There is No Better Time than Now to Focus on Service Desk Strategy

Service Desk is one area that directly touches users' experience and hence usually receives lots of focus from the management.

"Shift Left" has been a strategy used by organizations to reduce total cost of ownership. It is a process that involves change in people, process and technology to ensure that more and more issues are shifted to "Level 0 or Level "1 support.

It is a strategy focused on:

• Faster incident and service request resolution
• Cost reductions
• Increased use of technology based solutions (e.g. self service, chatbots etc.)
• Continuously improving end-user experience

And why not? A look at cost breakup will reveal:

• Cost of L1 support is 10 times the cost of L0 or self service
• Cost of L2 support is 3 times that of L1 support
• Finally, cost of on field agents is 10 - 12 times that of L1 support.
  [Source: www.metricnet.com]

No wonder vendors and organizations are keen to adopt a “Shift Left” philosophy. It also results in better experience and less wait time for resolution.

The key elements that are essential for a successful Shift Left are:

1. Knowledge Management

Excellent repository of knowledge, know-how of past incidents/requests, FAQ’s and self-service module are one of the key elements. As end users try to resolve issues themselves or through service desk agents, a handy guide will increase customer experience. Simply said, without KM it will never shift left.

2. ITSM Tools

Having a state-of-the-art ITSM tool that tracks resolution process, automates steps and helps in managing the knowledge repository is also key.

3. Change Management

Remember, Shift Left is about process and people. End Users need to be incentivized to use different ways of resolving issues. And when there is process and people involved, it has to be accompanied with good change management strategy.

In other words, Shift Left is as much a change management project as it is a technology project.

Conclusion

If there is a time to transform and innovate the Service Desk, it’s now. Organizations that tend to treat service desk as a tactical “to do” activity tend to miss out on a great opportunity for improving customer experience and at the same time a potential for cost savings.

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