Is there room for Service in Support?

There is a growing interest in the ability for IT to bridge the gap between techie know-it-all syndrome and used car salesman customer service. I worked in the restaurant business as a server, bartender and lead trainer, during which I was running my own wedding photography business, and before all this I was flying over the Pacific Ocean taking pictures of massive navy ships and aerial acrobats as a Navy Photographer. I feel I have covered the gamut of no customer service necessary to absolutely the customer is always right or your fired. When my wife and I had our first child, John, it was time to quit what I felt was the hustle of working for myself and find a stable job that would provide benefits, and be reliable for my future. I chose technology because as I looked at other career paths there was always computers involved at some level and there always seemed to be a lack of technical skill. For example I looked at teaching and there was significant growth in technology in the classroom yet our college professor had trouble working the projector. Even in my business management class the professor had trouble with power point.

So I thought to myself the IT world is a part of everything and that is where I want to be. The in between and backbone that makes this engine of life run. Enter into my first IT class online. The discussion forums were full of snide comments, and obscure Star Wars references. I was surprised at the limited interpersonal skills even on discussion comments. I know it may be hard to make eye contact for some but written communication should be a little easier. You get to review it before it goes. I am grateful for my advisor in college who helped facilitate conversations during our visits around this kind of topic. Dr. Dave Dawson was his name and he will forever be my hero for IT and the new era of support coming of age. Dr. Dawson would say unless we convey technical data in a relevant manner to those making the business decisions we will continue to fail at what we do. This was in reference to the statistics around IT projects being over budget, past deadline, and under deliver on extravagant promises.

This motto has driven my career since. I started providing customer support in a call center for a national bank. This was intense to say the least. I then moved to Studer Group who was looking for IT support that had a history in customer service. They were willing to let me learn the IT part since I had such a large background in customer service. I immediately saw the service techniques that we teach fit into the IT help desk.

• ·        Key Words at Key Times – This is the concept that providing specific wording around our intent will set the memory of the experience in some structure.
• For Example: If our support survey results are low in accuracy I would include in all communications something about our goal is to be accurate and avoid rework, and ask if we have done this for them. (Now of course this does not mean anything if it is not genuine, meaning you actually have to look at processes that are impacting your low scores in accuracy, in addition to Key Words)
• Fly Wheel
• Prescriptive To-Do’s – This is the idea of providing clear action and precise steps for employees to follow. A set of principles to guide us through all phases of support.
• In my situation this involved creating a help desk manual, and knowledge base wiki. We needed a central place for consistent answers. This also outlined the organizations principles that are part of our culture. These principles are usually not something that can be taught and should drive hiring. We can teach anyone how to fix something, but we cannot teach them integrity or honesty.
• Bottom Line results – This is measurable achievement.
• For me I created a dashboard of ticket numbers, and produced on a monthly basis for the team to review.
• Self-Motivation – This is passion and connection to purposeful worthwhile work.
• For our team we shared wins from our customers where we had impacted their lives and made a difference.
• Highmiddlelow® - This is the concept of managing employees and identifying those High Middle and Low performers.
• I did not apply this as a leader, that was my leader’s job, what I did was apply this to myself. Honest self-assessment of where I was and how I was going to continue to grow.
• Studer Group outlines a clear process for how to:
• Recruit and retain those High performers who insist on change and growth or they will leave.
• Educate and encourage those Middle performers to keep them moving up
• Clarify and outline clear expectations for Low performers always providing a path to Middle performance

So the question was; Is there room for service in support? Can we fit time for customer service when our task lists are growing and the tickets continue to pour in? Can IT afford not to be relevant? How can we expect to be a driving force or backbone of an organization if the employees of that organization are not our most cherished assets. So change your “end-users” into “customers”, roll out the red carpet while not being rolled over (later blog coming), and be not only the catalyst for change but the cheerleader for it. We have to spread the good news of technology and what better way than when people are having trouble with technology. If our support desk is not providing excellent service on a consistent basis then our project teams working on implementations and upgrades have an uphill battle from the start.

I knew a Pastor who told me the ministry work is great, if it wasn’t for the people. We say that in IT, software would work great if it wasn’t for the end-user, but one requires the other. Here is an idea for discussion; what if we applied Highmiddlelow® to IT support customers.

·         Offer training and additional technology to those High tech savvy individuals

·         Provide direction and spend a little extra time training middle performers the how to and why of an issue so they can troubleshoot and fix themselves next time

·         Schedule time as a team to come up with a plan for each low performer who are most likely frequent flyers and require the most effort while perceiving the least supported.

"Culture outperforms strategy every time; and culture with strategy is unbeatable."

Quint Studer