IT Help Desk Application

Key Takeaways :

• Sites often send users into a FAQ page to see if they can find solutions themselves before they allow contact with a live representative

• Help or Support pages are often external from the site itself, and allow users to filter solutions based on their issue

• Live representatives are the last line of defense, or the furthest you have to go into searching for help

• Some sites have automated responses to their Chat feature, giving the feeling of live help by redirecting users to key articles and FAQ pages based on their issue

• Some sites send follow up emails and messages to users to assure that their issue was taken care of

Developing Research Questions

I needed to conduct user interviews to better understand what each side of the problem was looking for in a solution. I needed to understand -

• Staff - how they have gone about getting IT assistance in the past, and how it could have been improved

• IT - what problems they face when handling IT requests, how they have gone about it in the past, how they communicate with staff

From that I was able to develop the following questions to ask users that would open up my process for finding a good solution

• How do you usually go about submitting IT help requests?

• Who do you typically reach out to for IT issues?

• What format do you use for submitting IT issues? Cliq, Email, Text, Calls?

• When are you most often encountering IT issues, on the road, in the office/shop?

• What are your pain points and when are you most often encountering issues that you need assistance with?

• What devices do you have access to, computer, smartphone, iPad?

• When submitting an IT request, what do you see as the most important information to communicate to whomever you are reaching out to?

• When submitting an IT request, how quickly do you usually expect a response? Are these requests often an emergency, or are you reaching out to schedule a time to resolve?

• How would you prefer to be notified of IT solutions? Cliq, email, text/calls?

• Do you use Zoho Learn to review any existing training materials?

• Do you know how to access existing training materials?

User Responses

Key Themes of Feedback

Overflowing with Ideas - Team Members were often giving me so much feedback and requests for assistance on issues during these calls that were completely unrelated. This showed me that there was such a large need for IT requests that staff was seeing this interview as almost a glimmer of hope for people listening to their issues, and that they were reeling at the bit to get the help they needed. 

More Responsiveness - Staff was looking for more responsiveness from the IT team regarding ongoing issues or requests. Staff was often expressing frustrations with the lack of response, slow response times, and sometimes lack thereof. Maybe track their open tickets and see status updates

Quick Solutions - Staff is looking for a simple forum for inputting requests and getting quick and easy responses. They are not necessarily looking for sit downs and phone calls but rather easy and quick solutions.

One Space for All - IT is looking for a forum for receiving all of their requests in one place, organizing them and viewing them in a way that prioritizes requests that necessitate an immediate response. Currently they are receiving random chat, email, texts and phone calls that makes it impossible for some requests not to slip through the cracks.

Understanding the Necessary Components

• User name

• Date

• Email

• Severity Label

• Topics

• Software/Hardware Type

• Comments

• Photos/Screenshots

• FAQ’s

• Links to existing trainings

Releasing to Beta Group

We initially released the first version of the IT Help Desk application to select groups, but we also wanted this group to be selective, and only include people who reach out most frequently with requests for assistance. We decided to release the application to all of the administrative teams, including Logistics, Client Services, Storage Management, Project Managers, and other upper administrative roles. These groups use the most diverse levels of software, so we would have a good control base with varied issues we would need to tackle within the application.

Initial Feedback

• Reducing Visual Overload - As users began accessing the application we realized that there were too many fields for users to select from, and that were not applicable to every use. We wrote a simple show/hide fields upon selection script to allow the user to filter which fields are available to select from based on specifics of their request, and to make the app overall easier and less overwhelming. 

• Filtering Reports for IT - Also upon initial release we were filtering all of the requests into one report for IT to access them. While this report could be filtered by a number of factors including priority of ticket, user, date etc, it very quickly started to fill up and requests began to slip through the cracks, not noticed for longer than was preferred. Also, when the IT team would resolve a ticket, it would remain on the report. A scripting that moved resolved tickets into a separate report was developed, which gave the double benefit of shifting the request off of our radar, while also creating an archive of sorts for issues that had been tackled in the past. 

• Space for Review - Users began asking for a way to view and vote on existing tickets that others might have submitted. We created an UpVote system that allows users to “Second That” for existing tickets or requests that they are having a similar issue with. Users could also comment on any ticket to communicate updates with us, the IT team, and also other users whose ticket it might be. 

• Notifications and Status Updates - We also needed a system for notifying users on ticket updates and status changes. Our company uses a messaging app called Cliq, so we scripted a notification system to exist between the Help Desk Application and direct Cliq channels. This benefit was twofold, for the user it would send them a direct message notifying them of ticket status changes and resolutions, including any comments we would make in-app on their request. For the IT team we were able to set up a channel that would notify us when a user submitted a new request, with priority listed, user, and a link directly to the ticket, all conveniently listed in a specific channel only we had access to.

Current Version

Below are some screengrabs of the existing version of the IT Help Desk

Next Steps & Conclusions

The number of users of the IT Help Desk application has increased by over 100% since the initial Beta release, now available to all staff of the company. IT requests are now being handled at a much faster rate than they were before, with employee comfort and wellbeing increased tenfold as they now feel satisfied knowing that their issues are being seen, and that they will receive quick statues updates along the way.

In the pipeline

• I am working with the development team on integrating submission of IT requests fully into the in-house chat app we use. This would allow quicker access to submitting requests without having to move tp an external application as they currently do.

• We want to increase the number of IT team members to now handle the increased level of requests swiftly and confidently.