Design a VIP Experience for Your Service Desk

VIPs and executives expect to get immediate service for every IT issue, no matter how minor, and the service desk is constantly in reactive mode trying to quickly resolve these issues.
VIPs don’t understand or have input into service desk processes, procedures, and SLAs, especially when it comes to prioritization of their issues over other tickets.
The C-suite calls the CIO directly with every issue they have, tying them up and forcing them to redirect resources with little notice.
VIP tickets sit in the queue too long without a response or resolution, and VIPs are dissatisfied with the service they receive.

Our Advice

Critical Insight

Service desk and IT leaders are unclear on VIPs' service delivery expectations or the best support model to meet their needs while continuing to meet SLAs for the rest of the organization.
Deploying resources to service VIPs ahead of other users or more critical problems can result in inappropriate prioritization of issues and poor service delivery to the rest of the organization.
The reality for most organizations is that VIPs need special treatment; but providing VIP service shouldn’t come at the expense of good service delivery for the rest of the organization.

Impact and Result

Stop being reactive to VIP requests and start planning for them so you can formally define the service and set expectations.
Talk to all relevant stakeholders to clarify their expectations before choosing a VIP service delivery model. Once you have designed your model, define and document the VIP service processes and procedures and communicate them to your stakeholders so everyone is clear on what is in and out of scope.
Once you’ve launched the service, track and report on key service desk metrics associated with VIP requests so you can properly allocate resources, budget accurately, evaluate the effectiveness of the service and demonstrate it to executives.

Design a VIP Experience for Your Service Desk Research & Tools

1. Design a VIP Experience for Your Service Desk Storyboard – A guide to defining your VIP service desk support model

Follow the seven steps outlined in this blueprint to design a VIP support model that best suits your organization, then communicate and evaluate the service to ensure it delivers results.

2. Service Desk VIP Procedures Template – A customizable template to document your service desk procedures for handling VIP tickets.

This template is designed to assist with documenting your service desk procedures for handling VIP or executive tickets. It can be adapted and customized to reflect your specific support model and procedures.

3. VIP Support Process Workflow Example – A Visio template to document your process for resolving VIP tickets.

This Visio template provides an example of a VIP support process, with every step involved in resolving or fulfilling VIP service desk tickets. Use this as an example to follow and a template to document your own process.

4. VIP Support Service Communication Template – A customizable PowerPoint template to communicate and market the service to VIP users.

This template can be customized to use as an executive presentation to communicate and market the service to VIP users and ensure everyone is on the same page.

Design a VIP Experience for Your Service Desk

Keep the C-suite satisfied without sacrificing service to the rest of the organization.

Analyst Perspective

Stop being reactive to VIP demands and formalize their service offering.

Natalie Sansone, PHD

Research Director,
Infrastructure & Operations
Info-Tech Research Group

In a perfect world, executives wouldn’t need any special treatment because the service desk could rapidly resolve every ticket, regardless of the submitter, keeping satisfaction levels high across the board.

But we know that’s not the case for most organizations. Executives and VIPs demand higher levels of service because the reality in most companies is that their time is worth more. And any IT leader who’s had a VIP complain about their service knows that their voice also carries more weight than that of a regular dissatisfied user.

That said, most service desks feel strapped for resources and don’t know how to improve service for VIPs without sacrificing service to the rest of the organization.

The key is to stop being reactive to VIP demands and formalize your VIP service procedures so that you can properly set expectations for the service, monitor and measure it, and continually evaluate it to make changes if necessary.

A VIP offering doesn’t have to mean a premium concierge service, either – it could simply mean prioritizing VIP tickets differently. How do you decide which level of service to offer? Start by assessing your specific needs based on demand, gather requirements from relevant stakeholders, choose the right approach to fit your business needs and capabilities, clearly define and document all aspects of the service then communicate it so that everyone is on the same page as to what is in and out of scope, and continually monitor and evaluate the service to make changes and improvements as needed.

