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People power: Humanizing the IT support experienceTransform traditional support operations into strategic customer service

Brief People power: Humanizing the IT support experience

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IT support is stressful. Look around. The employees in your company want instant solutions that relieve their frustration and get them back to work. Your tech support team feels intense pressure to solve problems faster while supporting more and more devices and software apps. Facing an incredibly difficult job, tech support workers are among the most unhappy employees in any industry. The result? The employees they are helping—your team’s customers—get a subpar experience.

The results of poor service are readily apparent. According to a recent report on the cost of poor IT customer service, employees lose an average of five hours per week to IT service issues, and 69 percent of surveyed companies have dropped an IT supplier in the past 12 months because of problems with customer service.

Smart business leaders are developing new practices that enhance tech support effectiveness, worker engagement and customer satisfaction. By changing the fundamentals of how the team supports employees, the IT organization can humanize their processes and transform existing support operations into a strategic service offering.

“In an era when companies see online support as a way to shield themselves from ‘costly’ interactions with their customers, it’s time to consider an entirely different approach: building human-centric customer service through great people and clever technology,” according to an article by customer support expert Kristin Smaby. “So get to know your customers. Humanize them. Humanize yourself. It’s worth it.”

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Brief People power: Humanizing the IT support experience

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Support the visionUnfortunately, tech support professionals don’t traditionally perceive themselves as service providers to internal organizations. From a business perspective, this can be dangerous. People who are used to quick, friendly support from smart companies such as Apple and its Genius Bar have no patience for workplace support that fails to deliver a stellar experience.

IT organizations must also recognize that they are in competition with other tech support providers. Faced with continued poor service, employees may push senior management to embrace cloud-based services that promise streamlined IT support. Only by changing the approach to the user experience can IT organizations compete effectively.

To compete in the new humanized tech support world, companies must make two fundamental adjustments.

Focus on the relationships, not the transactionsToo often, tech support teams organize, operate and execute based on the transactions occurring. Tech leaders measure the number of calls, support sessions and tickets, rewarding agents who post the largest totals. Unfortunately, this strategy is more suited to assembling widgets than solving an employee’s technology problems. Instead of building on a transactional foundation, IT support teams must focus on developing relationships with their customers.

For example, people who shop online for clothing from a retailer’s website expect to be recognized from previous purchases, receive suggestions for other goods they may like, and get a prefilled checkout screen with their

mailing address and preferred credit card number. The retailer makes it easy for them to do business with its store, anticipates their preferences and meets their needs quickly.

Compare this with the average tech support organization’s processes. An employee who contacts the support team must have a ticket number so the interaction can be tracked. If the first IT expert can’t solve the problem, the person might be passed to another level of support—where the ticket number, problem and previous resolutions must be described again. IT executives may require each support agent to step through a standardized or canned script to help isolate the problem, even if the IT person is highly experienced. No wonder people get frustrated.

Instead of a transactional system based on service tickets, IT teams need to create relational approaches that emphasize the human side of tech support. In some cases, this shift may require new tools or solutions. For example, some leading support technologies allow technicians to have a face-to-face conversation with customers, view their screens to better understand the cause of a problem and understand what they experience when the problem occurs. By enabling this type of relational support, these technologies allow support personnel to more effectively sort through a problem, show the employee where things went wrong, and help them build their skills to enhance competency and reduce future support calls. IT organizations also need to change the way they evaluate their support personnel—rewarding workers for solving problems, enhancing user productivity and thereby saving the company money.

Brief People power: Humanizing the IT support experience

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The growth of bring-your-own-device (BYOD) policies at many companies elevates the need for humanized, personalized tech support. And whether it’s BYOD or company devices, installing the requisite corporate apps is not enough. The organization must be prepared to provide employees with more information, usage details or just a bit of friendly advice. Handled correctly, support teams should be able to help users develop their skills and comfort level with new devices, requiring less support over the lifetime of the device.

Seasoned tech support people who have only experienced a transactional organization often find that a relationship-based structure is a far more satisfying work environment. As they transition to a process that rewards the building of customer relationships, many support agents get to know the people they’re helping and how they operate, which allows them to more effectively provide valuable services.

