When it comes to customer service, it really is only as good as the customer says it is. But what do you do when your customers think your service is great, but you know it could be a whole lot better? Think Lean! We did, and we were able to reduce our abandoned call rate from 28 percent to 9...
Tag(s): people, customer service, process, framework and methodologies
Date Published May 23, 2012 - Last Updated May 11, 2016
Certification has never been more relevant than it is in today’s challenging economy, when IT pros are faced with greater competition and struggle to stand out from the crowd. Ultimately, certifications are a filter for hiring managers who have tons of résumés to review, giving IT professionals...
Tag(s): people, professional development, certification standard
Date Published May 23, 2012 - Last Updated May 11, 2016
The proliferation of mobile devices, increasing social and technical sophistication of the twenty-first-century college graduates entering the workforce, and anytime/anywhere demand for access have gained stronger footholds and show no signs of slowing. At the same time, the economic climate...
Tag(s): people, process, technology, desktop support
Date Published May 23, 2012 - Last Updated May 11, 2016
When Apple announced the launch of the Apple Stores in 2001, it was met with widespread skepticism. There was concern over the impact the stores would have on Apple’s existing retail channels, the fact that Apple had no experience in retail, and that the mere existence of retail stores would do...
Tag(s): process, business of support, people, customer service
Date Published May 22, 2012 - Last Updated May 11, 2016
We know that one individual is not as smart we all are collectively. However, even knowing that, leaders often have difficulty capitalizing on the collective intelligence of their teams. It is not because they do not want to; it is because they do not know how to. This article presents six...
Tag(s): people, leadership
Date Published May 22, 2012 - Last Updated May 11, 2016
Many organizations are starting to make significant structural, procedural, and cultural changes to the perception of desktop support, with the ultimate goal of better integrating it into the support organization. The struggle is in figuring out how to do this, how to apply that creative brush...
Tag(s): desktop support, people, process
Date Published May 22, 2012 - Last Updated May 11, 2016
Any hiring manager who has tried to recruit help desk or technical support professionals in recent months knows the demand for top talent is high. One major reason is that many of the best workers simply are not on the market. And, given that many companies are expanding their operations,...
Tag(s): workforce enablement, people
Date Published May 22, 2012 - Last Updated May 11, 2016
Just as mobile devices can give workers the freedom to access corporate resources from anywhere, at any time, remote/online training can give them the freedom to take training and improve their skills, whether they are at work or on the road.
Tag(s): people, technology, professional development
Date Published May 22, 2012 - Last Updated May 11, 2016
There are three levels of value provided by professional associations: to the profession in general, to your organization, and to you personally. In turn, each of these dovetails with commonly identified features of a professional association: networking, education, career development.
Tag(s): professional development, people
Date Published May 22, 2012 - Last Updated May 11, 2016
In this environment of rapidly changing support requirements and increasing customer demands, the question is not whether organizations should make the transition to web-based support (i.e., chat), but how they can make that transition successfully. When implemented perfectly, chat can deliver...
Tag(s): process, practices and processes, workforce enablement, technology
Date Published May 22, 2012 - Last Updated May 11, 2016