By Jo Best, 18 May 2005 17:15
NEWS Helpdesk support staff have been dubbed the techie equivalent of traffic wardens by their non-IT colleagues.
A report from analyst group Forrester has discovered that users are highly dissatisfied with helpdesk support and the more often they have cause to use the helpdesk, the more likely they are to report being dissatisfied with it.
Despite the image of a stereotypical techie, it seems users have few complaints about the politeness of helpdesk staff. Rather, their dissatisfaction stems from the frequent inability of helpdesk support to resolve their queries in a timely manner and the necessity for repeat visits from the support team in order to resolve a single problem.
Helpdesk support also came last in a list of technologies and services that IT users view as essential to their jobs. In terms of IT that business users cannot live without, desktop technologies including email, calendar and productivity software were rated highly.
According to Forrester, 75 per cent of those surveyed are happy with their email and calendaring software, while 94 per cent rate such desktop IT as the most crucial technologies for their jobs.
Comments
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1. Jez
The thing about this is most non IT people don't understand the technology they are using.
It can take several fixes found on the microsoft site before a problem they have is resolved.
Also the information supplied to the average help desk is along the lines of Can't send emails. The reason could be anything...
Maybe comments like this should look at both sides before making judgement on how bad a system is. I'm sure if a lot of IT people started passing comment on how incapable most users are companies would get a little defensive..
2. Nick Cole
That frustration is all too understandable. Unfortunately users fail to realise that actually diagnising a problem can be extremely difficult as we are all well aware!
Because of the dependency on IT, the caller is unable to carry on with the task they were expecting to carry out and hence their irritation. As with most service industries there are never enough people around at the time you need them to fix all the problems immediately on demand.
Another issue is that most users forget that any failure, be it car, washing machine, plumbing or whatever takes a finite and sometimes indeterminate time to visit and fix. Therefore calling for someone to undertake a repair falls into the category of a distress purchase which is always resented.
What exacerbates the problem is when something seems to have broken by itself, but then is found to have been a 'fault' of the user. Most users resent this being pointed out to them and react accordingly! It is a conundrum that when a fault happens that is mechanical or software in nature people tend to be forgiving or accommodating. When it is something that with better training a user could have avoided or even fixed for themselves this tends to blamed on IT support and becomes a part of the folklore or mythology which is used to berate us!
If users bore in mind the sheer number of interconnected components from a mere bit on a disk to the hardware and wider networks then the fact that IT is available for as long as it is is should be a source of wonder rather than something to be complained about when it stops.
Knowing how complex all this is should tell users to have their own personal disaster backups, such as paper diaries and pens and files.
Most business models do not factor in sufficient time or finance to allow for these variable factors.
3. Bill
I absolutely agree with Jez.
However, one step we have made to make life easier all round is to create a small education package for new starters. Its amazing how many exclaim that they didnt know all of that was going on ! however, I do feel that we in IT Support (broad statement there !) are also guilty, and have been for years, of "talking down" to users. Maybe if we treat them as customers, which in fact they are - we would get better responses from them.
4. Sylvia Jensen
It is hardly surprising that helpdesk support is ranked bottom of the list by IT users. Support workers rely heavily on the customer explaining the problem, which means solving a problem remotely can be like wearing a blindfold, as workers who have had lengthy email conversations just to sort out a minor glitch will testify.
Investing in a remote solution, such as web conferencing, which allows support workers to remotely control the customers’ computer, can solve this problem. It allows customers to show how the problem is solved in ‘real time’, so that next time the user is often able to solve the problem by themselves - which speeds up resolution times and reduces the need for on-site visits.
Since investing in remote web meeting technology ihotdesk, an IT support company based in London, has managed to reduce its fault resolution time by 50% and estimates that it has reduced its on-site call-out rate by 33%. It now regularly controls hundreds, sometimes even thousands, of centrally managed machines across the country from its offices.
By employing such a solution, not only do you cut out the time wasted on calls and emails, but also you save money on travel and hopefully your customers will come to appreciate you that little bit more.