise to it, and so you can measure the success and return on investment it is providing.

Hopefully this has provided some basic, but valuable insights into some of the key things to consider when shaping your Service Desk Model for 2023 onwards, and addressing the balance of People & Technologies on an on-going basis.

If you would like to discuss any of the areas mentioned in this article, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.????