Executive Summary

Your Challenge

VIPs and executives expect to get immediate service for every IT issue, no matter how minor, and the service desk is constantly in reactive mode trying to quickly resolve these issues.
VIPs don’t understand or have input into service desk processes, procedures, and SLAs, especially when it comes to prioritization of their issues over other tickets.
The C-suite calls the CIO directly with every issue they have, tying them up and forcing them to redirect resources with little notice.
VIP tickets sit in the queue too long without a response or resolution, and VIPs are dissatisfied with the service they receive.

Common Obstacles

Service desk and IT leaders are unclear on the expectations that VIPs have for service delivery, or they disagree about the best support model to meet their needs while continuing to meet SLAs for the rest of the organization.
Service desk teams with limited resources are unsure how best to allocate those resources to handle VIP tickets in a timely manner.
There aren’t enough resources available at the service desk to provide the level of service that VIPs expect for their issues.
Deploying resources to service VIPs ahead of other users can result in inappropriate prioritization of issues and poor service delivery to the rest of the organization

Info-Tech's Approach

Stop being reactive to VIP requests and start planning for them so you can formally define the service and set expectations.
Talk to all relevant stakeholders to clarify their expectations before choosing a VIP service delivery model.
Define and document the VIP service processes and procedures, including exactly what is in and out of scope.
Track and report on metrics associated with VIP requests so you can properly allocate resources and budget for the service.
Continually evaluate the service to expand, reduce, or redefine it, as necessary.

Info-Tech Insight

The reality for most organizations is that VIPs need special treatment. But providing VIP service shouldn’t come at the expense of good service delivery for the rest of the organization. To be successful with your approach, formalize the VIP offering to bring consistency and clear expectations for both users and the IT staff delivering the service.

Do any of these scenarios sound familiar?

All these familiar scenarios can occur when the service desk treats VIP issues reactively and doesn’t have a defined, documented, and agreed-upon VIP process in place.

A VIP calls because their personal printer isn’t working, but you also have a network issue affecting payroll being able to issue paychecks. The VIP wants their issue fixed immediately despite there being a workaround and a higher priority incident needing resources.
The COO calls the CIO after hours about issues they’re having with their email. The CIO immediately deploys a field tech back to the office to help the COO. Once the tech arrives, the COO says the issue could have waited until the morning.
The company president wants IT to spend a day at their house setting up their new personal laptop to be able to connect into the office before their vacation tomorrow. It would take away one FTE from an already understaffed service desk.
The CEO brings their child’s new iPhone in and asks the service desk if they have time to set it up as a favor today. The service desk manager instructs the T2 apps specialist to drop his other tickets to work on this immediately.
Two tickets come in at the same time – one is from an SVP who can’t log in to Teams and has an online meeting in half an hour, and the other is for a department of 10 who can’t access the network. The service desk doesn’t know who to help first.

Different organizations can take very different approaches to VIP requests

CASE STUDIES

	Providing VIP support helped this company grow	Allocating a dedicated VIP technician slowed down service delivery for this company
Situation	A SaaS company looking to build and scale its services and customers decided to set up a VIP support program, which involved giving their most valuable customers top-notch treatment to ensure they had a great experience, became long-term customers, and thus had a positive influence on others to build up the company’s customer base.	VIPs were receiving executive-level support with a dedicated person for VIP tickets. The VIPs were happy with the service, but the VIP technician’s regular work was frequently impeded by having to spend most of her time on VIP support activities. The service desk found that in some cases, more critical work was slipping as a result of prioritizing all executive tickets.
Resolution	First, they defined who would receive VIP support, then they clearly defined the service, including what VIP support includes, who gets the service, and what their SLAs for service are. They found that the program was an effective way to focus their limited resources on the customers with the highest value potential to increase sales. While this model differs from an IT service desk VIP support program, the principles of dedicating resources to provide elevated support to your most important and influential customers for the benefit and growth of the company as a whole remain the same.	The service desk decided to remove the VIP function. They demonstrated that the cost per contact was too high for dedicated executive support, and reallocating that dedicated technician to the service desk would improve the resolution time of all business incidents and requests. VIPs could still receive prioritized support through the escalation process, but they would contact the regular service desk with their issues. VIPs approved the change, and as a result of removing the dedicated support function, the service desk reduced average incident resolution times by 28% and request fulfillment times by 33%.

