Using Human-Centric Experience Data for Better Decision-making

Employee productivity is now a top priority for organisations of all sizes and across industries. From an IT service delivery and support perspective, IT leaders must understand how their IT services either help or hinder employee productivity. Sadly, traditional IT service management (ITSM) metrics are unlikely to deliver this insight (with them instead focusing on the “mechanics” of IT operations, which is usually related to volumes and speed).

Instead, to better understand how IT services (including IT support) positively or negatively affect employee productivity, your organisation needs human-centric experience data. First to understand how end-users experience your IT operations and services. Second, to identify and prioritise the opportunities for targeted improvements based on “what matters most” to employees.

XLAs are in vogue, but they’re just the start

It’s hard to find an ITSM presentation these days that doesn’t mention experience level agreements (XLAs) in some capacity. It’s almost as though they’re used as a “get out of jail free” card when a hard question (usually about IT’s business value) is asked.

Don’t get me wrong, XLAs are important. However, their real value doesn’t come from the experience data they might produce. Instead, it comes from the decisions and actions that follow.

This is true when people like me state that “human-centric experience data is key to aligning IT services with evolving business needs and driving XLA success.” XLAs – whether you think of XLAs as service level agreement (SLA)-like documents or merely experience-focused metrics – might provide the platform for accessing experience data, but it’s what is done with the data that will make the real difference to your IT operations and employee productivity as a result.

Capturing experience data should be less about proving the “watermelon effect” and more about better decision-making that removes it.

Experience data as a change agent

As mentioned earlier, traditional IT metrics, including feedback mechanisms such as customer satisfaction questionnaires (CSQs), often fail to capture the true challenges and pain points endured by end-users. Unfortunately, the “sea of green” usually seen with SLA-based dashboards or scorecards we employ can make IT leadership think that all is well with their IT service delivery and support capabilities. But often it’s not.

I like the statement that “experience data is not just about tracking metrics – it’s about understanding people”. Focusing on end-user experiences can enhance your IT organisation’s service quality, employee productivity, and customer satisfaction, but only when it drives change. Or, more importantly, when it drives the right change.

Why experience data helps

Human-centric IT experience management prioritises understanding employee sentiment and what drives end-user efficiency. It shifts IT’s focus from traditional IT metrics to employee or end-user experience, offering a different performance perspective.

This enables more informed decision-making that prioritises “what matters most” to employees, with this likely aligned with business outcomes (rather than what your IT organisation might think is important). The volume of experience data also counteracts the common pitfall of focusing on the issues of “the person who shouts loudest”. Experience data democratises employee feedback and provides sufficient insight into what’s really affecting end-users and where they need improvement most.

Examples of experience data in action

If your IT organisation is similar to our customer average (and these customers are already investing in experience improvements), your IT self-service portal is likely failing to deliver on its promise of “better, faster, cheaper.” Even if more end-users are using it.??

Our 2023 experience data (the 2024 data will be online soon, and I’ll share some insights at the SDI Spark25 event) shows that the IT portal, while now the most used IT support channel, has the lowest end-user Happiness Score and is perceived to lose employees more time (or productivity) than any other channel. This is even more time than the email IT support channel!?

Experience data will not only confirm whether the same issues are true for your organisation but also highlight the key end-user pain points and the best opportunities to improve.

Another example is identifying service desk agent improvement opportunities. As the graphic below shows, while the speed of service is universally impactful on end-user feedback, so are service desk agent skills and attitude.

Your organisation could leverage experience data to identify service-based improvements related to individuals or specific IT services and provide targeted training to improve the delivered experience.?

Come ask me questions at Spark25?

Not only is HappySignals a Spark25 sponsor with a stand where you can ask my colleagues or me about the power of experience data, justifying experience management to senior business leaders, and how best to get started (plus, you’ll be able to see the HappySignals Platform in action). I’m also presenting at 12:05 in the HappySignals-sponsored XLA and CX Stream on March 27, with my session titled “Making IT Decisions that Matter Using Human-Centric Experience Data”. Please attend for a great opportunity to better understand how other organisations benefit from experience data and key practical insights, such as avoiding the common pitfalls of the current IT improvement decision-making status quo.?

Hope to see you there - https://www.sdiconference.co.uk/??

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