Service Desk Client Satisfaction and Account Management
An account manager serves as the liaison and advocate for the client. They work in close association with the service desk management to communicate client perceptions; forward requests to make changes in processes, eventually address the various client concerns to promote their satisfaction, and to exchange information. Although perception and service desk client satisfaction can be subjective terms, which are tough to quantify, these are visceral and real and just cannot be overlooked.
How to Ensure Service Desk Client Satisfaction?
1. Build Client Relationships, Invite Feedback
A client satisfaction survey can be an excellent tool or a performance metric. It can serve as a way to engage in a direct conversation with your end users, get a feel of the front line service desk operations and ensure service desk client satisfaction. Here are some suggested questions that can be asked of the survey participants:
- Was the customer service agent courteous and friendly?
- What was your overall satisfaction level on the service received from an agent?
- Was your problem resolution done within a reasonable time period?
- Was the agent technically sound to appreciate your issue?
- Do you want to give any extra feedback on the service provided by the agent you interacted with?
- Would you recommend the said service desk to your company’s other users?
- In case your issue took a long time to resolve, did the agent inform you on the progress of your issue?
2. Ensure and Encourage Open Communication
Irrespective of it being a technical, process, or people issue, in case something is not quite right at a service desk, there should be no secrecy but full disclosure. It is understood that there could be egos and even jobs at risk from time to time. However, if such difficult conversations are purposely hushed up, the consequences can be severe. Usually, a service desk’s subject matter experts try to identify the issues and then put a solution into practice instead of waiting until the client comes up with that problem. In case the key goal of your operations team is to maintain client retention and satisfaction, the communication should be started with acknowledging and recognizing that issues exist and are needed to be fixed.
3. Do Not Panic and Keep Your Cool
IT management teams of clients have a tendency to choose as well as retain their service desk providers depending on whether they are available to handle the operational issues as and when they arise. In fact, communication needs to be immediate, decisive, and consistent, particularly for urgent issues. What is more important to understand is not to panic but devise a well-structured plan to handle the issues that need remedies. It does not signify organizing multiple committee meetings prior to acknowledging receipt of a critical phone call or email. In case your service desk finds a technical issue or gauges urgency, the process could be also applicable to client complaints. It is an ongoing process to keep your clients happy and satisfied and that is what will give your business an edge over the other competitors in the market.
