As a follow-on to the blog posts on service desks, this page provides structured access to the blog recommendations as well as further information on best practices and how to transform your service desk. When I published the original Service Desk posts, it was more than a few years ago and since then we have seen great progress in digitalization. Importantly, technologies including advanced analytics and AI have also been introduced into the business mainstream. While much of the best practices that Steve Wignall, Bob Barnes and myself detailed still hold true, there are important new advances that can and should be leveraged. These new advances coupled with strong implementation of foundational practices can substantially improve the quality and cost of your service desk.

In the era of digitalization, the service desk has actually increased in importance as it is the human touch the remains easiest to reach in time of trouble by your users or customers. These advances in technology though can be used to improve the accessibility of the interface. For example, no longer is the service desk, just a phone interface. Now, especially with external customer desks, the interface includes chat and email. And this communication can also be ‘proactive’ where you reach out to the customer versus ‘reactive’ where you wait for them to call or chat. Therefore, it is as important as ever to ensure your service desks operate with best practices and modern technology so that you can provide the right human touch in the age of digitalization.

Unfortunately, in many situations the service desk (or help desk) does not use up-to-date practices and can be a backwater of capability. This can result in a very poor reputation for IT (if an internal desk) or the business because the service desk is the primary customer interface (see here for our definition of a service desk).

The IT Service Desk may seem quite straightforward to address — maybe the thought is that all you really need to do is have one number to call, staff it, be courteous and try hard.  This isn’t the case and there are some clear best practice techniques and approaches that will enable you to deliver consistent, positive interactions with your customers as well as enable greater productivity and lower cost.

Service Desk Approach: The approach to building an outstanding service desk is discussed in the following topic areas:

• Structure and Primary Elements, including Process, Tools, and Techniques
• Enabling an Outstanding Customer Interface
• Building a Responsive and Effective Service Desk
• 5 Quick Measures to Get Started on
• Turning Around a ‘Helpless’ Desk
• Service Desk Metrics
• Service Desk Leadership, the key ingredient
• The service desk in the age of digitalization, applying the latest technology and practices

By leveraging the material and approaches here, you can build or transform your service desk into a winning interface with your customers delivering the right human touch.

Best, Jim Ditmore