We surveyed webinar attendees about the #1 thing that annoyed IT customers…
According to Axios Systems’ Martin Stewart in their recent webinar: 7 Critical Success Factors for an Effective and Efficient Service Desk, they surveyed attendees and the results were interesting…
The results show that—according to the IT leaders and professionals present—IT customers we’re most annoyed when IT failed to keep them updated on what was going on with their issues or requests.
IT customers want transparency
Think about your last online retail experience. Most eCommerce retailers try to follow the standard set by Amazon. When you buy an item, you receive an immediate email confirmation. When the item has been picked and packed, you get another update. Nothing is hidden. If there is a delay—for any reason—you are informed immediately. And at any time, you can log into the website or mobile app to see how things are progressing.
[irp]
This experience has become a basic expectation, and customers judge any eCommerce retailer that doesn’t provide this level of transparency harshly. They may not return to purchase again…even if the right item arrives in the right place at the right time. The experience just didn’t feel right, and that’s the most memorable part of the Customer Experience (CX)—how it made them feel.
New expectations
People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.
This is the new level of expectation in the consumer world. Open transparency. So why shouldn’t people expect the same level of transparency when, as employees, they ask for help or services from your organisation’s service desk?
[irp]
Too often, IT focuses on the execution and forgets the customer journey—how the customer sees it from their perspective. As soon as the IT customer submits an issue or request through a web portal or app, IT breaks off engagement and becomes a “black box” until the process is complete.
To solve this problem, IT must do two things:
1. Pro-actively communicate at key points in the process
Not every step in the execution process (not all will be of interest to IT customers)—but the main milestones that will make sense and give the customer the feeling that things are happening, and they haven’t been forgotten.
2. Provide 24×7 access to status information via web and mobile
IT customers don’t want to wait in a call queue to find out where their new laptop is, or how long it will take to solve a technical issue. They want to be able to flip open a support app and find out for themselves in just a few seconds, wherever they are.
By doing so, IT can solve the #1 thing that annoys IT customers, improve the customer experience and drive a measurable step-up in IT customer satisfaction ratings.
