[Title slide 1. Blue CAI company logo with tagline “We power the possible” appears in middle of screen. Company website www.cai.io appears at the bottom center of the screen]
[Title slide 2. White background with text centered in the middle of the screen that reads: “Webinar On-Demand. Service desk evolution: How to exceed expectations”. The blue CAI company logo with tagline “We power the possible” appears underneath of this text towards the bottom of the screen]
[There are two speaker boxes on the screen, each containing a name and a speaking head. “Tom Grosso | CAI” appears on the left-hand side and “Amy Emmons | CAI” appears on the right-hand side. On the bottom right of the screen contains the CAI logo alongside the text “We power the possible.”]
00:00:07 - 00:01:06
Tom Grosso
Hello, and welcome everyone. I'm super stoked to be here this morning. Thank you for joining us today for our event titled, Service Desk Evolution: How to Exceed Expectations. My name is Tom Grosso and I'm thrilled to be your host for this session. A little bit about me, I serve as our executive director for our service desk organization here at CAI. I've been with the business close to 11 years, living and breathing all elements of service desk. I have overall accountability for our operations, and my role is to provide leadership, strategy, direction and oversight to CAI's enterprise-wide service desk practice. I also have Amy Emmons joining this session with me today as my co-host. Amy, would you like to introduce yourself?
00:01:07 - 00:01:32
Amy Emmons
Yeah, sure. Thank you, Tom, and thank you everybody for joining us today. My name is Amy Emmons and I am a senior service delivery manager with 10 years of experience in service desk. I provide oversight for all service desk elements including client relations, SLA requirements, customer satisfaction, telephony, and ITSM policies and procedures. And I'm really excited to be here with you all today.
00:01:33 - 00:01:35
Tom
Welcome, Amy. Thanks for joining me today.
00:01:36 - 00:01:37
Amy
Sure thing.
00:01:37 - 00:02:24
Tom
Today's event is going to be a deep dive into how customers expectations have changed within your service desk, where we'll explore the importance of meeting your customers where they are, providing consistent customer service experiences, acquire strategies to improve customer satisfaction, and learn why securing your service desk operations is important and how it relates to the overall customer experience. Whether you're here to sharpen your skills, discover new strategies, or simply to satisfy your curiosity, you're in the right place.
00:02:25 - 00:02:58
Amy
And before we get started, let's go over just a few housekeeping items. This event today is scheduled to last approximately 30 minutes. Please feel free to use the chat feature on your screen to ask any questions as they come throughout the presentation today, and we'll be sure to follow up with you after the event concludes. Lastly, this session is being recorded and the replay will be made available and sent out in the coming days for those that wish to revisit the content, or for anyone who couldn't make it live today. Without further ado, let's kick things off and jump into our discussion today. Are you ready, Tom?
00:02:59 - 00:03:00
Tom Grosso
Let's do it.
00:03:01 - 00:03:09
Amy
All right. First topic is for you. What are your thoughts on the importance of meeting your customers where they are for immediate answers?
00:03:10 - 00:04:14
Tom
Thanks, Amy. Great question. So from my perspective, meeting customers where they are is a crucial aspect of providing excellent service and support, which includes understanding the different personas within your organization. We must understand that the landscape for the service desk is rapidly changing and has significantly changed from where it was at in the early two thousands as an example. Persona based support, hyper automation and AI powered contact center, self-service, virtual assistance, concierge support are must haves in today's landscape. But it's also about understanding and being present and the channels and platforms where your customers spend their time and are most comfortable with seeking help. But why is that important?
00:04:15 - 00:05:08
Tom
Number one, it's convenience. Customers appreciate the ability to reach out for support in a way that fits seamlessly into their daily routine without having to go out of their way for help. So convenience, super important and making it easy to get support when it's needed. Number 2 is speed. Immediate answers can significantly enhance customer satisfaction. In today's fast paced world, people expect quick responses. There's just no other way to put it. Being available in the right places means you can offer faster support in a convenient manner that makes customers want to come back time and time again when they need assistance.
00:05:09 - 00:05:52
Tom
Number 3 is a competitive edge. Offering support across various channels can give you an advantage over competitors who may not be as accessible. It shows that you are forward-thinking and more importantly, customer focused. Number 4 is personalization. Meeting customers on their preferred platforms allows for more personalized interactions. It ties back to that whole persona based support methodology and thinking. You can tailor your support based on the context of each channel and the customer's history.
