Eyes are the windows of the soul
We've all heard and possibly even used the expression "the eyes are the windows of the soul". The thinking is that when we look into someone's eyes, we can see their soul "who they really are", "if we like them" and all "in a heart-beat" of time. In fact, scientific research has found there may be some truth to this by observing patterns found in the pupil and correlating them to emotional traits.
Do customers see soul of IT through Service Desk?
Every customer experience with a service provider, good/bad or indifferent, is a “moment of truth”. Did needs get fulfilled, adequately, quickly, and with minimal effort? These moments or experiences shape our perceptions and opinions of the overall quality and service value received from a service provider.
As a consumer of IT services, when we need something, we are encouraged to contact the Service Desk, the single place to go for all things. The Service Desk provides a vital day-to-day contact point between Customers, Users, IT services and third-party support organizations. Additionally, the Service Desk provides value in that it helps lower support costs, simplifies access to services, warrants end-to-end services delivery, enables change, ensures user satisfaction, safeguards customer retention, and assists in the identification of business opportunities.
Strategically, the Service Desk is probably the most important function in an IT organization. For many, the Service Desk is their only window on the level of service and professionalism offered by the whole organization or an IT department. It delivers the prime service component of “Customer Perception and Satisfaction”, represents the “Interests of the Customer” to the service team and is the provider and keeper of “Management Information”.
A professional and well-oiled Service Desk is one-of, maybe even, the-most critical “Value Delivery” components in IT’s value stream.
What's preventing creation of a killer Service Desk?
Maybe you agree that Service Desk is a strategic asset and needs to be improved but there's too many things in the way.
- Everything is top priority
- Too busy fire-fighting
- That’s never worked here before
- No executive buy-in
- Under time-crunch to get things done
- Resource capacity/skill/knowledge constraints
- People naturally resist change
- Making improvements stick and deliver value is not easy.
Wouldn't it be great if there was a way to make improvements to the Service Desk i.e. easier, faster and with minimal effort.
What is Lean IT Discipline?
- The core thinking is to maximize customer value while minimizing waste.
- Lean means creating more value for customers with fewer resources.
- Lean is about eliminating waste i.e. things that don't add customer value and consume resources.
- A lean organization understands customer value and optimizes its key processes to continuously increase it.
- The ultimate goal is to provide perfect value to the customer through a perfect value creation process that has zero waste.
Examples of Lean Customer Service Desk!
Listen to real-world examples of how Lean IT made a difference.
- Better IT customer service desk by reducing Muda (waste) to improve incident flow.
- IT prevents loss of major business customers by reducing Mura (variance) to improve customer services.
- Service Desk managers develop strategy & tactics to free up executive resources by reducing time spent on major outages.
Learn More @Webcast "Better Customer Service Desk using Lean IT Thinking"
This session is to share how IT Managers used proven Lean IT improvement practices to deliver quality to customers, identify waste and eliminate it, improve efficiency and the overall speed of execution.
Join us on March 16th at 11:00am EDT for a Lean ITSM Webinar. We'll record the event in case you can't make the date.
Register for Lean ITSM Webinar: Better Customer Service Desk using Lean IT Thinking
In 45 minutes we will cover:
- Real-world examples of applying Lean IT thinking
- Light-weight Lean CSI process “domino effect” used to plan backwards & execute forwards
- CSI value canvas “visual tool” used to create one-page strategy for executive and stakeholder buy-in
- CSI register “dashboard” used to assign & monitor details required for successful improvement projects
- CSI controls “critical to quality” used to create supporting metrics, analytics, evidence and artifacts
- Kaizen “problem solving” method used to find problems, identify root causes and eliminate them for good.
- How to build your Dream Team with available training and certifications
- Tips on how to get started
Learn the secrets of how to design, build and deploy a simple light-weight Lean CSI process to create business value faster and with minimal resources.
Take away a free CSI value canvas with actionable steps to build your own dream team.
BIO
David Smith is the President of Micromationinc.com, an IT Consultancy that specializes in IT service optimization. David is also Lean IT and Kaizen certified, ITIL Expert, ISO 20000 Consultant and TCO Expert. He has 30 + years’ experience in managing and improving the quality, efficiency and effectiveness of IT service delivery for commercial IT vendors as well as the internal IT organizations of well-known private and public sector companies.
David is the author of “Implementing Metrics for IT Service Management” ISBN: 9789087531140 and contributing co-author of "IT Service Management - Global Best Practices" ISBN: 9789087531003.