Deliver a Customer Service Training Program to Your IT Department | Info-Tech Research Group

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The scope of service that the service desk must provide has expanded. With the growing complexity of technologies to support, it becomes easy to forget the customer service side of the equation. Meanwhile, customer expectations for prompt, frictionless, and exceptional service from anywhere have grown.
IT departments struggle to hire and retain talented service desk agents with the right mix of technical and customer service skills.
Some service desk agents don’t believe or understand that customer service is an integral part of their role.
Many IT leaders don’t ask for feedback from users to know if there even is a customer service problem.

Our Advice

Critical Insight

There’s a common misconception that customer service skills can’t be taught, so no effort is made to improve those skills.
Even when there is a desire to improve customer service, it’s hard for IT teams to make time for training and improvement when they’re too busy trying to keep up with tickets.
A talented service desk agent with both great technical and customer service skills doesn’t have to be a rare unicorn, and an agent without innate customer service skills isn’t a lost cause. Relevant and impactful customer service habits, techniques, and skills can be taught through practical, role-based training.
IT leaders can make time for this training through targeted, short modules along with continual on-the-job coaching and development.

Impact and Result

Good customer service is critical to the success of the service desk. How a service desk treats its customers will determine its customers' satisfaction with not only IT but also the company as a whole.
Not every technician has innate customer service skills. IT managers need to provide targeted, practical training on what good customer service looks like at the service desk.
One training session is not enough to make a change. Leaders must embed the habits, create a culture of engagement and positivity, provide continual coaching and development, regularly gather customer feedback, and seek ways to improve.

Deliver a Customer Service Training Program to Your IT Department Research & Tools

Start here – read the Executive Brief

Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should deliver customer service training to your team, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the four ways we can support you in completing this project.

1. Deliver customer service training to your IT team

Understand the importance of customer service training, then deliver Info-Tech's training program to your IT team.

Member Testimonials

After each Info-Tech experience, we ask our members to quantify the real-time savings, monetary impact, and project improvements our research helped them achieve. See our top member experiences for this blueprint and what our clients have to say.

10.0/10

Overall Impact

$2,740

Average $ Saved

15

Average Days Saved

Client

Experience

Impact

$ Saved

Days Saved

Testimonial

Sun River Health

Workshop

10/10

N/A

20

Sessions were very interactive and interesting. Thanks for your help, Joe.

Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission

Guided Implementation

10/10

$2,740

9

Can't really put a price on the value of customer service. Really thankful for Ben and Hillory.

BDO Canada LLP

Guided Implementation

10/10

N/A

N/A

Benedict Chang is a true expert in his field. The best part is hearing about the expertise and seeing the Info-Tech supporting documents.

Digital Armour Corporation

Guided Implementation

10/10

$1,239

1

Benedict

VGM Group, Inc.

Guided Implementation

10/10

$7,439

10

Allison, is quite knowledgeable on the topic that was discussed during our call.

Load More Testimonials

Workshop: Deliver a Customer Service Training Program to Your IT Department

Workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.

Module 1: Training preparation with team lead

The Purpose

Info-Tech analysts will review the training program with the training sponsor or team lead ahead of the training session.

Key Benefits Achieved

Activities

Outputs

1.1

Evaluating existing sources of feedback around customer service to help determine challenges.

1.2

Selecting participants and delivery approach.

1.3

Building an agenda with timing.

1.4

Reviewing training objectives and content.

1.5

Customizing training activities to be more specific to your organization where needed.

Customer Service Training for the Service Desk (training deck)

Module 2: Customer service training program: Part 1

The Purpose

Review the importance of customer service in our roles, how to show a customer focus, and best practices for verbal communication.

Key Benefits Achieved

Understanding of the importance of customer service skills
Target customer focus proficiency levels
Techniques for active listening
Best practices to effectively communicate a response

Activities

Outputs

2.1

Introductions

2.2

Why is customer service important?

2.3

Customer service focus

2.4

Verbal communication

Customer Focus Competency Worksheet
Cheat Sheet: Service Desk Communication

Module 3: Customer service training program: Part 2

The Purpose

Review best practices for written communication, practice techniques to manage difficult customer and situations, and define activities to go the extra mile.

Key Benefits Achieved

Define a consistent approach to written communication across the team
Prepare to effectively listen and respond to difficult customers
Practice responding to difficult situations
Define what it means to go the extra mile for our customers

Activities

Outputs

3.1

Written communication

3.2

Managing difficult situations

3.3

Going the extra mile

3.4

Conclusion and key takeaways

Cheat Sheet: Service Desk Written Communication

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.

What Is a Blueprint?

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

Each blueprint can be accompanied by a Guided Implementation that provides you access to our world-class analysts to help you get through the project.

Table of Contents

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Get the help you need in this 5-phase advisory process. You'll receive 5 touchpoints with our researchers, all included in your membership.

Guided Implementation 1: Scoping

Call 1: Scope requirements, objectives, and your specific challenges to determine if the training is the right fit.

Guided Implementation 2: Training overview

Call 1: Review the training audience, learning objectives, and delivery approach.

Guided Implementation 3: Training preparation

Call 1: Review the training content to ensure the facilitator is comfortable delivering the material and to answer any questions.

Guided Implementation 4: Post-training feedback

Call 1: Discuss how the training went, what feedback was gathered, and the plan to address questions and feedback.

Guided Implementation 5: Continual learning plan

Call 1: Discuss strategies to embed the habits learned and continually provide feedback and coaching.

Author

Natalie Sansone

Contributors

Varun Sawhney, Director, Learning and Development, Netflix
Nine anonymous contributors

Search Code: 95949
Last Revised: January 14, 2021

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