THE CRITICAL CONSIDERATIONS OF OMNICHANNEL SUPPORT

Transcription

1 MEMBER REPORT INSPIRING SERVICE DESKS TO BE BRILLIANT THE CRITICAL CONSIDERATIONS OF OMNICHANNEL SUPPORT OCTOBER 2016

2 ABOUT THE AUTHOR CONTENTS The author of this report is SDI s Industry Analyst Ollie O Donoghue. Ollie is dedicated to providing insightful and practical research to the service desk industry. Ollie s work with a wide range of service teams around the world provides him with ITSM expertise across a variety of business sectors. You can find more of Ollie s work on the SDI Blog and can follow Introduction Consideration #1: Technology Consideration #2: People Consideration #3: Customers Consideration #4: Long Term Goals and Strategy Conclusion About SDI Contact SDI While every care has been taken to ensure the accuracy of this report, the results, estimates and opinions stated are based on sources which, while we believe them to be reliable, are not guaranteed. No liability can be accepted by SDI, its Directors or Employees for any loss to any person acting or failing to act as a result of anything contained in or omitted from this report, or conclusions stated. 2

3 INTRODUCTION In the consumer space, providing customers with a range of communication channels has become a distinguishing factor in an organisation s success. Offering self-service options, live chat and telephone support ensures customers have quick and easy access to support through a channel that suits them. By doing this, many large organisations have become synonymous with customer centricity. The proliferation of omnichannel communication structures in the consumer space has begun to blur the lines of what customers expect from structures in the enterprise. Why, when I can use live chat to discuss the purchase of a new smartphone, can I not use it to ask for IT support? A question that will become increasingly asked as a new generation of digital natives begins to enter enterprises as employees. Nevertheless, service and support organisations in the enterprise space are, understandably, cautious about implementing omnichannel support. The complexity of an omnichannel support structure combined with the considerable investment necessary to implement the appropriate technologies makes omnichannel support one of the most challenging prospects of the modern service desk. This report seeks to establish the critical considerations of implementing an omnichannel support structure and provide insight into an area of service management that is swiftly moving from a nice to have to a must have. CONSIDERATION #1: TECHNOLOGY The first consideration for the implementation and management of omnichannel support is technology. With few exceptions such as walk-in support omnichannel support is reliant on a diverse array of support technologies that provide customers with availability and flexibility. Technologies such as self-service and live chat are the most commonly associated omnichannel technologies, often supported by traditional channels such as and telephone support. Getting these technologies right for the service desk, its customers, and the business is crucial to an effective omnichannel support structure. There are an array of factors that will influence an organisation s decision over which technologies to use to support their customers, from the obvious budget considerations to the organisation s culture. It may be that an organisation has a large budget but is aware of cultural challenges with implementing live chat and so, despite having the resources to procure a top of the range integrated live chat option, this would not be the best business decision. Conversely, an organisation may have a customer base that has openly voiced a preference for a selfservice portal, but the organisation lacks the budget to procure one, albeit with the foundation for a business case resting in their customer s preferences. Researching the array of options and finding the right fit for all stakeholders is a crucial first step. For this to be effective, stakeholder engagement is essential. Whether that takes the form of perception surveys or research focus groups, stakeholder feedback will be crucial to the successful procurement of an 3

4 CONSIDERATION #2: PEOPLE appropriate omnichannel technology stack. Furthermore, analysing the future use of the technology from all perspectives is vital the technology may be ideal for customers but unworkable for service desk staff. Finally, building an overview of how omnichannel support fits in as part of the current support structure will help service desk professionals identify areas of efficiency. Offering more support channels does not necessarily translate into more work. Many modern support channels have seen a recent spike in popularity simply because they are more efficient than traditional channels. Understanding how the channels fit in with each other will highlight opportunities for automation and integration which may offer the service desk the opportunity to design a more efficient and consistent service. When discussing technology, considerations about people can only be around the corner. The technology discussed in the previous section is largely irrelevant if people are unable to work with it, either as a service desk professional or a customer. From the perspective of a service desk manager, several factors are clearly critical to staff when implementing omnichannel support. Resourcing an omnichannel service desk is a consideration of vital importance. New technologies may offer efficiencies over traditional methods, but that may not translate into substantial efficiencies once implemented. Understandably service desk managers approach the prospect of resourcing multiple channels with a degree of caution. Using a resourcing calculator can help to plot out the utilisation of resources across the support structure, however, without any specific service desk data, it will be impossible to generate more than a basic estimation. Experimenting with the support channels offers the greatest chance of generating meaningful models. Service desk professionals will need to understand how long it will take to handle specific issues on the new channel live chat, as an example and how any efficiencies leveraged from the new tool, such as being able to drag and drop the entire conversation into a ticket, translate into productive time. From here the service desk needs to project the time and resources necessary to sustain the support channel once it has been rolled out across the organisation. With the data to generate a reasonable picture of the resource requirements of omnichannel support, an equally vital 4

