Service providers often goof up with their management of IT service operations, thanks to their negligence towards the soft skill that makes or breaks operations – communication. They generally don’t value the importance of communication and end up paying for it through escalations, penalties and negative customer ratings.
Why is communication important, especially in service operations?
Service operations is the phase in ITIL service lifecycle that interacts the most with customers, suppliers, users and other parties. So, it is imperative that communication be your strong suit.
Imagine that you are service desk agent, and you receive a call from the customer pertaining to a service request. If you cannot articulate and set the right expecatations with the customers on the request fulfilment dates and efforts, the customer is bound to be unhappy or disgusted when his expectations are not met.
Say you are a technical guy trying to obtain additional information from the customer. If your email does not explain what is needed, and how it needs to be extracted, how can you be effective in fixing the customer’s incident?
I can provide a dozen more examples. Later!
Service operations is the alpha, omega and everything in between in IT service management projects. If you are not delivering in service operations, but delivering on all other phases, still you have failed. While service providers pick the right skillsets for troubleshooting, managing and handling various aspects of service operations, they must pay heed towards the communication of the resources as well.
All written communication that goes out must be standardized – say creating templates for different types of emails that are sent out. Using scripts while conducting telephonic conversations etc.
My first book – communication skills for IT professionals delves into all communication aspects of an IT professional. It helps you communicate better and aids you in advancing your career. The book is tailored for IT needs, and consists of various channels, mediums and forms that we leverage today.
On a closing note, I want to emphasize the need for you, as an IT professional to start polishing your communication skills and as an employer and a manager, look for resources who can communicate well and keep the relationship progressing towards betterment.
