7 Service Desk Best Practices for Modern Enterprises

Today we’re talking about the unsung heroes of the modern workplace: IT service desks. They are the backbone of any organization, holding the key to smooth operations. Whether your team operates in an office-based, remote, or hybrid environment, efficient internal support directly impacts the quality of external services provided.

We delve into seven best practices for the modern enterprise, empowering your service desk team to do their best, most-rewarding work.

1. Get smarter About knowledge management

As your organization expands, see how knowledge management can help you do more with less. Whether it is to train your IT agents faster, help them find resolutions with the least amount of support, or giving your end users the ability to fix things themselves, you should capitalize on existing resources such as Sharepoint, Confluence, or Google. This creates a repository of invaluable insights and troubleshooting guides. Prioritize agent empowerment by providing them with dedicated knowledge resources, ensuring swift and efficient ticket resolution.

💡 Pro tip:  Modern IT solutions simplify knowledge management by offering AI assistants for your agents and employees, accessible via MS Teams or Slack. These AI assistants can read from your knowledge sources like a Confluence or Sharepoint!

2. Build trust and accountability with SLAs

Establish transparent service level agreements (SLAs) to foster accountability and trust within your service desk team. Ensure SLAs are realistic yet ambitious. Factor in all stages of ticket resolution, from initial response to potential reopens, to provide a comprehensive service experience.

3. Automate where possible

In a world inundated with support tasks, automation emerges as a powerful ally. Identify repetitive processes to automate, liberating your team from the time spent in manual app provisioning, password resets, and asset management. Whether you're diving into IT workflows or giving low-code solutions like Zapier a try, ask yourself: if it can’t be automated, is it worth the effort?

💡 Pro tip: Building and maintaining your own workflows can become quite time consuming. See if your ITSM offers prebuilt or out of the box actions for securely talking to platforms like Okta, Azure AD or Google. This way, the native integration is set up once and easily maintained for a lifetime :)

4. Adopt employee self-service solutions

”Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime”.

Embrace the philosophy of self-sufficiency by enabling employees to resolve simple queries independently. By offering self-service options for routine tasks, your service desk can focus on tackling more complex issues, fostering productivity across the organization.

💡 Pro tip: For self-service to work, end-user experience is key. In an era where work has moved from email to Slack or MS Teams, why not offer modern ITSM support that is a DM away?

5. Dive deep into data

Invest in robust reporting and forecasting mechanisms to gain actionable insights into service desk performance. Automate the generation of reports tracking resolution times, ticket backlog, and asset history. This enables informed decision-making. Identify trends and inefficiencies to streamline processes and enhance overall operational effectiveness.

6. ESM > ITSM

Look beyond IT service management (ITSM) to enterprise service management.

Great service desks can empower every internal team - HR, Payroll, CSM, etc. - to establish their own support frameworks. By fostering a culture of excellence across the board, your service desk becomes the MVP of organizational success.

7.  Choose the right service desk tool

Start by selecting a platform that aligns with your unique business needs. Assess your common IT issues, preferred communication channels, and ticket volume per agent. Finding a tool that connects easily with your tech stack, insightful metrics, and user-friendly interfaces sets your team up for success. Remember, distinguishing between customer and employee support is crucial for effective service desk management.

💡 Pro tip: Instead of opting for legacy solutions with 'bolt-on' AI chatbots, consider an ITSM software with AI built-in to each module from the ground up. This allows you to use AI for knowledge management, intelligent service automation, intelligent incident clustering & reporting that enables proactive ITSM.

In today's ever-changing business landscape, adaptability is key. By implementing these seven best practices tailored for the modern enterprise, you equip your team with the tools and strategies necessary to thrive amidst constant change. Remember, a proactive and adaptable service desk not only resolves IT issues but becomes a driving force behind organizational excellence, fueling growth and innovation at every turn.