00:05:53 - 00:06:41
Tom
Lastly is feedback and insights. Interacting with customers across different platforms can also provide valuable feedback and insights into their behavior, their preferences and pain points. What's going well, what's not going well? How do they prefer to contact the service desk? What is their preferred avenue? What is most convenient for them? By considering these points and implementing a strategy that puts the customer's preferences at the forefront, organizations can enhance their service desk operations, their service desk experience, and build stronger relationships with their end users.
00:06:42 - 00:07:20
Amy
Yeah. I really like the point you made around convenience because that's something for me that I feel strongly about and you and I both make the joke that we never pick up the phone to call the service desk. So when it comes to convenience for us, we're looking for those alternatives out there like sending off a quick email or trying to find the answers through a level zero knowledge base or working with a virtual agent. Those are things that really fit seamlessly into my day-to-day work life. And if I have to pick up the phone, I will. But I do prefer the other options, and it's really important to be able to provide those different channels of communications for your end users.
00:07:21 - 00:07:53
Tom
And I agree. Again, it comes back to understanding the different personas within your organization. The different generational workforces have their own preferences. You have that subset of folks that prefer to call, that prefer to email, prefer to chat. And then you have folks like you and I who will do anything and everything to avoid picking up the phone, have to figure it out ourselves. Worst case scenario, we will engage with a virtual assistant to at least kick us in the right direction.
00:07:54 - 00:07:55
Amy
Yeah, definitely.
00:07:56 - 00:08:10
Tom
But while we're on persona-based support and the service experience differences that it can make and really understanding the different personas within each organization, I'd like to direct the question to you, Amy.
00:08:11 - 00:08:12
Amy
Sure.
00:08:13 - 00:08:22
Tom
From your perspective, why do you think it is essential to provide a consistent customer service experience in today's landscape?
00:08:23 - 00:09:02
Amy
Yeah. And to build upon your previous comments about meeting users where they are, it's important to do that, but to also maintain a consistent customer service experience while doing so. It's going to be really important for trust building with your customers. They should feel confident knowing what to expect when they reach out to the service desk for support, whether that's by phone, email, or self-service customers will really appreciate knowing that they'll receive the same level of service each and every time they reach out. And I think you just mentioned the different working generations, and that's something very true in today's world now and in the service desk we have different means for contacting support.
00:09:03 - 00:09:38
Amy
So when we talk about different generations, we have generations like baby boomers that may prefer to reach out by phone, or you have Gen Z that may prefer something like virtual agent, but it's going to be really important to make sure that you get the same service regardless of the avenue you're taking to contact support. And there really needs to be consistency in how you deliver that support. That consistency is really going to increase customer loyalty since customers will appreciate knowing that they'll receive the same level of service each and every time they reach out for support.
00:09:39 - 00:10:10
Amy
And your brand as the service desk, really needs to be associated with positive and dependable interactions that leave customers happy and knowing that they're getting immediate answers. The consistent service makes customers interactions with the service desk really smooth and frictionless. And also when you think about it internally, consistent customer service is really going to drive operational efficiency as everybody on the service desk team is very clear on any processes and their expectations.
00:10:11 - 00:11:35
Tom
Well said, yeah. I like the remark that you made around your brand. You stand by your brand. And from the service desk perspective, everything starts and finishes at the service desk. Be in the frontline for anything IT related, working directly with end users, your brand is everything. Let's face it, only takes 1, 2, maybe 3 bad experiences to avoid that individual from coming back. So brand is super important and the way that you represent your brand at all times out of the gate is super critical in ensuring that users are coming back every time. They're not bypassing the service desk, they're not going through alternate means of support. So I do like the brand call out. And as we've been discussing, yes, understanding that your personas and that generational workforce, it really all does tie together and ensuring that if you really want to deliver a top notch service, you got to be available in avenues that are convenient, very, very quick for them to get the support that they need.
00:11:36 - 00:11:58
Amy
And consistency, as I was mentioning, as it relates to your brand and reputation, you don't ever really want to have an end user that says, "If I call the service desk, I always get the support I need. But if I use email, I don't normally get the same level of experience." So that's why it's really important to, if you're going to have those different channels for support, you're providing consistency through all channels.
