5/13/2021 Help desk system: How to overcome user’s change resistance

HELP DESK SYSTEM: COMMUNICATION AS KEY

TO OVERCOMING USER’S CHANGE RESISTANCE
The implementation process of a help desk system in any organization never starts from
zero. Regularly, all companies have defined a procedure through which their
customers can contact the technical support staff in order to solve their doubts and
problems.

The most common scheme for this former help desk is based on the use of telephone
calls to establish contact, and emails to follow up support cases. That is why one of the
most important challenges for implementing a help desk system is the resistance to
change of final users.

Surely, this old scheme has caused many problems to our customers but they are
used to dealing with those problems but at the moment we are trying to introduce a
new system so that they are more than comfortable with.

Let’s think for a while about an experimented user; they have been making telephone
calls for many years, talking directly with their preferred technical “guru” and maybe
sending emails to complete the resolution process. In fact, this user is very attached to
their knowledge about the process:

– Who to call based on the specific technical problem they have. Nobody is better
recognizing the capabilities of each one of the engineers in the technical support group
than a final customer, or at least, that’s what they believe.

– When they have to call. Experienced users can distinguish which is the right time to
open a support case in order to resolve it as quickly as needed. Few of them will open a
case five minutes before lunch time, because they know that at this time of the day, a
quick and not very interested answer is more than probable, so they will prefer to wait to
open their cases until the afternoon.

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5/13/2021 Help desk system: How to overcome user’s change resistance

– What it is their co-responsibility. They believe they don’t have any responsibility
regarding an open case. Most of the customers don’t feel they have any responsibility
with registration or documentation of the cases. They do not know the importance of
these activities so if the technical problem is solved, that is the end of it.

When this kind of customer is confronted with a help desk system, it is very natural that
they response with a strong resistance to the change.

What can we do in order to overcome this resistance? Here we have a group of actions
that we believe could be useful to help you dealing with this matter:

– A good sale of the project is vital. Before the final implementation, it is imperative to
communicate to the customers our objectives with the new help desk system. This
communication could be more effective if the customers and their satisfaction is one of
our main goals. Keep this relation in mind: more information, more customer positivity.

– Start the communication when the project is a fact. We do not want to create false
expectations.

– Train your technical support staff. Introduce a new help desk system imply of
course training our technical support staff on using the new system and its all
capabilities but it is also the perfect time to go back on basic topics such as assertive
communication, tolerance, management of expectations and focus on service. Make sure
that the whole group understands how these concepts should be implemented with the
new system.

– If you do a pilot project with a department or with a regional office, bring the
results to the customers. Asking a user for help could be a great idea. An email from a
user of this department or office, telling everybody how positive his experience was,
could help a lot.

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5/13/2021 Help desk system: How to overcome user’s change resistance

– Announce the project’s launch date. Sending a schedule with the activities of
implementation, evaluation, adjustments and final settling, is a nice idea.

– Cover basics when the project starts. Be sure that your customers know and
understand the basic process to open and follow a support case. Talk to them about main
concepts as case numbers, appropriate subjects or how to properly close a case. All the
basics have to be covered.

– Start with the old system and the new concurrently but set a date. When you
implement your new help system is not a good idea to deny the use of the old one. For
example, you could let the clueless or more resistant users open cases with phone calls.
When this call is received, invite your customer to use the new system and tell them
about the expiration date of the former system.

– When the date arrives, close the old system without looking back.

– Reduce the time between the automatic first message and the message from your
support staff. Every help desk system include the possibility of a first automatic
response. Regularly in this response the system gives customer a case number and
makes a promise like “your ticket will be attended as soon as possible”. But while we
are introducing a new system there is a risk; if a customer open a case, receive an
automatic response and two hours later receive another message announcing the problem
was solved, it is normal they feel extremely cold and impersonal the whole process. A
nice way to avoid this feeling and the general rejection is reducing the time between the
automatic first message and the first message written by a real person. Take this time as
your first service level agreement to be considered.

– Keep customer all time posted. Generally customers want to know what is going on
with their cases as much as possible. If the case is complex and requires reviewing a
particular system, making some test o even consulting to a third party or a manufacturer,

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5/13/2021 Help desk system: How to overcome user’s change resistance

it is a good idea keep customer informed. Surely technical details will be unnecessary
but a brief description at each step could be useful. In this way the user will understand
his problem is being attended and could feel more related to the new help desk system.

– Listen to your users. It is always a good idea to listen to your customers. Consider it
as an ideal resource to adjust the system when necessary.

– Check the acceptance level of your users. Maybe with a satisfaction poll and if it
turns out well, it could be positive to publish the results.

At the end of the day, we have to keep in mind that one of the most important keys in a
successful help desk system, is the customer so, it is fundamental to overcome change
resistance, and our best weapon for this fight is communication, communication,
communication.

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