Are Your End User Services Best-in-Class?

For IT organizations, establishing best-in-class end user services (EUS) is vitally important for digital transformation. EUS is the most common interaction point between IT and users, with the noble goal of making knowledge workers and all users more productive.

Modernizing the EUS function should be just as important as replacing a legacy system, or eliminating techical debt. In fact, Wavestone US’ view is that EUS should be viewed as the centerpiece of IT service management operations. While every client is different, some combination of strategies will dramatically increase service quality, customer satisfaction, and speed of delivery, while still making a tangible reduction in costs.

Below are 13 ways to transform EUS service delivery, spanning help desks, service desks, and BYOD strategies across three main categories: self-service and automation, user experience, and continuous improvement.

Self-service and Automation

1. Automate. Between 10 and 40 percent of tickets can be automated for simple break/fix issues, password resets, software distribution, release management, and re-imaging. Robotic process automation and other tools allow you to address common support requests and processes with limited human intervention.

2. Enable self-service. Set up processes to allow users to immediately address minor requests such as password resets. In a BYOD environment, incorporating some automation can result in a near-instantaneous response.

3. Improve user training. Technology bars and user roadshows are ways to provide immediate service for both user training and support, and can serve as a valuable opportunity to meet with users, share tips, demonstrate functionality, and answer questions. Remember: the more knowledgeable your users are on how to self-diagnose and troubleshoot, the fewer issues they’ll have.

4. Set up vending machines. To support remote locations without on-site, full-time resources, machines and kiosks offer an alternative. Replacement devices can be automatically provisioned for a user, and new devices can be collected and stocked in batches to further reduce need for staff.

User Experience

5. Adopt a global service delivery model. An always-on global model with internal or external vendor resources allows an EUS function to take advantage of an international talent marketplace, offer “follow-the-sun” help desk, and on-site field support services where appropriate.

6. Design outcomes-based SLAs. Define what really matters. Whether delivered via internal teams, or an external vendor, the EUS function should be geared toward improving outcomes. Focus on the management of first-call resolution, increased customer satisfaction, and ticket reduction—not the number of tickets handled.

7. Go omnichannel. Connect in any way with users. Increase the availability of customer engagement channels across digital, live, direct, and mobile to provide support whenever, wherever, and however a customer desires to engage. Phone, email, web chat, ticket creation, social media, on-site technology bars, kiosks: there’s no such thing as too many channels when it comes to customer engagement.

8. Provide VIP support for executives. Offer specialized support for company executives at office, home, or on the road. This drives significant customer satisfaction, user productivity, and benefits business credibility.

9. Standardize service delivery. Keep it simple. Leverage a service management platform like ServiceNow or BMC Remedy to organize all service delivery efforts, accelerate response time, and drive standardization across service processes. The bottom-line benefits? Better service quality at a lower cost.

Continuous Improvement

10. Beef up on knowledge management. Continuously apply best-in-class practices to move more incidents to L1 (first-line support), freeing up higher-level L2 and L3 resources to handle more complex activities.

11. Identify root causes. Beyond solving user issues as they occur, the EUS function should analyze and address the driving factors of problems, and develop solutions to address the causes.

12. Monitor customer journey data. Carefully monitor analytics related to understanding different types of requests and the time to resolution. This way, the EUS team can identify bottlenecks or poor service areas in the customer journey, and adjust capacity, skills, and procedures to appropriately tackle them.

13. Use predictive analytics. New analytics tools can be used to identify issues that are likely to occur before they occur, including hardware failure or capacity limits. When paired with automation, it allows EUS organizations to be proactive about solving problems. In other words, instead of reactively addressing tickets, you can eliminate them entirely.

Interested in learning more about transforming your end user services? Get in touch with Wavestone US’ IT optimization experts at
(610) 854-2700 or contact us online.