00:11:59 - 00:12:22
Tom
Absolutely. Yeah. But while we're still talking about customer satisfaction and improving service desk operations, I'd like to direct another question to you. From your perspective, what strategies within service desk operations improve customer satisfaction through an outcomes driven approach?
00:12:23 - 00:12:44
Amy
Great question. So there's many strategies to think of when improving customer satisfaction. I'll dive into 6 of them for the sake of time. Clear definition of outcomes, it's important to define what success looks like for both the business and the customer. Your organization should have clear outcomes defined for both.
00:12:45 - 00:13:14
Amy
Customer-centric metrics. Most service metrics are really now just table stakes. When you talk about calls percentage, average speed of answer or live answer percentage. Those metrics are all really just expected at this point for you to deliver on. And what your organization should focus on is customer-centric metrics like first call resolution or first level resolution and customer satisfaction. Think about the watermelon SLA effect for an example.
00:13:15 - 00:13:58
Amy
When you're just measuring those performance-based metrics, your service indicators are all going to appear green, much like the outside of a watermelon. However, those metrics aren't really going to be good indicators if there is any dissatisfaction or any underlying issues with support. And that's why it's imperative to focus on those customer-centric metrics to really have a pulse on how customers are feeling about the service desk. There are even ACD tools out there that have the ability to monitor customer sentiments to really dial into this more. It's really important to set and adhere to SLA's that align with customers expectations.
00:13:59 - 00:14:36
Amy
Tools and technology. This is another really big one. So as an organization, you need to empower your agents with the right tools and technology. And we all know that technology is ever-changing and staying up to date on the latest technology is super, super critical. If your service desk is not leveraging AI, you're really going to be missing out on ways to improve customer satisfaction and ways to also empower your service desk agents. As an example on something that we do at CAI, our AC platform talk desk has a generative AI feature called Copilot.
00:14:37 - 00:15:22
Amy
Not to be confused with Microsoft's Copilot, it's a different product, but this functionality, what it does is it listens to the call transcription and at the end of the call, it'll generate a summary of what occurred during that call and any next steps. And what that's going to do is it allows the services' agent to copy and paste that summary directly into the ITSM tool. Implementing this feature has really significantly reduced the amount of time that agents spend doing after call work. I think on average it's only around 6 minutes or so that it takes to perform that after call work. And since implementing this, we've seen those numbers go down to around 2 minutes. That allows people to get back into queue and helping the next customer.
00:15:23 - 00:16:00
Amy
Personalization. What better way to make a customer happy than to personalize their experience? This really boils down to the tools that you're using, but we have found that finding tools that can be easily integrated makes for the best user experience. So by integrating your ITSM tool and your ACD tool, you have more options to explore for more personalized experience. Imagine calling into the service desk and before you get to an agent, the agent already knows who you are and what you're calling about. This allows the agent and the customer to immediately jump into working towards a resolution.
00:16:01 - 00:16:02
Tom
Yeah. Very powerful.
00:16:03 - 00:16:29
Amy
Continuous training. Ongoing training needs to be provided to 4 agents so that they can stay up-to-date on technology changes, process changes, and even those soft skills, it's really vital to continue to improve their skills and ensure that every agent is clear on processes and procedures. It's extremely important to have continuous ongoing training and not just training right out of the gate as somebody starts providing support.
00:16:30 - 00:17:14
Amy
And lastly, quality assurance. Having a quality assurance program in place is absolutely crucial. It helps to ensure that agents are delivering excellent and consistent service to customers and not just answering the phones. So going back to our previous topic around consistent service, a good QA program will ensure you maintain a consistently high standard of service. A good QA program will also assist in continuous training. So as you're looking through the results of the quality assurance program, that'll help you really pinpoint any skills and knowledge that either the team or any individuals may need to work on.
00:17:15 - 00:18:13
Tom
Yeah. Good call out, Amy. A couple of things that really stood out to me was your brief discussion around customer-centric metrics. And you're right, performance metrics in today's world, purely table stakes. They are an expectation. That's what it takes to do business. And I know even with interfacing with our client base on the day-to-day, that's not where the focus is at in today's landscape. It's merely an expectation. Sure, I'm not saying that these metrics don't matter and that our clients don't care about them, but from an experience perspective, that's not where the focus is at. Ensuring that we're meeting our abandon rate objectives, we're meeting our average speed to answer objectives. It's really around how can we better effectively measure what that customer experience truly is?
