Efficiently resolving technology problems is critical to business performance. Research from Robert Half shows that daily IT issues cause two weeks of lost productivity per person, per year. When you multiply that number by how many people work at the average midsized company, it can quickly become a serious amount of wasted productivity.
Many companies seek to maximize the uptime and availability of their technology through better network management, strong cybersecurity protections, or back-up and disaster recovery (BDR) solutions. Many of these companies fail to grasp just how important the IT service desk is in this equation.
What is an IT Service Desk?
What does an “IT service desk” do for your company? While it may sound like a location, the service desk isn’t a physical place; it’s a collection of people, processes, and tools that’s been built to help your team achieve stronger, more reliable network technology. Here’s what one can do for your business:
While some larger businesses will build an internal service desk team, many will choose to enlist an outsourced partner. Outsourcing this capability to a managed IT service provider (MSP) gives your team a sense of confidence when dealing with their technology, allows your IT department to better focus on strategic or revenue-generating tasks, and promotes a sense of focus and well-being across your whole organization.
There has been a rapid proliferation of MSPs in recent years, with many small and inexperienced outfits making bold marketing claims, often copied verbatim off the materials and websites of more established providers. The result is a lot of confusion about what really comprises a quality service desk solution.
A service desk is only as good as its technicians. Good help desk technicians should not only have certifications from a leading body (or bodies), such as CompTIAA, Microsoft, Cisco, or others, they should have the experience and business awareness to prioritize and address each support ticket in the right way.
Here are some other traits that make a great service desk technician:
If you decide to work with an outsourced partner, then it’s critical that you find one that’s developed a strong culture that’s compatible with your own company culture. What does that mean?
Empathy is a good start. The service desk team should foster a culture of customer care that complements their work. After all, when your staff-member submits a support ticket, they’re not just requesting IT help, their productivity has been interrupted and other people are likely waiting for them to catch up. They’re frustrated and annoyed.
The expectation is that the support team will make every effort to address the issue, knowing that there’s a human being on the other end of the ticket who needs help. Here are some signs of a strong culture:
A good culture is not just an individual skill, it’s one that should be reinforced throughout the services desk’s culture.
One of the keys of good IT service desk service is consistency. When your staff knows that they’ll reliably get the support they need, then they’ll have the confidence to embrace new technologies and work at peak efficiency.
To deliver consistent support, an IT service desk will need a clear, documented process for detecting, analyzing, and resolving IT issues. Why are documented support processes so important?
Is your IT service partner managing their help desk effectively? That’s not a question that most businesses are prepared to answer – many haven’t even thought about it!
Here are some questions you can use to gauge whether a prospective partner is managing their service desk effectively. Don’t be afraid to ask probing questions during the sales process, a reputable provider should be confident in talking about management and optimization.
Want to learn more about what makes high-quality IT support? Keep reading here.
Is your business in Albany, New York, Charlotte, North Carolina, or Bluffton, South Carolina looking for a partner who can remove the burden of day-to-day technology issues, once and for all? We’re here to help. Contact our friendly, knowledgeable team at 1 877 877 1840 or [email protected] to ask a question or find out more.
We know that the first step toward better IT support is to research your options. We’ve put this guide together to aid you in that process.
It’s designed to give you an overview of our organization, so that you have the key information you need to evaluate our service fit.
This guide covers:
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