It’s no secret that most companies don’t have IT support that’s at the same level as their customer support. But with the rise of consumerization of IT, this outlook on IT can be detrimental to a company. In a post to ITSM.tools, Stephen Mann explains how internal IT support lags behind external customer support.
Improving IT Support
The statistics for external customer support and IT support have very different rates, with first contact resolution rates for external support being 1.6 times higher and 1.4 times higher for satisfaction rates. In essence, this means IT would be pulling mediocre numbers at best if the external customer support is going well.
When it comes to reacting to this fact, Mann offers up some advice on what to do once you’ve realized this truth:
As to what needs to happen next will depend on the status quo – and the only way that you’ll understand this is to survey your company’s employees. Asking the same questions relative to IT support and their personal life experiences, maybe also asking for the three things, say, that IT needs to quickly improve.
At this point, try to remain focused on outcomes rather than inputs. For example, ask about how employees successfully engage with IT rather focusing in on self-service, say. Because there’s little use in improving self-service capabilities if they won’t be sufficiently used – for instance, at a law firm where the lawyers are adamant that they need personal, at-the-elbow, IT support.
The hope is that this unbiased assessment will be able to drive future improvements. How these improvements look will be entirely dependent upon you and which options you think will help the most. Whether it is people skills or technical wizardry, there is always a starting point to improve your IT support.
For additional elaboration, you can view the original post here: https://itsm.tools/2017/11/23/internal-support-lags-behind-external-customer-support-2/
