Dow Jones setup the TechBar to focus on mobile devices and providing support for them. "There's a simple reason behind setting up a help desk for mobile devices: As a company in the media industry, we want to be more mobile-focused – that's where people read the news nowadays and, more importantly, it's how we report the news in the first place a lot of times." (Mike Moran).
Setting up the TechBar in New York was new, but it wasn't the first one. When Mike began work on getting it started, he worked with the IT Directors from London flew over to help with design and planning. Recruiters focused on staff who have an Apple background as people with those experiences offered more pleasant customer service.
If we say, "You have to make a ticket and then do this and then do that," you get people who don't want to bother with it in the first place. That means they'll put up with these small little issues. While most of the time those problems won't get in the way of their work, the fact that something is slow, or an app is making a weird sound, or an app is crashing three times a day ... it complicates what should otherwise be a seamless and productive relationship between the user and the device. (Mike Moran)
While Mike and his staff do get the occasional employee walking up to their desk for support, the response is to direct them to the TechBar. The idea is to condition the employees to go to the one consistent spot for support rather than finding someone who could be in the middle of an important project. He also pushes his staff not to make tickets the priority. Since a lot of the work can be done right there, the staff just put in the ticket after the fact.
I've talked with other IT pros and one thing that is consistent is how our users don't submit tickets when there is an issue, how they'll stop us as we walk through the halls, or walk up to our desks and ask questions. I'm not discounting how it's important to have tickets, because many of us have to validate our work with management, I'm just questioning if there are better ways to run the help desk. I'd personally want to try running a help desk like this, where there is a consistent desk that employees can go to to ask questions, without first being directed to take an extra step.
How many of you would try something like this? Do you think a setup like this would do a lot of good not only for the company, but for the techs as well? Let us know in the comments below, and as always, stay safe goblins!
I read that article, Jimmy- and I would have to have a help desk like that!
ReplyDeleteIn a company where I'm somewhat the only IT staff member, adopting a network that has never used tickets, I kind of have a portion of what is proposed here, with the lack of a specialized help desk role. I like not having tickets, some days, but due to my schedule and tasks being all over the place, I would kind of like to have tickets implemented.
ReplyDeleteBut that's because I'm a network admin, my primary role isn't help desk, if this were a help desk and it was a help as help is needed basis, I think it would be fine, but how would you moderate work?
If you want a free ticket system that works, try Spiceworks. Super simple and works for two of us supporting 150 users. Not having a ticket system is suicide. Too many things fall through the cracks. At larger orgs, having a walk up support kiosk is great, but you need to get to the level to justify such a system and have enough IT folks to staff it.
ReplyDeleteI don't use the ticketing system YET, the company I work at has a history of not ticketing, but I am working towards that goal, I do have Spiceworks set up on a local system and it works wonderfully :-)
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