For IT Helpdesk: Proper process for remote working is the need of the hour in the time of COVID-19

A pandemic is identified as a rapidly spreading infectious disease that poses a global threat. The result? Decelerated economic growth and social chaos.

The COVID-19 outbreak is taking the world by storm. On March 11th, 2020, the World Health Organization declared it as a pandemic due to more than 20,000 confirmed cases back then. The count has only surged now!

According to industry analysts, the ongoing pandemic is undoing business operations by disrupting the supply chain and causing high absenteeism.

Like a domino effect, this impedes the ability of a business to deliver products and services to the customers. This is particularly true for IT support industries, where support agents regularly need to communicate with customers.

The high absenteeism of support agents due to panic and fear and asynchronous activity between the rest of the members widen the demand-supply gap. The number of tickets raised to unsolved ratio gradually witness an upward curve.

Managing the threats posed by this pandemic is necessary for a business to survive, especially for IT help desks, where customer satisfaction is the key. A concrete business continuity plan is, therefore, the need of the hour. It should have a detailed business risk management strategy and business impact analysis. It shall also clearly describe the business’s response to such events and a detailed recovery plan and policies for managing staff and communication.

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4 Measures That You Must Take in This Current Scenario

Undeniably, the COVID-19 has brought the world to a halt.

Companies belonging to the IT sector are setting an example by establishing business continuity procedures during the pandemic. Here are some of the measures you could bring to your workplace and be prepared for similar events in the future.

  • Establish a Pandemic Preparedness Framework – Since IT support teams need to handle customer requests in a prompt manner, they need to ensure a glitch-free service. The best way to do this is to form a team capable of handling all critical business functions and reporting directly to executive management.
  • The priority of the team should be to arrange the activities of the helpdesk interms of their importance and organize them into tiers. For example, critical IT infrastructures such as network and VPN may be considered for the first and second position of the list.
  • Organize a Proper Pandemic Communication Program – It is quite natural for your helpdesk agents to feel out of the loop in times of crisis. Be a leader, and address your employees, making them aware of the current scenario and that the company will support them throughout the crisis. Your ultimate goal should be to instill confidence in the minds of your employees and boost their moral strength.
  • Ensure a Clean Workplace and Personal Hygiene Protocols – It’s critical that your organization abides by new workplace protocols. Along with that, ensure proper handling protocols for employees and extend your organization’s existing hygiene activities related to cleaning and sanitization products. This way, your employees would feel confident to come to the office.
  • Review HR Policies and Practices – It is necessary for you to review the HR policies. Be prepared for an absentee rate as high as 40% and disrupted workflow. To avoid such a situation, consider remote working options.
The Burden on ITSM Teams in COVID-19 Outbreak

The foundation of ITSM is the belief that IT should be delivered as a service. Typically, customers submit their requests through a portal, filling out a ticket with relevant information. Going forward, the ticket lands up in the IT helpdesk, where the issue is addressed by IT ServiceDesk agents according to importance.

ITSM teams are tasked with designing, creating, delivering, supporting and managing the lifecycle of IT services. To put it simply, they are responsible for the end-to-end management of these services.

As the absenteeism rate is shooting up, ITSM teams are constantly facing the heat of service delivery. In other words, the burden on ITSM teams is calibrating at a significant rate. They may find it difficult to address every query of the user and solve their issues.

Why is Remote Working the Need of the Hour?

Remote working is a great idea to overcome the hurdles of service delivery in the current scenario. To understand why it is the need of the hour, it’s essential to have a clear idea of what it is and how the COVID-19 turned out to be a pandemic.

Remote working refers to a working style that allows professionals to work outside the office. It is based on the concept that work does not need to be done in a specific place in order to be executed successfully.

With governments deciding to lock down entire regions to control the pandemic, remote working is the only option to keep the business cycle spinning. To top it all, this is indeed a great idea to prevent countries from proceeding to a further adverse situation.

Working remotely helps maintain social distancing, and it goes without any doubt that social distancing is one of the best strategies to overcome this global threat

Several studies backed by concrete evidence suggests that social distancing effectively curtails the spread of this virus. Without any second thought, IT helpdesk agents, who are required to work in teams, are at maximum risk. The spread cannot be controlled with so many service desk agents working and interacting with each other. However, on the other hand, working remotely can help break the chain as all will be compelled to work from their home.

What are the Steps You Can Take to Ensure Hassle-Free Remote Working?

It is essential for you to take necessary steps to ensure a hassle-free remote working for your service desk agents, especially in the current scenario. Here’s what you can do –

  • Assign Clear Roles – Always clear what the role of a particular service agent is. And, this should be known to other team members as well. Assigning clear roles to each of the helpdesk agents ensure that everyone knows who to rely on during a particular problem.
  • Establish Several Lines of Communication – Being in the IT service desk industry, it is necessary to take this step. Only relying on e-mails and video calls just won’t do the job. Use a reliable communication tool to ensure glitch-free communication.
  • Keep the Team on the Same Page – Use AI-based assistance tools to ensure that all your IT service desk agents are on the same page. Keep them updated about the ticket issues and maintain proper communication with other departments as well.
  • Build a Centralized Knowledge Base – Make sure to build a centralized knowledge base from where your service desk agents can access the necessary information to solve tickets.
How Can Automation Help?

Tasks that can be automated should be automated. By leveraging the power of automation, ensure your service desk agents can focus on issues that require attention and critical thinking.

  • Password Resets – A recent study states that about 20 to 30% of service desk tickets are related to password reset. There are several AI-based tools available that automate the identity and verification process required to reset a forgotten password using encrypted personal data.
  • Ticket Categorisation – It takes a lot of time for the service desk agents to assign tickets to the concerned person. Automating this task using automation tools will help save both time and labor and will also ensureprompt resolution of tickets.
  • Update Management –The task of sending updates to the customers about the status of their ticket or requests can be a bit problematic while working remotely. IT automation tools can help automate this task and ensure timely updates.
How Can Workativ Assistant Help Your Business in Times of Crisis?

Workativ Assistant seamlessly allows creating guided conversations between AI and end-users, using AI.

  • Provides Prompt Support for User Requests – Define the response of the virtual assistant to user requests and provide them with prompt support. Along with that, you can also build conversations to provide active support to your employees.
  • Appropriate Response to User Queries –Through NLP, the virtual assistant can easily understand the intent behind the question or request, providing an appropriate response to user queries. The assistant would be able to deliver support faster and as expected by users so, service delivery is never hindered.
  • Automated Resolution via workflows –Through prebuild automations for several popular applications, virtual assistant can make an action to resolve repetitive employee issues or requests autonomously without the need to use an agent support. This helps free up and deliver first contact resolutions via virtual assistant.

Ensure hassle-free remote working for your employees so that the spread of COVID-19 can be controlled. Stay home, stay safe!

If you’re interested in knowing how Workativ Assistant can be a value-add to your IT helpdesk team, we’d be happy to show you. Book a demo with us at a time of your convenience.

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