What causes a help desk to offer such degraded service that a user would rather not report an issue than try to have it resolved? This is not a simple question to answer, as there are many factors that lead to such a dismal situation. But what tends to connect them all is culture: show me a user who doesn't want to call her help desk, and I'll show you a help desk organization with poor culture.
Poor culture is reflected in ineffective management, unmotivated and disconnected employees and an overwhelmingly negative feeling in the air that leads to staring at the clock as the minutes tick by. The goal of the service reps is to make it through the day with as little pain as possible, their paychecks the only thing causing them to show up every day. Is it any wonder users would rather not call in?
Such a situation is a management nightmare, but poor management is what causes this in the first place. Front-line managers may be doing all they can to improve matters, but without a positive influence from the top down, it is unlikely things will change.Positively influencing the culture of a support organization takes many forms. Examples are compensating employees fairly and competitively, establishing proper escalation channels for customers who are unhappy with their service, and involving employees in the business to the extent that they feel connected and valuable.
There are many small, straightforward things that must be done on a continual basis to slowly sway the culture of an organization towards the positive. If enough people do enough of these things at the same time, the results will come, and users will notice a difference. As the help desk culture becomes less fatigued, users will awaken to the advantages of a healthier, happier and much more useful help desk.
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