00:18:14 - 00:19:08
Tom
And you mentioned the watermelon effect, which I thought was great. Yes, you could look at a metrics report and everything's green, but then there's still a lot of noise happening on the inside, in terms of what the customer journey truly was. I mean, let's face it when we say we're handling an issue that we went through all of the proper troubleshooting, went through all of the applicable SOPs, and it's still something that we can't resolve and it has to get to a level 2 or a level 3 team, think about the different experiences an end user could get in the event that that needs to happen. Not necessarily in control, not necessarily something that the service desk can control, but of course we can influence through escalation procedures.
00:19:09 - 00:20:01
Tom
But in working with our customers, we're getting challenged on how can we better measure true customer satisfaction? Not just relying on your standard email surveys that get distributed a few days after a ticket closes, or whatever the case may be. Those tend to either get moved into its own folder or forgotten about, and it's a few days after the fact. I think it's super important to be able to get that feedback in real time, which is one of the reasons why we have started to pivot to after call surveys through our ACD tool, getting that feedback in real time. But also, it's definitely worth taking a look at other measures, not just survey data. So I know a lot of our customers like to leverage MPS and that promoter scores. That's one way to do it.
00:20:02 - 00:21:14
Tom
But another consideration to make is taking a look at implementing a customer effort score, which realistically encompasses the entire customer journey, starting at the service desk, all the way through resolution, if it's something that the service desk can't resolve. So I'll use another example. Somebody calls in with an issue that the service desk can't resolve. It gets moved to a level 2, level 3 team, and they sit on it for days. That's pretty painful for a customer to go through. Odds are probably reaching out for status updates, checking their ticket status, and their self-service portal. And it comes back to that watermelon effect that you mentioned. While it looks good on the outside from a service desk perspective, because we did everything that we were supposed to do, we answered that call quickly. All of that stuff that of what it takes to run a great desk, but from a resolution perspective, it took 3, 4 days behind the scenes. And that's tough to measure if you don't put the effort in to really take a look into it.
00:21:15 - 00:22:01
Tom
So I think a customer effort score approach is a solid direction to start taking a look at and start heading into, which is something that we're doing here at CAI, but all good call-outs. The other thing that came to my mind was your brief discussion around tools and technology. That's super important. It's not just about customer efficiency gains, but what about aging or analyst efficiency gains. Being able to make their jobs easier by leveraging and augmenting with generative AI solutions has gone a tremendously long way for us, and we're just at the tip of the iceberg here. So good call outs.
00:22:02 - 00:22:47
Amy
Yeah. And circling back to what you were saying around customer satisfaction, you mentioned we're implementing surveys within our IVR, which we have seen a lot of success with. We're definitely seeing a higher return rate. But in addition to that, I think that's also really important that we're starting to look at customer sentiments as well, even through surveys. You're lucky if you hear from 10% of your user base, but outside of that, how is everybody else feeling? So that's why I think customer sentiment has really been a game changer for us because we're getting to analyze all of our customer interactions and getting to see if they're positive, neutral, negative. But that's been really insightful to see really getting to hear from the users that aren't actually filling out the surveys
00:22:48 - 00:22:53
Tom
And the quiet users are the ones you really need to hone in on.
00:22:54 - 00:22:59
Amy
Yeah, definitely. But Tom, I want to switch gears here a little bit and talk about security.
00:23:00 - 00:23:01
Tom
All right.
00:23:01 - 00:23:09
Amy
Why is securing your service desk operations important and how does that relate to customer experience?
00:23:10 - 00:24:21
Tom
Great question. I hold this aspect of our operations near and dear to my heart, but let's face it, security is everyone's responsibility and the service desk is a key player in maintaining and enhancing an organization's security posture. From my perspective, to best secure your service desk, you need to start with that security conscience culture aided by robust security policies. And more importantly, educational programs, not only for your service desk agents, but for the end-users as well. Things like this will improve overall service desk performance, and more importantly, reduce and mitigate risk where possible. But it's often asked, what's the relationship between security and customer experience? And most organizations security teams are a completely separate entity from the service desk and vice versa. But there are 5 key things that I feel play a part from a service desk perspective in aiding the overall customer experience.
