IT managers know that consistent and sustainable growth comes with many challenges. That’s because expanding the IT department requires a strategy that goes hand in hand with the Service Desk which takes on a leading role. In this article, we’ll explore the role IT support strategy plays in a company’s growth and how a remote support tool acts as a powerful resource in optimizing the Service Desk’s performance, reducing costs and raising efficiency.  

What role does the support strategy play in the growth of a company?

We can define IT growth as the result of an ongoing improvement process that drives the IT department to achieve previously set success goals. Nowadays, technology plays a crucial role in the development and growth of a company, so IT leaders are always looking for new strategies to level up. Customer support and service, among others, are key for a company to:

• Ensure business continuity,
• Maximise user and customer productivity,
• Deliver on their value proposition,
• Maintain and build customer loyalty.

Therefore, a good support strategy is not just vital for success but also for a business to survive. Without it, the company could not be competitive.

Traditional Support vs. Remote Support

Is there anything more precious than time? Definitely not, it is the most valuable asset we’ve got. When a company manages its time well, it saves a lot of money because it gets work done faster. In this context, the use of remote support tools makes a big difference.

The Help Desk Institute has developed a benchmark that shows the difference in cost between resolving a ticket on-site and remotely. It is based on US data, but we are using it as a reference for estimating the cost difference. The savings in cost per ticket is almost 69% when resolving tickets remotely!

Creating a competitive edge with the Service Desk: cutting costs and increasing operational efficiency

In the IT department, there are many indicators that show the state of your support strategy. One of the most important is the Average Handle Time (AHT), a metric that reveals the average time a support analyst needs to process a service desk ticket.

The following graph demonstrates the relationship between cost per ticket and ticket processing time. The faster we can resolve a ticket, the lower the costs associated with it. It is not the same whether it takes an employee 20 or 40 minutes to solve a ticket, as each minute of work done by the employee carries an associated cost. Similarly, there is a substantial difference in resolving a ticket at level 1 or escalating it to a specialised technician, as level 2 or level 3 technicians typically earn higher salaries.

This is why first call resolution and first level resolution metrics have such a significant impact on ticket management time and, consequently, cost. The more tickets we can resolve at the first interaction with the customer at the first support levels, the lower the cost per ticket. If you would like to learn more about key metrics for your support, consider reading this blog post.

How enterprise remote support software can help you reduce costs and enhance efficiency

Enterprise remote support software is a tool that enables support departments to securely connect to a customer’s computer or mobile device from afar. This enables you to effectively manage incidents and ensure continuity of IT services and business operations.

One of the key value levers of an enterprise remote support tool is helping companies save support costs by improving the average handle time per ticket. Now, let’s get more specific. We will show you how a tool like ISL Online can help.

Mastering the art of resolving more tickets on the first call

Are you looking to improve the effectiveness of your customer service? Then it’s time to focus on your first call resolution metric. This metric indicates the percentage of cases resolved by the Service Desk during the first interaction with the customer.

With ISL Online, you can say goodbye to improvisation and outdated working methods that hinder prompt and practical support delivery. Instead, you can quickly diagnose incidents by viewing and controlling the remote desktop.

If it’s necessary to escalate the case to a more experienced technician, the “Invite another operator” feature helps you succeed in resolving an issue during the first interaction with a customer. By inviting a colleague operator into your remote session, you avoid interrupting the conversation or chat with the customer, putting the ticket on hold, documenting all the notes from that first contact, assigning the specialised technician, re-establishing contact with the customer and, in many cases, duplicating some tasks and processes previously done by level 1.

As you can see, simply inviting another technician can save significant time and resolve the case during the initial contact.

How to succeed in resolving more tickets at the first level

One of the most important trends in the Service Desk is the continuous improvement of the shift-left strategy, as it is essential for generating and maintaining a competitive edge in today’s world.

As we mentioned earlier, the cost per hour for specialised technicians is much higher compared to Level 1 analysts. Examining the average cost of resolving tickets by support level in the United States, shows a huge difference between Level 1 resolution ($22) and Level 3 resolution ($104). The cost is nearly five times higher.

By adopting the shift-left strategy and trying to resolve most tickets at the first support levels, we can observe two benefits:

• We reduce our cost per ticket.
• We enable the technicians at the higher levels to allocate more time to high value-added activities within the IT department.

A remote support tool is your best ally for boosting your shift-left strategy and taking it to a new level. ISL Online, for example, not only assists agents in addressing technical problems but also provides a “Session Recording” feature that lets you record and capture the entire incident resolution process. This functionality proves highly beneficial for businesses in training entry-level analysts and building a comprehensive knowledge base for Level 0 support. Furthermore, it streamlines operations by automating these procedures, resulting in significant time savings.

We hope that this post helps you understand what tools you can use to optimise your support strategy, reduce costs and increase efficiency. Study the features carefully to decide which tool is best suited to your needs.