Support Appointments

Use Self Service to offer a calendar of available appointments to your end users so they can have a 1:1 with IT at a mutually convenient time

The way in which IT departments deliver services to the business is changing. Users expect a different service and level of support than that which they have previously been provided. Many users now expect to find answers for themselves but for those issues that can’t be easily fixed by reading some knowledge they want to be able to talk over the problem with an expert. Many technical service providers are finding that they can increase customer satisfaction by providing a place where experts are available for users to come and meet them and discuss their particular issues. This approach has been very successful in the retail sector with the likes of Apple, O2 and PCWorld offering ‘Genius’ or ‘Guru’ ‘bars’ in their stores where customers can bring their devices and get help with training or particular issues they have had. This model is becoming popular with IT departments too – offering a place where the business users can come to talk with IT staff about any problems they are experiencing. However, manning such areas throughout business hours can be costly and potentially disappointing if all the experts are already busy at peak times. This document describes a way of advertising appointment slots to users where they can book time to visit the IT team and get the help they need at a pre-arranged time. Also described, is a way to integrate this activity in to the normal incident or request processes in order to capture data on the issues presented, any troubleshooting that takes place and any resolutions that are agreed. In addition, this content pack describes how to model and generate those appointment slots in your system in order to manage them easily. The purpose of this document is to provide advice and guidance on how to implement a Support Appointment booking process in Ivanti Service Desk. The purpose of this is to enable IT to offer time slots to for when someone is available to help with general IT issues.