How a Service Desk can Improve IT Decisions

A vital cog in your organisation, the role of the IT service desk is many and varied. From helping to quickly remove and resolve any technical snags, to improving efficiency and productivity or easing scalability processes, the service desk is a strategic and meaningful window into your business’s inner workings.  

Through the eyes of the service desk (and the various analytics it produces), business leaders can gain valuable insights into how well the company’s systems perform, the types of technical hindrances faced by employees on a day-to-day basis, and where improvements or investments in IT should be funnelled.   

After all, where resources and time are limited – and with competing claims for your time and attention coming in from other areas of the business – it’s important to know how to get the best value from the company’s IT. To do this, you need to be able to define best performance, identify areas of inefficiency, and future-proof the organisation’s success.  

Below we’ll look at four ways a properly functioning service desk can help shape smarter IT decisions and investments, adding tangible business value and helping organisations meet their long-term goals:    

Recurring Tickets  

Monitoring the amount and type of support requests received by the service desk gives us an enlightening view into what, specifically, inhibits users’ productivity day-to-day. Not only will this information help organisations spot where knowledge gaps (and thus opportunities for additional training) appear, but it also lets us see exactly where IT improvements would be most beneficial to the company.  

For example, in the instance where the same or similar issues crop up constantly, it’s possible that the hardware or software application in question may no longer be fit for purpose, or that it isn’t integrating well with other applications also used by the organisation. When recurring issues are left, it is not only frustrating and dissatisfying for employees (which could lead to staff absence or attrition), but also wastes time, diminishes output and efficiency, and could ultimately leave customers unhappy with the service received. If organisations are seeing the same issues repeated over and over in their ticket analytics, it may be time to investigate further.

Percentage of first contact resolution (FCR).

FCR is a term used by service desks to measure the number of customer support queries successfully resolved first time, therefore eliminating the need for follow-up calls or further technical support. This is a critical metric, since a high FCR is almost always associated with high levels of customer satisfaction and service efficiency. 

Poor FCR, on the other hand, should ring alarm bells for organisations, as it could denote that your service desk doesn’t have the proper tools, knowledge, and industry experience in place to be effective, or that service desk engineers are not appropriately trained.  

Indeed, tying your employees’ hands with an inefficient and under-experienced service desk quickly leads to dissatisfaction, frustration, and high levels of stress, and it’s likely that organisations with these type of IT challenges will see a higher staff churn than average. Low FCR can also undermine your workplace culture, gradually eating away at your employees’ morale and inspiration as work piles up, complaints mount, and fundamental IT tools necessary for productive work aren’t easily accessible.  

If your service desk metrics indicate a low FCR score, it may be time to switch service providers or look to outsource – to one which offers multiple ways for users to seek help, including phone, live chat, and self-service options – and certainly to one which can provide evidence of industry-leading FCR.

The amount of remote working tickets

Now more than ever, organisations are relying on remote access technologies and cloud applications to enable productivity for their remote and hybrid workforces. Indeed, a remote team can reap many benefits for companies, including higher employee satisfaction, cost-savings on technology and office space, and reduced carbon emissions due to less travel. However, this only works if the adequate technology, resources, support, and processes are in place – and your service desk analytics may be able to divulge whether this is the case or not.  

By tracking how many service tickets originate from issues specifically linked to remote working (which relies heavily on cloud-based, collaborative technology and requires additional cyber –security measures), organisations can measure whether their remote workers are receiving the same levels of service delivery, access optimisation, and security as their onsite counterparts.  

As remote/hybrid working continues to be the working-structure of choice for many employers and users, ensuring the best, most effective IT infrastructure is in place to enable this will be paramount to the success of the business.

Number of unresolved tickets

When unresolved incidents start to pile up, this could indicate major and potentially complex organisational problems. Whilst, obviously, growing piles of tickets may be down to the capabilities of the service desk itself, it could also point to software and hardware issues, poor implementation and management, or inadequate user education.  

Left unchecked, this situation could disable some important organisational operations, so it’s important for business leaders to keep a close eye on this metric and to investigate root causes before they have significant business impact. Tracking this metric and carefully analysing the reasons for poor service desk resolution rates will reveal contributing conditions and direct causes. Furthermore, for organisations that might benefit from a more experienced and professional perspective, consulting with a managed service provider on these matters should enable effective solutions to be implemented.  

Remember, monitoring and managing service desk performance against key business KPIs is an essential contributor to your organisation’s success, ensuring operational continuity, optimising productivity, and delivering services within budgets and on time. 

Hiring an experienced and knowledgeable managed service provider that prioritises transparent reporting and user experience is a critical first step in meeting your organisational goals. If you would like to discuss how Littlefish’s award-winning service desk can help you reduce costs, increase service quality, and support your transition to the modern workplace, feel free to contact us through our get in touch button.