Who doesn’t know them? Our IT heroes we can call whenever our computer is not responding or we’re missing this one special cable: the IT Service Desk guys. With 49% they are the most popular contact people for workers facing IT issues. Not even a third of workers have the ability to solve digital problems on their own and just under 20% employees ask a co-worker for assistance, according to van Deursen & van Dijk. An employee is said to prefer asking a co-worker rather than calling the Service Desk because it’s “easier” or “faster”. However, this can lead to a loss in productivity and higher costs. While appointing an IT buddy for every worker in an organization may be a good idea, highlighting the ease and effectiveness of calling the Service Desk is the next best option.
Over the years, IT Service Desk employees have identified a number of chronic issues plaguing business processes. The top 5 calls dreaded by IT Service Desk employees are:
1. “BSOD” (Blue Screen Of Death)
Everyone owning a computer or laptop has probably encountered this. First the screen freezes, then nothing happens for a while before everything turns blue. The so called blue screen of death is an error, following a low-level software crash or faulty hardware. It is due to the operating system reaching a condition in which it can no longer operate safely. As an IT End User, you are very likely to call the Service Desk after such an error. Although this is their main function, IT Service Desk employees have pointed out a few things, allowing improvements in the future. The biggest problem in regard to BSOD is that the vast majority of IT End User does not actually bother reading the error message. Often times, reading the displayed text could already guide IT End User to a solution.
2. “I can’t log in” or “I forgot my password”
This is another classic problem IT Service Desk employees have. There is a reason behind this aside from people’s issues keeping track of multiple passwords. It is that people think calling theService Desk is the easiest, most efficient way of solving their problem. This is not true. Also, in many cases, eliminating this problem could reduceService Desk calls by up to 40%.
3. “My E-mail isn’t working on my mobile device”
Nowadays, almost all employees utilize a mobile device to check and monitor their e-mails. Employees trying to synchronize their work e-mail account on their mobile device regularly experience similar problems. Often times, though, these problems go back to a relatively easy to solve problems. These include making sure the internet connection works, sync options are enabled or the most recent software update is installed.
4. “The Internet doesn’t work / is too slow”
The main causes of this involve IT End Users running too many applications at the same time. Typically, this is also associated with IT End Users clicking though and installing content from websites containing malware. Another explanation is that in a regular office building the Wi-Fi signal is not equally good at every location. Sometimes an IT End User is simply located too far away from the Wi-Fi router.
5. “I think the printer doesn’t work / is jammed”
Printers are also a popular source of troubleshooting by IT End Users. However often times these problems originate from misunderstandings or modifications that were made e.g. a poor internet connection. Slow speed printing can be improved by printing in draft mode or lower quality setting and avoiding duplex printing.
Given these, we came up with a few recommendations for your IT End Users to check out before calling the Service Desk. These tips can then decrease the burden on the IT Service Desk employees, so they can focus on bigger issues and improve overall problem-solving efficiency.
Ask them to:
- Restart the computer. Even if this may sound overly simplistic, this is the easiest and probably the best way to solve the problem. It is usually the first thing a Service Desk employee will ask your IT End Users to do as well.
- Control their passwords in a simple, yet effective way. We urge IT End Users to take care of their password monitoring and to use tools such as KeePass.
- Ensure that “push” is enabled on their mobile devices when synchronizing the e-mail. The new data can then be “pushed” on the IT End User’s phone from the server. You should also ask them to always install the most recent software update.
- Make sure the printer is turned on, loaded with enough paper in the correct way and contains enough ink before they call the Service Desk.
- Ensure they have a sufficiently strong internet connection so there are no problems with wirelessly connected devices.
