Do Traditional Service Desks Need To Be Scrapped?

Needless to say, the past two years have been a rollercoaster ride for almost every organization across the world. With the prevalence of pandemics, it is nearly impossible for organizations to function effectively without using some form of technology solution. The new normal of remote and hybrid work environments proved that an organization's productiveness no longer depends on the hours an employee spends in a workplace. It depends upon the quality and performance of their work and the result, they bring, irrespective of where they are. Since most employees work remotely, they may feel unsupported, stressed, discouraged, anxious and feel disconnected from their teammates, managers, and the organizations. In addition to this, remote employees also face technical and non-technical challenges that hinder their productivity.  

In a report by McKinsey, employees spend an average of 2 hours a day searching for the right information. Such a situation deteriorates employee experience, which negatively impacts business ROI. There is no doubt that employee support is a major concern. And that's why businesses are prioritizing the need for service desks in the workplaces. But traditional service desks can no longer cope with the growing number of challenges in this ever-changing work environment. Do you know why?  

Accept The Fact That Traditional Service Desks Are Outdated

When working with a traditional service desk, an employee might ask for help resolving an incident or fulfilling a service request. It is obvious that employees who are facing problems will submit their complaints through a ticket, in which they state the nature of their issue. A dedicated support agent will look into each case and resolve it quickly and effectively. That's what most service desks are meant for. A robust and effective employee service desk incorporates several IT-related activities such as knowledge management, an invisible ticketing system, quick employee support via AI-powered chatbots, incident management, and reporting. To effectively carry out all these processes, the IT department needs to be vigilant and precise not to affect their work.  

Employees who work remotely or in the office may face technical issues, such as password resetting issues, laptop configuration issues, software installation/update problems, and access to documents or other relevant information being denied. Unfortunately, the traditional service desk cannot address all these issues raised by employees in a timely and effective manner. Most traditional helpdesks are built on old architectures, and even with an outdated mind-set, so they aren't focused enough on employees. And that's why traditional service desks fail to support employees during even the most challenging times. Thus, most employees prefer to reach out for support via email and telephone rather than using a traditional service desk. Employees expect instant assistance rather than fragmented support in today's work environment. A company cannot succeed if employees are frustrated with support or feel disengaged, regardless of how large or small the company is.

The Traditional Service Desk Is Designed For Agents, Not For Employees

Although these platforms are built for employees, traditional service desks are designed primarily for agents. Using them, agents can create tickets pertaining to the problems faced by employees and resolve them in a timely manner. In addition, employee service desk platforms are typically sold in terms of "agent" costs rather than considering employees. Employees often find these platforms confusing or make them wait too long as they are not used to using them. Consequently, more agents use remote assistance to solve issues rather than the traditional service desk. This concludes that a traditional service desk was never really meant for the employees. An inefficient system slows down business processes and adversely affects employee productivity. The problem can be solved by incorporating artificial intelligence into the equation.

Why Employees Don't Utilize Traditional Service Desks?

• Lack of access to information
  
  Whenever an employee has a question, he/she is expected to search for the information on the service portal. Maximum of the time, the employee would exit the portal because of motives:
  
  a. Lack of proper content
  
  The content material found on the portal won't cope with the exact pain factors of the employee.
  
  b. Outdated facts
  
  Employee portals want normal content material audits and content updating. Failing to do that, portals will no longer assist employees to find answers to their problems.
  
  
• Lack of instant employee support
  
  Whenever an employee encounters any problem, they will be disturbed by the issue itself and seek immediate assistance. Employees often seek instantaneous support on such issues via bite-sized videos, infographics, or even live chat support that helps them find the right solutions. But in such cases, traditional employee desks won't be able to display data the way employees want.
  
  
• Too much information on simple problems
  
  Employees often contact the HR department whenever they need clarifications on 'leave policy' or 'revised work policy' or 'insurance claim' even though the company already has an employee portal. When they use the employee portal, employees are forced to read, learn, and follow the guidelines explained on the portal, which is not an effortless or flawless process. If workers feel like the portal takes too much time, they will immediately contact support agents via email or phone call.
  
  
• Lack of employee training
  
  It's true that millennial employees are not interested in attending traditional instructor-led training. Employees find it tiresome and uninteresting. And that's why they prefer the bite-sized learning method, which is precise and focused. Traditional service desk lacks this.
  
  
• Fail to handle multiple employee requests
  
  In traditional service desks, various employees register tickets for similar issues. It will be very challenging for the support agents to address these requests and inquiries and consume a lot of time. This proves that traditional service desks are ineffective and deliver broken support that often confuses the employees and causes them to lose interest in their work. This will negatively impact on your business productivity.  
  
  

Modern Employee Service Desk: Let's Move Towards A Modern Employee Support System

In this ever-changing workplace, it is evident that it is high time for the traditional service desks to retire. That is why most organizations are implementing AI-enabled employee service desks come into play. A modern employee service desk- powered by conversational AI provides instant help to employees by delivering the best solutions at their fingertips within seconds. Companies can handle simple, complex, and multiple issues employees face seamlessly and effectively with a modern employee service desk.  

AI-powered service desk like Rezolve.ai empowers employees by providing personalized support via automating routine tasks, right information via Twitter-age knowledge management, triaging an issue, automated workflow, creating tickets through an invisible ticketing system, seamless employee training via conversational microlearning, ai-powered smart chatbots for L1 employee support and also invite an expert for live chat for more complicated issues. And Rezolve.ai does all this within collaborative platforms like MS Teams and Slack within 10 to 15 seconds!

Check-out how Rezolve.ai is helping companies to provide adequate support to their employees.