Today, outsourced service providers live in a world where customers call the shots. As a customer, you’ve come to expect more than a standard set of services. Instead of one model in one color, you want outsourced services that can be customized to your needs, uniquely branded and themed for...
Tag(s): practices and processes, outsourcing, process management, business of support, sourcing
Schools have long offered technology education, taught by specialist computer teachers, typically in dedicated labs, in high schools, middle schools, and even at the elementary level. But today, large and small districts across the country are adopting mobile devices as essential tools, and far...
Tag(s): ITSM, future of support
Times are changing - can you say the same about your ability to lead? Technology has enabled new ways of working, and Millennials (those born in the 1980s and 1990s) bring never-before-seen ...
Tag(s): leadership, future of support, workforce enablement, supportworld
Most IT professionals are familiar with the operational metrics of technical service and support: cost per ticket, first contact resolution rate, mean time to resolve—all are well understood and almost universally applied. Yet even support organizations that have mastered these metrics and...
Tag(s): business of support, ROI, return on investment - ROI
In the May/June issue of SupportWorld, I presented a variety of emerging technologies and identified several ways in which these technologies might change the nature of technical service and support in the useful future, or the next three to five years. In this article, we’re going to...
Tag(s): future of support
Implementing mobile customer service is like training for a marathon. You can’t expect to sprint to the finish without first laying a little groundwork. Just as a marathon training plan sets you up for success long after the race is over, a mobile strategy provides benefits that extend far...
Tag(s): customer service, future of support, mobile device support
Over the years, tools have changed, workflows have evolved, staffing levels have fluctuated, responsibilities have expanded, and roles have been redefined. The latest expression of this trend is the mobility revolution—not just the presence of mobile devices in the workplace, but also support...
Tag(s): mobility, future of support
Of all the technology trends facing IT service and support professionals, the two that cause the most heartburn are the incredible growth of mobile devices—tablets, smartphones, etc.—and our customers’ desire to use devices that are familiar to them. To accommodate this desire, many...
Tag(s): byod, training, mobility, future of support
Today’s multichannel contact centers are anything but simple. According to ICMI, almost 86 percent of today’s contact centers are multichannel. While voice is still predominant, one channel is no longer enough. Consumers want to engage with technical support and customer service through multiple...
Tag(s): self-service, support models, support industry
I am the Cherwell service desk’s worst nightmare. There, I said it (and they’d tell you so, too). Why? Because I’m in love with technology, but I’m a minimalist. Laptops are too bulky; I want to be able to do everything I need to from my phone...or, better yet, from my watch. I’m constantly...
Tag(s): byod, future of support, mobile device support