5 Costly (Yet Easy-to-Miss) Help Desk Mistakes

Everyone makes mistakes – even Help Desk staffers, aka the folks who businesses rely on to clean up after others, aren’t immune. In many cases, there’s just a little bit more on the line when the Help Desk drops the ball. After all, how many employees can no longer imagine doing their jobs without the technologies the Help Desk supports?

Some Help Desk mistakes are easy to spot and fix. Others run deeper and are harder to solve. The Arraya team has spent years assisting customers to manage and staff their Help Desks and in that time we’ve gotten pretty good at spotting mistakes that fly under the radar. Even though these mistakes might not be as noticeable as others, they can still do quite a bit of damage to the business if left unchecked.

We funneled those years of experience into the infographic below – and under that you’ll find our expanded take on each of these challenges and what needs to be done to solve them.

• Giving in to ‘Just this once’ – Documented policies are documented because they’ve been judged to be the best path to take to lead to a desired outcome. However, no route will ever be well-worn and proven enough to make shortcuts look less attractive all of the time. For example, if a high-ranking end user requests a permissions change, the temptation is there to sign off on it instead of filtering that end user through the proper approval process. One exception can lead to another and then another, making a firm stance the Help Desk’s best bet.
• Missing the small picture – Help Desk staffers know what constitutes an IT emergency. Maybe they’ve lived through the painful aftermath of a ransomware attack or a data breach. Those cataclysms can dwarf Joe from Accounting’s access troubles to Help Desk staff. Just because the issue isn’t a fire, it’s still painful for Joe from Accounting. If a smaller problem needs to be tabled for a larger one, Help Desks can earn some good will and some time by reaching out to the person and letting them know where their problem stands in line.
• Forgetting to follow up – When an issue needs to be passed along to another tech, there’s a tendency to file it under the “Not my problem” heading and dive in to the next. However, that ignores a vital step in the problem management process: the follow-up. After handing off a ticket, Help Desk staffers should follow up with both the person who submitted the ticket and the tech to whom it was transferred. Time is tight on the Help Desk, but even a very brief message checking that the issue was resolved to the user’s liking can build a strong relationship between the Help Desk and its customers.
• Walling off end users – So many tickets cross the Help Desk that it’s easy for staffers to see them as just that: tickets, and forget about the person or persons attached. As much as possible, Help Desk staffers should get to know the people on the other side of those tickets. Getting to know customers’ needs and wants lets staffers perform their own job better. Chances are many of those needs and wants line up with what Help Desk staffers’ also value: the ability to work effectively and efficiently, going home at a reasonable hour, etc. This mindset allows the Help Desk to see end users as their partners instead of as tickets.
• Measuring too much – We’ve all heard that old business saying that you can’t control what you don’t measure. That saying has been very much taken to heart in today’s Big Data-obsessed, more-measurements-the-better climate. Of course, it is possible to have too much data. Help Desk teams should regularly audit the data they’re collecting and how they’re using it. After a review, the team might realize information previously thought of as “must-have” is actually white noise, stealing bandwidth from more worthwhile pursuits.

Increase the reach of your Help Desk

Arraya Solutions’ Managed Help Desk service is designed to expand the skills and availability of onsite IT teams. When your team clocks out for the day – or when their experience with a project is light – that’s when our team steps in.

Our Managed Services team’s ability to increase customer efficiency and technology ROI has landed Arraya on CRN’s Managed Service Provider 500 list for three straight years. If you’d like to learn more about Arraya’s work on Help Desks or our Managed Services in general, reach out to us at: http://www.arrayasolutions.com/contact-us/

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