INFO TECH

IT and help desk customer satisfaction surveys provide information and insight for achieving breakthrough increases in IT and corporate effectiveness.

This article describes the reasons for and benefits from conducting IT and help desk customer satisfaction surveys. The article also lists the IT services that IT customer satisfaction surveys are conducted for, and some of the metrics that are included in IT surveys. This article is based on Quantisoft's experience in conducting IT and help desk customer satisfaction surveys for companies with outsourced and in-house IT and help desk services.

IT Incident Follow-up vs. IT Periodic Perception Surveys:

IT customer satisfaction surveys measure the performance and effectiveness of internal and outsourced IT resources, providing IT managers with the information and insight they need to increase performance and customer satisfaction. There are two types of information technology surveys. The first type gathers performance feedback on individual incidents from IT customers. The second type gathers perceptions about IT effectiveness and service over time:
Incident (transaction) follow-up surveys: Incident or transaction follow-up surveys assess how customers feel about how well specific service incidents were handled. These surveys provide information for immediate performance improvement actions by IT management and staff, and for monitoring performance and satisfaction trends.
Semi-annual and annual IT customer satisfaction surveys: Semi-annual and annual satisfaction surveys capture user perceptions about their service experience over the past six or twelve months. Semi-annual and annual satisfaction surveys provide broader and more comprehensive information and insight for understanding and improving customer service performance and overall customer satisfaction levels, and for measuring performance and satisfaction trends.

Information Technology Surveys Measure a Wide Range of IT Services:
Help desk support
Desk side service and support
Break fix support
Install, move, add, change (IMAC) support
Resolver applications maintenance support
Software development
Server operations
Hardware repair
IT procurement
IT training for IT employees and customers
Project effectiveness feedback
Project management office effectiveness (PMO)
IT employee engagement/satisfaction

IT and Help Desk Survey Metrics:

Survey ratings provide a clear indication of current and ongoing levels of performance and satisfaction. Verbatim comments and suggestions provide critical actionable information and insight for achieving breakthrough results.

Survey performance metrics include the following and other service and performance criteria, depending on the type of survey being conducted:
Ease and time required to contact IT / help desk with inquiries and to report problems
Timeliness of initial response from IT / help desk
Timeliness of problem resolution
Courtesy / attitude of IT /help desk staff
Knowledge of customer's environment and other customer pertinent issues
Communications effectiveness
Effectiveness of problem resolution
Follow-up to ensure satisfactory resolution
IT customers' awareness of SLA's (IT service level agreements), service channels, and service policies
Effectiveness of individual IT and help desk staff and teams
Satisfaction levels of customers sorted by their location, business unit and other demographics
Effectiveness of outsourced IT services
Effectiveness of systems developed
Timelines in meeting system development deadlines
Intranet uptime

Benefits of IT and Help Desk Surveys:

Internal and outsourced IT resources are an integral part of any business today. Technology impacts your organization's ability to attract and retain customers, compete effectively, provide high levels of customer service, drive workforce productivity and much more. Quantisoft's IT and help desk surveys enable organizations to realize significantly greater value from costly IT and help desk resources, achieving the following and other benefits for your organization:
Increase IT performance, enabling significant improvements in the performance, effectiveness, competitiveness and satisfaction of IT's internal and external customers
Pinpoint and diagnose IT problems and opportunities, and connect the dots across the organization
Gain insight for prioritizing IT performance improvement initiatives and projects
Achieve breakthrough improvements in IT and help desk service attribute performance including timeliness, professionalism, courtesy, knowledge, communications with customers, problem resolution effectiveness, etc.
Identify and deal with lowest performing IT and help desk staff
Enable IT customers to communicate more effectively with IT and help desk service providers
Increase IT service quality and productivity
Reduce IT costs
Make better, more objective decisions based on customer and employee feedback.
Identify problems and opportunities by agent, IT team, product, site location, communication channel, customer business unit and type and other criteria
Focus investments in IT staffing, training, equipment, teams and programs where they will have the greatest payback
Identify and fix recurring problems
Improve coaching using customer feedback
Increase validity of IT staff reward and recognition based on customer feedback
Send an important message to IT staff and IT customers that IT management cares about performance and satisfaction
Sample survey reports can be viewed at http://www.quantisoft.com/Surveys/Reports.htm

Summary:

IT and help desk customer satisfaction surveys can provide a strong payback in terms of increasing the performance of the IT organization and staff, and in increasing company performance and competitiveness. Whether companies operate their own IT function, or they outsource IT, they need to ensure that they are getting value for their significant expenditures, and that the business is being supported well by IT. For more information about IT surveys please go to http://www.quantisoft.com/Index.htm.

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Howard Deutsch is the CEO of Quantisoft, LLC, a survey company that
conducts employee satisfaction/engagement and other surveys. Our clients
include businesses and governmental organizations ranging in size from
Fortune 500 companies to fewer than 100 employees across many industries.
For more information please visit http://www.quantisoft.com/Index.htm or
contact Howard Deutsch at hdeutsch@quantisoft.com or (609) 409-9945.

View their website at: http://www.quantisoft.com/Index.htm
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