A typical IT service desk receives multiple simple and easily resolvable requests daily. That means most agent time is wasted on issues customers can solve without assistance. What if your IT service desk personnel could avoid these repetitive tasks? The good news is that they can do it with ITSM chatbots.
Read on to learn how ITSM bots work and how you can use them for your support teams.
What Is an ITSM Сhatbot?
An IT service management (ITSM) chatbot is a virtual agent that works 24/7 as part of IT service providers‘ or departments’ customer support teams.
Let’s say a company employee faces a network outage or can’t turn on a printer. When they contact the IT service team, an ITSM chatbot can be the first “employee” they talk to. The bot works as a virtual agent that collects information about the issue and, if possible, addresses it. If the bot can’t solve the problem, it seamlessly transfers all information to a live support agent.
This is the basic use case for an ITSM chatbot, though it’s not the only one. For now, let’s look at what you get when you adopt these virtual support agents.
Why Do You Need an ITSM Chatbot for Your IT Service Desk?
In a nutshell, a chatbot helps your IT service desk work more efficiently. Here’s how.
It’s always available
A chatbot doesn’t need days off, time for sleep, or coffee breaks—it works any time of day and night. That’s good news if your company operates outside the typical 9-to-5.
It provides personalized service
While your agents’ memories might sometimes be patchy, chatbots remember everything about everyone. This allows them to provide personalized service by simply analyzing a customer’s history of interactions and personal data.
Say an employee asks your desk to “do something with my laptop because it’s slow” for the fifth time. A bot will analyze previous interactions and suggest or carry out actions that don’t just repeat them—for example, by running an antivirus or suggesting replacement parts.
It carries out mundane tasks and improves performance
Mundane tasks are where chatbots shine. Typical examples are clarifying service request details, opening tickets, searching a knowledge base, solving common issues, and creating reports.
This extra help all adds up. With a reliable chatbot in place, ticket raises have been shown to decrease by 65%. This allows your IT service team to focus on more complicated problems and improves employee experience.
It makes everyone happy
Less waiting time, fewer questions, and more attention from a live support agent are all things that IT support customers want to see. An ITSM chatbot helps to provide them, thus increasing your customer satisfaction rate.
A bot improves your employee experience, too. Fewer mundane manual tasks, more satisfied customers, easier knowledge management, and more time for uncommon cases are the dream of every ITSM professional, and these are also things the ITSM chatbot helps you achieve.
It saves you money
When chatbots take a big part of employee work and improve performance, you need fewer employees. When your support team reps are happier with their work because they’re doing less mundane work, the turnover rate drops and you spend less on onboarding.
Now that you know the theory, let’s consider some practical situations where ITSM bot use makes perfect sense.
Examples of Using AI-based Chatbots for an IT Service Desk
Here’s a round-up of the most typical cases when ITSM chatbots come in handy.
Self-service
Suppose an employee’s laptop is running slowly and they need to fix it. The chatbot asks a few questions, and if the issue is minor, it suggests actions from a knowledge base as a part of self-service.
Ticketing
For every issue a chatbot can’t solve, it raises a ticket and sends it to a suitable live support agent, saving you valuable time.
Checking approval status
A bot is also helpful when the customer sends a service request (say, to replace a laptop) but hasn’t gotten approval yet. The bot can inform the customer of the service request status and send reminders to IT support.
Reporting
When an IT service team member needs analytics on closed or unanswered tickets or other particular issues, they can request them from the bot instead of manually collecting data and compiling their own report.
Assisting with asset management
A chatbot can help with asset management in several ways. For example, it can send reminders or self-service instructions to employees to upgrade their software or antivirus. It can also gather a history of employee requests so the IT support team knows the main issues and concerns related to asset management.
Helping with change management
A chatbot also comes in handy with change management. For example, it can send instructions to employees to help them learn how to use new software or adapt to other changes implemented by the IT service team.
Knowledge management for IT service desk
Finally, a chatbot can assist ITSM professionals with knowledge management. It can analyze the knowledge base and suggest changes if the answers to some questions are missing, irrelevant, or outdated.
These are just some of the most common uses of ITSM chatbots, but there are many more. Everything depends on your ITSM tool vendor, needs, and how you integrate your bots, as AI-based bots get smarter by learning from employees’ experiences. As a result, it’s essential to spend time looking for the ITSM tool vendor and chatbot that fits your needs.
Conclusion
An ITSM chatbot is invaluable for any department and company that solves IT-related issues. A bot can handle mundane support tasks, help customers solve common problems faster, and help ITSM professionals work more efficiently. You can reap all these benefits by choosing an ITSM tool vendor that fits your needs.