The HDI 2016 Conference and Expo happened last week in Orlando, Florida. For ManageEngine, it was a busy, engaging, and a very satisfying experience. IT admins, help desk managers, and others walked into our booth to check out the host of ManageEngine products, keeping us on our toes throughout the day. ManageEngine’s flagship product, ServiceDesk Plus, was in focus. A few customers walked in and shared their ServiceDesk Plus experiences with inquiring visitors—let’s call it word-of-mouth marketing!
As always, the HDI event was packed with keynote speeches and multiple learning tracks. The expo floor buzzed with action as attendees shared their help desk stories, pain points, and processes.
We learned good service management from unlikely avenues, like Uber. Our hotel was several miles away from the HDI 2016 venue. Uber helped us commute back and forth. After spending a considerable amount of time on the Uber app, it struck us that the app—and our travel experiences—had some service management lessons for us. Here are some of the ITSM realizations we got from Uber,
-
Service catalog is the key.
Uber’s services, including UberGO, UberX, and UberXL, are categorized appropriately and listed right at the bottom of the app, making it easy to choose the service that you need. An ideal IT service catalog, meanwhile, should be easily accessible, listing all the services that the end user is entitled to. Categorizing services and creating pre-filled request templates helps elevate the end-user experience.
-
The right information helps.
With Uber, all information, including car availability, details, and driver details such as contact number, location, and ratings, are all available in a single window. Likewise, IT help desk end users should have access to all information related to their requests such as the assigned technician, technician contact details, request status, the related SLA, and approval status, if any.
-
Instant push notifications to the rescue.
With end users becoming more and more social media savvy, managing real-time updates has become an integral part of service delivery. Uber enables real-time tracking of their cars through GPS, and even provides push notifications to alert users when their car arrives. This trend should also extend into IT help desks. End users have to be updated frequently about the status of the request—from technician assignment to closure—in order to save the team from numerous calls and emails.
-
Feedback matters.
One of the first things that pops up in the Uber app after every ride is the rating card for your driver and an option to submit feedback. This shows the importance of customer and end user feedback in service management. IT help desks should make it a standard practice to periodically solicit end user feedback through short surveys for continual service improvement.
-
And finally, customer experience matters.
Uber and its app are built on the promise of making commuting easy for users. And the whole experience, from the app to the ride itself, is designed to keep this promise. IT help desks should also design their processes and service offerings so that they deliver the promise of easy access to technology for the business and enhance the end user’s IT help desk experience.
“Uber is efficiency with elegance on top,” says company CEO, Travis Kalanick, with all confidence for his service delivery model. This should be the confidence IT teams feel, being able to position themselves as strategic business partners enabling technology for their organization.
Uber provides us with several good lessons when it comes to service delivery excellence. The company serves as a welcome example of how we can take inspiration from the world around us as we strive to do IT better.
What did you learn at HDI this year? Share your lessons in the comments section below.
