There is a certain type of Help Desk Professional that believes customer service is negatively affected by IT help desk software.
The reasoning is that people with a problem are looking for assistance as quickly as possible - looking for an answer to the issue that is preventing them from doing their job - and don't necessarily understand why they can't get an answer 'right now'.
An IT Help Desk Professional will completely concur with this - they take great pride in dispensing solutions that rapidly solves a problem for a user and sends them on their way.
As an IT Help Desk Professional they will also take great pride in having users that ask for them in particular because they know that they 'will always get an answer'.
Providing the details for each call are recorded properly then there is no problem - but the issue is often the procedures around the recording of calls can be relatively lengthy and cumbersome which means often it i s better to resolve the issue, on the phone, right then, and either enter the details later or, more often, not at all.
The problem is that the Help Desk Professional may be perceived by the users as the most helpful person in the department - but also perceived as not a 'team player' by his colleagues and manager.
So is the IT Help Desk Professional at fault? Not necessarily. It may actually be the fault of the procedure - or more importantly, the IT help desk software. If it takes minutes to set up a basic call, or 'ticket' and then more minutes to update it then they are valuable minutes that can be given to resolve the issue at hand. If it is a call for what seems to be a trivial problem that can be solved on the 'phone during the initial call then it doesn't make sense to go through the pain of registering a call in a clumsy or cumbersome IT help desk software package. However, if the company that is providing the help desk service, or internal IT department that supports its users, doesn't register the call properly then a number of downsides can become prevalent.
In the first instance any statistics regarding performance will be skewed - if you are not registering every call then you are not registering that they are resolved either. The very nature of these calls is that they are registered and resolved rapidly - this is exactly what you need to show that you are delivering value to your customers or your company. In fact if you start to looking at average call closure time then the figure you are reporting may well be overstated - the 'easy' calls with quick closure may be missing meaning that the overall average time to resolve is increased.
Notwithstanding the above the result of not registering the call will potentially mean you end up with a dissatisfied user or customer. Even the best Help Desk Professionals take holidays or get sick - when the user calls expecting to speak to their usual contact and ends u p speaking to someone else then they will be disappointed. Probably more disappointed when the new operative cannot find any details or history regarding the caller. If the user suggests "It's the same old problem" and the operative can't see what that same old problem is then the user may question the overall professionalism of the organisation - besides being frustrated.
Not registering calls may also mask a deeper problem - either recurring or forming part of a larger pattern. Several forced password changes may be a software bug or configuration error, but it may also be the result of someone trying to hack an account. The business needs to know this.
Clearly, the answer is to ensure that registering a call or 'ticket' is a rapid process - this can be achieved through the use of call templates based on a few key fields - this will allow for the call detail that is relevant to be registered quickly with critical information.