Provide service, not just supportTechnologists often struggle to think of the service they provide in business terms. They have a once-and-done mindset that approaches each problem as a distinct project. Instead, support personnel must learn to view their jobs more globally, as service providers who continually help people to more effectively use the technology.

Tech support personnel must be encouraged to think about long-term relationships with customers. Unlike a support transaction, which has a limited life span and focuses on the resolution of a technology issue, a service-oriented approach is indefinite in length and prioritizes the customer. When IT leaders focus on service, they can encourage their workers to view support as a pipeline that needs to be monitored, optimized and consumed.

Case study: Citrix IT stores

Like most major companies, Citrix long relied on a help desk model to deliver tech support to its own employees. When IT service executives realized that employees needed a more humanized approach to technology, the company changed its model.

Replacing teams of cubicle-based technical experts who handled problems ticket by ticket, Citrix created a collection of IT “stores.” These stores, located in high-traffic areas in Citrix offices around the world, are staffed by personnel recruited from Apple and other service-centric retail organizations. These front-desk workers excel at communicating with employees, promoting the stores and the services offered, and helping customers feel understood and served.

Employees can quickly get answers to questions, request service or borrow a laptop while theirs is being repaired. This retail model of customer support helps employees quickly and easily get IT service while minimizing downtime and maximizing productivity.

Brief People power: Humanizing the IT support experience

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Transform the support experienceHumanizing technical support is a multistep process that requires a new approach to IT culture, strategy, customer experience and processes.

1. Compete for the businessIt may come as a surprise to some experienced techies that their IT organization holds no monopoly on support services. In fact, there is always competition for the business. In many cases, other organizations—such as cloud-based managed service providers, external IT support teams and even other internal groups—can provide support much faster, cheaper and more effectively. As services are outsourced, IT teams risk reduced headcount and further erosion of status within the company.

Yet many IT organizations believe they have nothing to fear. Structured surveys often yield positive results from employees who use tech support. However, when people are asked to extemporaneously describe their experiences, a different picture emerges. Citrix, for example, measured employee satisfaction with IT services in the range of 92 percent to 95 percent. In contrast, when new employees were interviewed after learning to access corporate internal systems, 60 percent reported having a bad or frustrating experience. The solutions worked just fine, but the customer experience was unpleasant.

Instead of touting the power, functionality or overall coolness of their IT solutions, companies must focus on the customer experience. As Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon once said, “We see our customers as invited guests to a party, and we are the hosts. It’s our job every day to make every important aspect of the customer experience a little bit better.” As Citrix discovered, this may require a major cultural shift. Instead of viewing support as a project or a once-and-done transaction, IT teams must learn to view support as a shared, ongoing service experience.

2. Become strategicIT support organizations must stop acting as a commodity service. Instead, they must take on a more strategic role, acting as a trusted advisor and thought leader to those they help. Think of

a busy restaurant. Waiters tell diners about the off-menu specials to guide customers to a particular experience. IT teams can make recommendations that create a great customer experience by helping employees accomplish a particular goal or realize a new benefit. For example, IT professionals can provide training for everyday software, such as Microsoft Office. Such a skill is something employees might truly need, and the IT professional can be there to provide it.

3. Let people help themselvesSupport levels and service tickets were designed for IT processes, not for providing humanized service. Your customer doesn’t need to know whether you are offering level 1, 2 or 3 support any more than a homeowner cares if a plumber unclogs the drain using a plunger or a power auger. Both people just want their problems solved. Tech support organizations must view the service process from the employee’s perspective and make adjustments that create a more satisfying, less frustrating experience.

Think about creating self-service support. In many cases, employees can use online information, videos, web seminars or slides to answer questions or solve problems. A Google-style search feature could help them find information within a knowledge base, resolving many issues within moments. IT organizations can encourage employees to access these resources before contacting support for assistance, effectively providing “level 0” support (from the IT organization’s perspective).

Keep in mind that self-help tools are not a replacement for more intensive, personalized tech support services. If self-help solutions do not resolve the problem, the employee should be able to immediately access a live support person for assistance.

Brief People power: Humanizing the IT support experience

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4. Provide personalized supportOnce a customer moves beyond self-service support options and reaches out for live support, the IT team must find ways to interact in a more personal way. A little extra attention goes a long way for most people. As football quarterback and businessman Roger Staubach famously said, “There are no traffic jams along the extra mile.” The support technician should be able to quickly and easily link to the employee’s device and investigate the problem. The agent should be able to peruse the topics searched by the employee in the self-help website and grasp the problem. With that knowledge, the support person can lead the interaction with a helpful, reassuring phrase such as, “I see you are trying to find information about this topic.”