00:24:22 - 00:25:04
Tom
Number one is confidence in service. A secure service desk fosters confidence among customers. They feel assured that their interactions and data are handled with care and protected against unauthorized access. Making them feel that we care more about their data than themselves, goes a long way. And it's true. I mean, let's face it. We have a lot of power and access within any given network. I mean, think about fulfilling service requests, altering credentials, providing tokens, VPN access, Citrix access, the latter. All of that is at the power and fingertips of the service desk.
00:25:05 - 00:25:38
Tom
Service continuity, number two. By preventing security related downtime, customers experience uninterrupted access to support services, which is essential to a positive customer experience. Nobody likes downtime. Nobody likes unproductive time. Number 3 is reputation management, which is also very important to me. The secure operation helps maintain and enhance the company's reputation, especially in our space. A good reputation is vital for customer satisfaction and more importantly, loyalty.
00:25:39 - 00:26:39
Tom
Number 4 is personalized support. Secure operations enable service desks to safely use customer data to provide more personalized and effective support, improving the overall customer experience. Lastly is faster resolution. A secure service desk infrastructure can contribute to faster issue resolution times by employing advanced tools and technologies that rely on secure access to data. In essence, securing service desk operations, it's not just about preventing negative outcomes. It's also about enabling positive customer experiences through reliable, trustworthy, and efficient support. Customers are more likely to remain loyal and satisfied when they trust that the organization values and protects their privacy and data.
00:26:39 - 00:27:10
Amy
And all really great points. And when you think about security, it really is every single person's responsibility. And that's why it's critical to provide end user training for your entire organization and also the service desk. It's really important for us that we're effectively training our service desk agents on security and the importance of following the procedures that we have in place. The service desk is very, very prone to social engineering attacks, and it's really important that we're on our A-game and at-
00:27:11 - 00:27:12
Tom
All times.
00:27:12 - 00:27:41
Amy
Every time. You don't want to be that person that causes an incident or anything like that. All right. Well, unfortunately, it looks like our time is up for today. It has been an absolute pleasure chatting with you all. Thank you to all of you who joined us today. Your participation and engagement have made this webinar a great success. We hope you found it as enlightening and enjoyable as we did. We hope you take away these 3 key lessons from today.
00:27:42 - 00:28:06
Amy
Number one, personalize the customer experience. Leverage customer data to tailor support interactions, making each encounter feel unique and personal. Remember past interactions and preferences to provide a seamless experience, regardless of the communication channel. Trained service desk staff in soft skills to enhance empathy and communication, which are very key to personalizing support.
00:28:07 - 00:28:32
Amy
Number 2, proactive support and engagement. Anticipate customer needs and problems before they arise. This could involve monitoring for common issues and reaching out to customers with solutions before they contact you. Engage with customers regularly, not just when they have problems to build stronger relationships. Stay adaptable and open the feedback using customer insights to continuously refine the service experience.
00:28:33 - 00:29:10
Tom
And number 3, embrace technology and automation. Utilize AI and machine learning to provide smarter and more efficient support. Tools like chatbots and virtual assistants can handle routine inquiries, freeing up human agents to tackle more complex issues. Implement self-service options such as knowledge bases and user forums, which empower customers to find solutions on their own. Use analytics to monitor service desk's performance, and identify areas for improvement.
00:29:11 - 00:29:49
Tom
In the coming days, we will be sending everyone that attended a recording of this event to share with your colleagues or peers. In this follow-up email, you'll also find additional resources related to today's topic, which is also posted in the chat area of this event. In addition to the link to the event recording, we encourage you to review these materials and continue your learning journey with us. Don't forget to check out our upcoming webinars and events. We have some exciting topics lined up and we would be delighted to see you here. Details will be included in the follow-up email and on our website.
00:29:50 - 00:30:32
Tom
Lastly, if you posted a question related to today's discussion, rest assured we will follow up with you separately once today's event has concluded. If you are interested in learning more about CAI Service Desk or know someone that is, please visit our website at cai.io and fill out our contact form. Or you can even contact one of our team members via LinkedIn. Thank you and have a great rest of your day, and really appreciate everybody joining us this morning. Thank you.
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Dive deep into the strategies for integrating the needs of various working generations into your service desk operations to enhance your service desk and exceed customer expectations. Gain insights on:
Creating a proactive culture within your service desk team
Aligning operational goals with business visions
Solidifying the service desk's role in maintaining security
Watch to learn how to connect with customers effectively, deliver exceptional service consistently, and understand the crucial link between security and customer satisfaction. Reach out for an assessment of your service desk!
