Why wait till January to start with a new resolution?
Sometimes, your callers need a one-on-one conversation to get their answer. But what do you do when calling is too disruptive and inefficient for your service desk? Walk-by support has certain benefits, but physical boundaries often make it far from ideal. Chat is a solution to help you in that.
In every organization, there are power users who've immersed themselves in all features and quirks of (niche) applications. Do you currently have ways to harness this slumbering knowledge? It is what peer-to-peer support is about: making this knowledge accessible.
With the new Sharing calls feature, TOPdesk facilitates this emerging collaborative support channel.
How do you offer your customer a unique customer experience, quick and bespoke service, without spending unnecessary time on it? How do you make it even easier for the customer to find the right information, so you can reduce the burden on your service desk is reduced and the customer is helped faster, while managing your portal doesn't cost extra time? As a consultant, I'm reguarly asked these question. Read on to find how in 4 steps you can filter relevant content for your users, help them find answers more easily and speed up the handling of your service desk.
Editor's note: this post was updated in February 2019.
Disruptions in your services often affect multiple persons. And when callers have raised a ticket about a broad issue, they might want to keep colleagues in the loop. For users who share the same job, passing on information on filed requests is sometimes even considered part of their work.
We get it. At TOPdesk we advised you to set up a Self-Service Portal, and you’ve followed our advice. Once you implemented your portal, the phone stopped ringing and customers now use it 90% of the time to request your products or services. Good job! Four months later, and you hear about the scheduled launch of a new TOPdesk chat module. Hang on – is TOPdesk now suggesting that you should go back to 1-on-1 conversations between customers and service desk staff?
Working at a service organization can be challenging when it comes to time management. When you are in the middle of investigating a server error, for example, customers still expect you to be there for them to help in installing a software update. From a customer’s perspective, sometimes you just need someone to help you with an issue. Using phone can be rather disruptive. So how do you offer effective and constructive interactions with your customers – even when it’s rush hour at your service desk – while still being able to pick up planned activities?
Humans share an urgency to interact with one another. We all like to talk, touch, text, wink, and receive some kind of reply. The way we like to interact, however, differs from person to person. At work, for instance, some people prefer receiving automated feedback, while others would rather get an answer face-to-face. The way a message is conveyed has a big impact on how the receiver interprets and values it.
On the Service Management blog, you'll often read about how a great service portal ensures users can help themselves. You'll find out how to design a more user-friendly Self-Service Portal and the steps you should take before starting to make sure you build a great Self-Service Portal. Since this blog is about tips and tricks, I thought I would share 5 more practical things you can think about when designing and customizing your Self-Service Portal.
Do you struggle with quickly answering recurring calls? As an operator you want to spend less time answering recurring questions, so you can spend more time on complex issues. Because that’s where your knowledge can really make a difference. So you want to resolve recurring questions quickly and efficiently. So how do you make that happen? Try this twist on Shift left.
Our vision of the Self-Service Portal is that it is easy to use and covers the needs of our users. We explored whether a separate mobile experience with the end user app would match that vision. However, in practice the app did not meet expectations. Therefore, we have decided to halt the development of the app and look for another solution. We believe that the solution lies in the SSP itself.
