Support Strategies: Mastering Help Desk Excellence

IT Service Management (ITSM) help desks can implement and deliver services in one of three ways: reactive, proactive, or predictive.

In many respects, these three levels represent different stages of the ITSM maturity model. Measuring ITSM maturity is a way of assessing "how good your organization or system is at self-improvement." If you're still delivering reactive IT services, then that suggests a lower level of maturity, which results in higher staff turnover, higher costs, and lower key performance indicators (KPIs), customer satisfaction, and service level agreement (SLA) scores.

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When it comes to delivering great customer service, most want an immediate answer to a question they have. This makes knowledge bases the preferred channel over other types of self-serve channels or having to call, email, live chat, or send a message to an organization.

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Change Management, now known as Change Enablement in the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL®), is a way of managing change requests and implementing updates and changes in software, applications, and IT systems.

As IT leaders and professionals know, ITIL is a best-practice framework or set of best practices that guide IT Service Management (ITSM).

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In today's hyper-connected and highly competitive business landscape, providing excellent customer support is more critical than ever. The rise of the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model has changed the way companies deliver their products and services. Customers now expect instant and responsive support through various channels.

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One of the most important metrics and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) in any help desk or customer service call centers worldwide is First Call Resolution (FCR).

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Request for Change Definition: What is an RFC?

In IT Service Management (ITSM), and according to ITIL® practices, a Request for Change (RFC) is a formal, budgeted request to implement changes.

In most cases, an RFC is outside of any standard, minor-level changes. RFCs are part of the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) Change Management processes, as defined in previous iterations of the ITIL framework and the current one, ITIL v4.

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Change Management is a constant for ITIL and ITSM. Changes are often necessary, whether software or hardware roll-outs or systems upgrades. Regrettably, as every IT professional and team leader knows, mistakes can happen.

Not every change management plan goes smoothly, and when you hit bumps in the road, you need control of the complete end-to-end process. Part of ensuring you have that control is to have contingencies in place for rolling back some of the changes that have been made.

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The best IT services look for ways teams can work more effectively and efficiently to resolve issues and improve customer satisfaction. This can often include collaboration among IT specialists, including the service desk, technical support, and development teams. Leveraging their collective knowledge and skills can lead to faster and more effective ticket resolution. One such support methodology is called Intelligent Swarming.

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Every IT and ITSM (IT Service Management) leader must closely monitor Service Level Agreement (SLA) performance metrics.

SLA metrics are a measurable way of demonstrating that your team or department is hitting or missing key performance indicators (KPIs) within an SLA.

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