When the support agent clearly identifies the problem at the beginning of the interaction, it relieves the stress of the employee, who is usually desperate for a solution by the time he or she reaches out to support. Having a head start on the problem—using the information provided by the remote support function—eases the support person’s anxiety. Support workers can research the problems, investigate solutions and begin to solve the issues from their desks—without going in-person to the employee’s location.

5. Make support processes consistent and simple

Most technical problems have multiple answers or solution paths. But to create an optimum customer experience, tech support organizations must create consistent, simple processes and solutions. Users should receive a common support experience, no matter which technician helps them solve a problem.

IT organizations should also train their support agents to have simple, clear conversations with customers. Eliminating the use of business and technology jargon and simplifying one-on-one communications can boost clarity for both the employees and the IT group.

When Citrix embraced a BYOD program, the IT organization changed its thinking. By rewriting nearly all of its documentation to focus more on the employee experience, the team was able to streamline the rollout of a new operating system using self-service instructions. Citrix updated 5,000 worker devices over six months, but the IT group needed to help with only 675 of those devices. Providing the ability for employees to upgrade at their own convenience enhanced the support experience, allowing IT to focus on the employees and not the hardware.

How Citrix changed its internal support culture

Instead of structuring its support processes based on the needs of the IT organization, Citrix changed its tech support culture to focus on the user experience. In addition to positioning IT “stores” in key locations, the company also:

• Implemented IT vending machines, where employees can get a new mouse, keyboard or other low-cost IT equipment

• Divided support activities into four “towers” that serve remote, disconnected, mobile and in-network employees

• Proactively identified and shared information that could be helpful for employees, such as connectivity instructions for attendees of Citrix’s annual user conference

From a strict profit-and-loss perspective, changing the internal support culture may not yield immediate financial benefits. But when considering how the transformation has helped improve the employee experience by increasing their efficiency and reducing frustration, Citrix is certain the new culture is delivering value.

Brief People power: Humanizing the IT support experience

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Provide essential product features and capabilitiesHumanizing the technical support experience requires not only cultural and process changes but also new technology solutions. Look for the following features:

• Support for different learning styles – People learn differently and have various interaction preferences. Solutions should offer how-to web pages, real-time chat and video service so that customers can choose the support methods they prefer.

• Seamless service experience – Support personnel should be able to use a remote support tool to see which fixes a person has already tried. This knowledge helps the support team provide relevant, targeted information or assistance that feels seamless to the user.

• Customer-initiated support – Employees should be able to request assistance online or connect directly to a tech support person. Support workers should be able to add their names and photos so people can see who is working with them to solve the problem.

• Rapid connection times and always-on access – Employees struggling with technology need to get back to work. Solutions

that offer quick connection times reduce frustration. In addition, your support solution should be highly reliable, with the best uptime statistics on the market. Employees should never have to worry whether they will have access to remote support.

• Easy communications – People want to communicate naturally and easily. Why ask them to summarize their problem in writing instead of chatting with them in real time? Solutions that offer a chat feature within a

support session allow users to feel at ease and help support personnel

communicate while problem-solving. Some leading

solutions also offer video capabilities.

• Clear view of user history – Support personnel should have ready access to a person’s previous history of problem resolution.

With access to customer relationship management

data, notes from previous support personnel or video of

other support sessions, the support worker can understand the

user’s most recent support experiences. Support agents can get to work deploying specific remedies—without asking the employee to restate details of the problem or needing to research the issue before calling the person back with a more refined solution.

“We see our customers as invited guests to a

party, and we are the hosts. It’s our job every day to

make every important aspect of the customer experience

a little bit better.”

Jeff Bezos, CEO, Amazon

Brief People power: Humanizing the IT support experience

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Get startedTransforming the tech support culture requires top-down leadership, buy-in from support personnel, leading technical support tools and the guidance of experts. For more information on humanizing the tech support experience in your organization, visit www.gotoassist.com.

“There are no traffic jams along the extra mile.”

Roger Staubach, American Football Quarterback

and Businessman