The motivational power of real-time experience data
The good news is that IT organizations that put experience management into practice can transparently see end-user feedback and utilize it to not only paint a positive picture of their IT service desk but also to motivate their service desk agents.
According to our Global IT Experience Benchmark Report data, based on over 1.65 million feedback responses from HappySignals customers’ end-users in 2023, the overall happiness (based on Net Promoter Score (NPS)-style scoring) with Support Services was +81. In other words, at least 81% of end-user feedback responses rated their IT service desk interaction positively (scoring it as 9 or 10 out of 10).
If you do the math, not only do four out of every five IT support engagements fully meet end-user IT support expectations, but also, this is over 1.3 million positive support interactions. But how much of this end-user “happiness” is fed back to service desk agents? Likely, they don’t see it using traditional IT support metrics, although they are more than likely to hear about complaints.
All of this positive feedback can be shared with service desk agents in close to real-time, with the experience management data a valuable mechanism for motivating service desk agents to deliver even better end-user experiences.
Our customers consistently find that, compared to traditional SLAs or yearly IT surveys, investing in experience management capabilities not only produces more positive feedback for the IT service desk but also motivates their service desk agents to serve end-users better. Here are some reasons why.
Experience Management highlights the usually unsaid positive feedback
Most IT organizations rely on SLAs or yearly IT surveys instead of getting real-time feedback from end-users. As humans, however, we tend to remember negative experiences more than positive ones and also make more effort to raise negative feedback immediately. Consequently, without experience management, IT organizations inevitably only hear negative feedback (e.g. via escalations or complaints) on a regular basis, which creates a skewed negative impression of the IT service desk.
In contrast, the experience management capabilities provided by the HappySignals Experience Platform encourage end-users to provide feedback after each service and support interaction. This gathers higher quantities of real-time feedback that shares the usually-unsaid positive feedback, which is more motivating for service desk agents, and the IT organization also gets a more balanced understanding of how the IT service desk is performing.
Experience management provides real-time data to motivate service desk agents and promote learning
When taking an experience management approach, IT organizations measure and share experience data widely with all stakeholders, including service desk agents and service desk managers. Such that they receive real-time feedback directly from end-users right after a ticket is resolved.
Service desk agents get an immediate motivation boost if the end-user feedback is positive. If it’s negative, they learn how to improve while their memory of the interaction is still fresh.
Either way, it’s much better for service desk agents and their managers than hearing just negative feedback weeks or months later, which facilitates neither motivation nor learning for the service desk agents.
But why do the motivation levels of your service desk agents matter?
Motivated service desk agents want to and can serve end-users better
Our customer Region Midtjylland’s experience proves this point. I remember receiving a call from Jesper Lund Hansen, the Area Manager for the IT service desk, just two months after they had started using the HappySignals Experience Management Platform. He shared that service desk agent happiness had increased by 15% in that time, while end-user happiness had also increased by 15%.
It wasn’t a coincidence. Finding ways to better motivate your service desk agents will empower them to serve your end-users better!
This is why experience management can truly create more smiles and less time wasted for everyone.
