Technology Survey Results - Part 2 - Your Help Desk Experience

All in all, the ratings for your help desk experience were positive. "Good" and "Excellent" were neck and neck. Ticket resolution time, although mostly favorable, was one place where there were less "Excellent" ratings, so that is definitely one place we will focus some more attention. There were several "poor" ratings in this section, too, and we don't like to see that. We'll work hard to improve your experience overall.

We received lots of kudos for Anne and Jason (and some for Ted and me, too). We agree that Jason does an excellent job when he fills in or helps out. We love his helpful, patient attitude. And, of course, we also agree that "Anne rocks," she is "awesome," "amazing," and "excellent in knowledge and response time" (all quotes from comments).

Comment samples:

"Frequently it's quicker and easier for me to google a solution to my IT problems than to wait for a response through help desk. For example, a couple of co-workers (and eventually myself) were having issues with Crystal in IE. I heard through the grapevine that some one else had had similar issues as a result of the IE 10 update. So rather than submitting a help desk ticket and have them attempt to troubleshoot from afar, I just googled how to revert back to IE 9 and performed the steps on my and everyone else's computers."

Great comment! It does often make sense to see what you can do on your own to solve your problems. Googling is a great tool, searching in help documentation is another, and as this comment also references, co-workers can help each other, too. With the information that's available to all of us, and the fact that computers are a tool we all need to be able to use, being self-sufficient for solving some of your problems is a good thing -- pretty much a necessary thing.

We understand, though, that it doesn't always make sense for each individual to spend the time it may take to solve every issue. It's wonderful that this person shared their learning with others. We want to do more in that regard. This newsletter/blog is one way we distribute knowledge, we send out tips & tricks, we send out emails with instructions when there are widespread issues. We hope to soon have more vehicles for this sharing of knowledge. Please let us know when you figure something out and you think we should spread the word -- we love that!

"I understand the need for a help desk ticket system - just a bit cumbersome especially when we might not know the issue or how to describe it."

Totally get that. We often do need some specific information in order to troubleshoot, but if you'd rather wait until you have one of us "live" before you give all the specifics, please feel free to ask for that when you send in your help desk request. You can ask us to IM or call you, you can even give us available appointment times if you'd like us to reserve some specific time, whatever makes sense.

"There have been times when I couldn't begin my work until IT resolved an issue.  These issues should be considered HOT and handled immediately."

We agree! If you're at a standstill, please call or IM. I know it's a judgment call. Sometimes you're at a standstill with a particular program but, although it's an inconvenience, you can do other work while waiting for help. Sometimes you're truly dead in the water.

We have a similar balancing act in IT. Right now, for example, there are 75 tickets in the help desk system. If someone comes to us with what may actually be a small issue, is it "fair" for us to ignore those 75 other requests and do that one first? Plus, at least right now, we don't have staff members who are just devoted to help desk requests -- we all have many other projects we are responsible to complete -- so dropping everything for each request is not always the smartest thing for us to do, depending on the situation. We're hoping that partnering with TNS for help desk services will get us closer to being able to act more like a true, "on call" help desk center, "with operators standing by." :)

"You are the BOMB!" "The IT team is very friendly and pleasant to work with." "When I have opened tickets for help I have always received an email within an hour to let me know who it was assigned to and have received a call or email same day to fix the problems." "We like you."

Ending on a positive note again. We like you all, too! Thanks for the encouragement.

More to come on other topics and sections. As always, please let me or Ted or Anne know if you have questions, suggestions, issues, whatever.