Case Study: 5 Best Practice Steps for Service Desk Success

Eddie and his help desk team were perplexed. They were experts in their field, yet their customer service survey ratings were terrible. How could their customers not appreciate their expertise?

As their comments spelled out, customers appreciated the help desk’s expertise, but not the way they handled contacts and communication.

Here are some tips Eddie and his team incorporated to improve their customer satisfaction scores:

Problem Solving Without the Lecture. Remember that the customer is calling you to have their problem solved, not listen to a lecture detailing every aspect of the issue. Eddie and his team provided so much background information and detail, the customers felt overwhelmed.
Respect Time Urgency. When customers contact you with an issue, remember that they’re busy with many things, and that particular issue has stopped them in their tracks. Be time efficient in resolving the situation, and help them get back to work. They need your respect for their time urgency.
Provide a Reference Number & Summary. At the end of the contact, provide users with a reference number, and also email a summary of the contact. Customers appreciate the follow up and documentation on resolution.
Provide Adequate Follow-up. If users contact you repeatedly about recurring issues, make sure you’re providing adequate follow up. Sometimes a terse email with links to self-support isn’t sufficient for every user. Take a few minutes to summarize the solution and email to the user. Make sure subject line spells out: solution to xyz issue.
Empathize With the User. Think outside your support role. Think about how the user utilizes the technology you support. The more you understand the user’s perspective, workplace environment priorities, the more effectively you can provide expertise and service that wins top ratings in surveys.

Eddie and his help desk followed these tips and delivered their expertise in more time efficient ways during the contact. They also emailed summaries of resolutions following the call. They were also surprised that total contact handling time (including time to compose email) was shorter.

In all, Eddie and the help desk was amazed at how much their customer service approval ratings improved by following these 5 simple tips.

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Donna Earl is an international expert in Customer Service. She specializes in helping technical help desks deliver world class customer service. To use this article, Contact Us for permission.

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Case Study: 5 Best Practice Steps for Service Desk Success

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