5 CONSIDERATION #3: CUSTOMERS consideration comes into play. Understanding what skills the service desk team currently have that are needed for the new channels and what training and development are required to build any new skills that are needed is critical to the success of omnichannel support. Some skills such as customer service are necessary regardless of the channel. However, others may need to be honed. The ability to quickly type clear and concise notes is likely to be a trait for many service desks, however, the capacity to do this in real-time over live chat may need to be developed through coaching and training. The skills that are the most valuable to an omnichannel service desk are likely to evolve as the service does. In this environment, service desk leaders must regularly review the skills their team have and seek to fill in the gaps with training and development. Exceptional people deliver exceptional service; leaders must ensure that their team have the resources to be able to do this in an omnichannel environment. For many service desks, it may be customers that are driving the need to offer omnichannel support. Undoubtedly, customer expectations are changing, driven by their experiences with technology in the consumer space. Nevertheless, the service desk cannot simply offer omnichannel support and expect it to become immediately popular. A considerable amount of work is required to understand how customers will interact with the technology with long-term success fuelled by continual improvement. Foremost, service desk professionals need to review the customer experience across the entire support structure. By doing so, they can understand how new communication and support channels will fit in and address issues being raised by customers. The information gathered will assist the service desk on many levels, initially from a service improvement perspective but also when marketing the new channels. For example, customers who complain of response times over may be prime candidates to extoll the time-saving benefits of self-service. Marketing the new support channels is a major factor in their success. Furthermore, after experimentation, it may become apparent that certain channels can be handled far more efficiently than others. Marketing these channels to increase the proportion of tickets that are managed through them will be beneficial to all stakeholders. Initially, however, the marketing plan may only be aimed at building awareness about the range of channels that can be used. Regardless of how carefully managed the live chat service is, it is unlikely to be popular if most customers are unaware of it. 5

6 CONSIDERATION #4: LONG TERM GOALS AND STRATEGY As the omnichannel support structure develops, collecting feedback from customers will provide ample service improvement opportunities and offer professionals the opportunity to build a high quality and efficient service. Feedback must be collected both reactively as customers find issues they report them and proactively. Initially, proactive feedback is essential and will form part of the stakeholder engagement discussed earlier in the report. As a final thought, collecting proactive feedback offers service desks a considerable opportunity when introducing a new service or channel the identification of advocates and superusers. When rolling out a significant change, having a group of advocates and superusers across the organisation will be of immeasurable benefit as they encourage the use of new channels and provide a stream of high-quality feedback from a customers perspective. The final consideration in this by no means exhaustive list is to spend some time focusing on the desired outcome. What does the service desk want to achieve from providing omnichannel support? The considerations previously noted in this report should fuel the long-term omnichannel strategy. How do technology, people and process fit into the long-term goals of the service desks omnichannel strategy? Defining these goals as part of the initial critical considerations will ensure the omnichannel journey will have clear parameters and success factors. Supported by precise and reliable performance data, service desk leaders can guide the creation of a successful and sustainable omnichannel support structure that delivers quality outcomes. In addition, the data collected at this stage may clearly highlight channels that are outdated, inefficient or unsustainable. Retiring these channels in favour of more popular or efficient channels is a significant dividend to return. This, coupled with the information gathered from customers will enable the service desk to keep moving forward and offer more accessible and sustainable communication channels to its customers. 6

7 CONCLUSION Providing customers with the flexibility and availability they need to report issues and request services when they need them is crucial now more than ever. Customer expectations are evolving to be more demanding than ever before. The vast array of communication channels that customers habitually use in the consumer space is building demand for enterprise IT to offer similar channels. Service desk leaders must review the channels they provide and seek to meet the expectations of their customers where possible. 7

8 ABOUT SDI CONTACT SDI The SDI company mission is to inspire service desks to be brilliant. To achieve this mission SDI has developed a set of goals by which it aims to inspire service desks to: Embrace: To raise the quality of service delivery by valuing best practice Engage: To create an inspiring and engaging customer experience Invest: To empower their teams to be inspired, take action and be better Service Desk Institute 21 High Street Green Street Green Orpington Kent BR6 6BG +44 (0) servicedeskinstitute.com Shine: To demonstrate and deliver exceptional business value SDI sets the globally recognised best practice service desk standards that provide clear and measurable benchmarks for service desk operations and professionals. The standards are designed to encourage service desks to embrace and value best practice in order to raise the quality of service delivery. For more information about SDI please visit