A well-designed and communicated VIP support service can deliver many benefits

The key to deciding whether a VIP service is right for your organization is to first analyze your needs, match them against your resources, then clearly define and document exactly what is in scope for the service.

A successfully designed VIP service will lead to:

Executives and VIPs can easily contact the service desk and receive exceptional support and customer service from a knowledgeable technician, increasing their trust in the service desk.
All service desk tickets are prioritized appropriately and effectively in order to maximize overall ticket resolution and fulfillment times.
All users have a clear understanding of how to get in touch with the service desk and expected SLAs for specific ticket types.
Critical, business-impacting issues still receive priority service ahead of minor tickets submitted by a VIP.
All service desk technicians are clear on processes and procedures for prioritizing and handling VIP tickets.
Executives are satisfied with the service they receive and the value that IT provides
Reduced VIP downtime, contributing to overall organization productivity and growth.

A poorly designed or reactive VIP service will lead to:

VIPs expect immediate service for non-critical issues, including after-hours.
VIPs circumvent the correct process and contact the CIO or service desk manager directly for all their issues.
Service desk resources stretched thin, or poor allocation of resources leads to degraded service for the majority of users.
More critical business issues are pushed back in order to fix non-critical executive issues.
Service desk is not clear how to prioritize tickets and always addresses VIP tickets first regardless of priority.
The service desk automatically acts on VIP tickets even when the VIP doesn’t require it or realize they’re getting a different level of service.
Non-VIP users are aware of the different service levels and try to request the same priority for their tickets. Support costs are over budget.

Follow Info-Tech’s approach to design a successful VIP support model

Follow the seven steps in this blueprint to design a VIP support model that works for your organization:

Understand the support models available, from enhanced service to the same service for everyone.
Gather business requirements from all relevant stakeholders.
Based on your business needs, choose the right approach.
Define and document all details of the VIP service offering.
Communicate and market the offering to VIPs so they’re aware of what’s in scope.
Monitor volume and track metrics to evaluate what’s working.
Continually improve or modify the service as needed over time.

Blueprint deliverables

The templates listed below are designed to assist you with various stages of this project. This storyboard will direct you when and how to complete them.

Service Desk VIP Procedures Template

Use this template to assist with documenting your service desk procedures for handling VIP or executive tickets.

VIP Support Process Workflow Example

Use this Visio template to document your process for resolving or fulfilling VIP tickets, from when the ticket is submitted to when it’s closed.

VIP Support Service Communication Template

Use this template to customize your executive presentation to communicate and market the service to VIP users.

Insight Summary

Key Insight

The reality for most organizations is that VIPs need special treatment. But providing VIP service shouldn’t be at the expense of good service delivery for the rest of the organization. To be successful with your approach, formalize the VIP offering to bring consistency and clear expectations for both users and the IT staff delivering the service.

Additional insights:

Insight 1	VIP service doesn’t have to mean concierge service. There are different levels and models of VIP support that range in cost and level of service provided. Carefully evaluate your needs and capacity to choose the approach that works best for your organization.
Insight 2	This service is for your most valued users, so design it right from the start to ensure their satisfaction. Involve stakeholders from the beginning, incorporate their feedback and requirements, keep them well-informed about the service, and continually collect and act on feedback to deliver the intended value.
Insight 3	Intentional, continual monitoring and measurement of the program must be part of your strategy. If your metrics or feedback show that something isn’t working, fix it. If you find that the perceived value isn’t worth the high cost of the program, make changes. Even if everything seems to be working fine, identify ways to improve it or make it more efficient.

Step 1: Understand the different support models

Step overview:

Understand the support models available, from enhanced service to the same service for everyone

About Info-Tech

Info-Tech Research Group is the world’s fastest-growing information technology research and advisory company, proudly serving over 30,000 IT professionals.

We produce unbiased and highly relevant research to help CIOs and IT leaders make strategic, timely, and well-informed decisions. We partner closely with IT teams to provide everything they need, from actionable tools to analyst guidance, ensuring they deliver measurable results for their organizations.

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A blueprint is designed to be a roadmap, containing a methodology and the tools and templates you need to solve your IT problems.

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