PICTURE IT: Twenty-six employees providing 24 x 7 x 365 support to more than 16,000 internal customers in a high-stress environment.
How do you keep that team happy and motivated?
The support team at University Hospitals of Cleveland has found a way!
When is a simple password reset request not so simple? When it comes from a surgeon who needs to access critical systems to provide care to her patient, even the most routine support request can be anything but. In an environment like this, every support team member, from the front lines to management, has to understand the motivation behind each call and keep a level head so they can prioritize incidents and provide effective support.
So, what has the University Hospitals of Cleveland team done that you could apply to your support organization?
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Invest in training often and early. Providing HDI training opportunities helps the entire team deliver quality, consistent support, and shows the team that your organization is invested in its success.
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Build career paths. Knowing that there will be future opportunities motivates individuals who want to build a career with the organization, not just show up to do a job every day. This creates a team of employees who are truly invested in the goals of the organization. They understand why they are tasked with certain assignments and how those assignments play a role in the success of the business. Use on-going training and on-the-job experience to put your employees in a position to improve, learn, grow, and move up within the organization.
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Support your team and show off its accomplishments. In a time when automation is increasing and budgets are tight, it’s not uncommon for business leaders to look for opportunities to cut back on staffing. It’s up to the service desk managers to make a strong business case for the value the service desk brings to the business. Is your service desk so efficient at resolving support calls that it’s taken some of the load off of another, more expensive business unit? How much money is that saving the business? Be proactive about finding and reporting these successes.
Most importantly, trained support professionals are the quality team members that help a support center be the best it can be!
Do you have a success story? Please, share with us—you could be HDI’s next featured case study!