A recent DeepCoding study found that remote working arrangements have led to a 35% increase in helpdesk ticket volume. Combine this ticket growth with a 200% increase in technician absenteeism and, not surprisingly, the result is a 37% increase in issue resolution time and a 9% drop in customer satisfaction.
ITSM teams are under constant pressure to support an increased volume of helpdesk tickets while maintaining quality support and reducing costs. Combining these challenges with technician absences, IT turnover, and a lack of ITSM technology investments has resulted in customer satisfaction levels and helpdesk employee morale plummeting.
Fortunately, Robotic Process Automation (RPA) can be rapidly deployed to assist helpdesk technicians in reducing costs and ticket resolution times while improving customer satisfaction and ITSM team morale.
Many helpdesk tickets are repetitive issues or requests, and process repetition is where RPA shines. Adding software robots to your helpdesk support team to handle the repetitive (and mundane) tickets can dramatically increase ticket throughput, customer satisfaction, and IT team engagement.
Here are some typical helpdesk use cases where RPA is utilized to assist IT support teams:
User Management
Managing user access to Technology Resources (ex. cloud-based systems, internal systems, Exchange accounts, O365 accounts, printer access, shared drive access, etc.)
Password Resets
Resetting passwords and then notifying the requestor, including necessary CC’s to IT and other stakeholders. Update audit log of change for risk managment tracking and reporting.
Resource and Process Monitoring
Recurring management and monitoring of critical resources (ex. LAN status, WAN status, Server status, Backup status, etc.) with first-line issue resolution and ticket escalation capabilities if/as required.
Software Installations
Install and/or upgrade software on client machines via a specific end-user request or as part of an enterprise software upgrade project. Log changes in the enterprise software inventory log for mangement tracking and reporting.
File/Data Movement
Move files from external stakeholders to designated internal server locations (ex. FTP, e-mail, cloud-shares, etc.). Automatically notify end-user via e-mail when the file transfer is complete.
Ticket Management
Monitor tickets and route appropriately (bots or support staff). Automatically close tickets handled via automation and notify owners of open tickets approaching service level thresholds. AI-equipped software bots have the added capability of sentiment analysis, which is used to rank/rate tickets based on the requestor frustration level reflected in the tone of the ticket content.
As you can see, incorporating Robotic Process Automation as a supplemental tool for your helpdesk support team can improve support performance, increase customer satisfaction, reduce costs, and allow your technology professionals to focus on more critical (and rewarding) ITSM tasks
Contact us to learn more about utilizing RPA to turbocharge your helpdesk operations and accelerate the elevation of your customer experience levels.