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ITSM Platforms: Here's What You Need To Look For To Deliver Beautiful Customer Experiences

Posted by Don Casson

Tue, Oct 03, 2017

Providing an Amazon-like customer experience requires knowing the three constituents of a service

The following statement may be difficult to swallow for us folks in the IT service management community: "Traditional ITSM is just plain wrong. Why? Because it puts the customer last."

In the last decade, companies like Amazon (and Apple and Google) have transformed the whole customer experience. Seeing this evolution, four years ago I asked myself, “Why can’t our ITSM customers have the same thing: beautiful self-service experiences?” Following Amazon’s example, I discovered that they can. And, I challenged my thinking on ITSM, ultimately learning that an approach that is “customer in, rather than IT out” works best. This is Customer-Centric ITSM. 

Here's what happens when you put customers first. Instead of just handling incidents, you focus on preventing them from happening in the first place. You combine self service with automation to make customers happier AND reduce the work of IT. You see services as end-to-end team value chains, rather than disconnected silos. And, knowledge becomes a powerful, beautiful self-enablement experience in and of itself.

So, can anyone deliver beautiful, self-service experiences like Amazon? Yes. But you must build it.

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Topics: ITIL Consulting, ITIL Strategy, IT Service Catalog, IT Service Catalog Workshops, Service Catalog Consultant, Service Portal, ServiceNow, Service Now, ServiceNow Partner, Service Catalog Planning, ITSM Strategy, Customer-Centric IT, Customer-Centric ITSM, Employee Self-Service Portal, ServiceNow Solutions, ServiceNow Support, ServiceNow Virtual Support, ServiceNow Admin, ServiceNow Remote Admin, Evergreen Evolve, ServiceNow Service Portal, ITSM, ITSM Consultants, ITSM Platforms, IT Service Owner, IT Service Management



5 Principles for Improved IT Services

Posted by Don Casson

Wed, Sep 20, 2017

YES! You too can create an Amazon-like experience of IT!

When we think of service, we often think of our experiences in retail centers. You go to a bank teller, you expect fast answers to questions about your account. Visit your mechanic and you want to understand the problem with your vehicle to make an informed decision on whether to go forward with paying hundreds of dollars for a repair.

Some retail centers are head and shoulders above the competition. Nordstrom is known for their exceptional customer service. Items can be easily returned without a receipt and any hassle. And the sales people on the floor go through extensive training to ensure pleasurable shopping experiences for their customers.

A friend of mine who used to work in the women’s shoe department shared a scenario with me that speaks to the high priority of service at Nordstrom. A customer points to the shoes she wants to try on. He would quickly return with the shoes in a box, plus three to four more boxes of shoes. The other shoes are either of a similar type or complements her style. This serves multiple purposes. It provides a total customer experience, whereby the customer can try on multiple pairs of shoes in one sitting. And no matter how many pairs she wants to try on, he would make as many trips as necessary to ensure she was happy. At the same time, this practice in service provided additional opportunities for revenue, as she was likely to leave the store with more than one pair.

However, over the past three years, online retailing has grown by “as much as 7 percent higher than retail sector growth,” according to a recent PWC report. So, what is to become of brick and mortar retail stores, now that online retail is king? For Nordstrom, their response is to try new ways to bring customers back to their retail stores according to a WSJ report (link requires log in).

What is behind this disruption in the retail sector? Amazon and their complete end-to-end service.

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Topics: ITIL Consulting, ITIL Strategy, IT Service Catalog, IT Service Catalog Workshops, Service Catalog Consultant, Service Portal, ServiceNow, Service Now, ServiceNow Partner, Service Catalog Planning, ITSM Strategy, Customer-Centric IT, Customer-Centric ITSM, Employee Self-Service Portal, ServiceNow Solutions, ServiceNow Support, ServiceNow Virtual Support, ServiceNow Admin, ServiceNow Remote Admin, Evergreen Evolve, ServiceNow Service Portal



Managing ServiceNow Demand: Meeting the #1 Problem Users Face

Posted by Don Casson

Mon, Sep 18, 2017

Building an “Amazon-Like” experience of IT requires smarter use of resources

If you’re looking for a modern CMS toolkit for building better customer experiences, ServiceNow Service Portal delivers value. If your aim is to build an Amazon-like experience of IT with ServiceNow, there are three challenges you face: 1.) demand, 2.) skilled resource and expert support, and 3.) cost and ease of use.

Let’s face it, Amazon has created the world’s best, complete customer experience. They’re also a global behemoth with endless financial resources to continually refine their service operations. How can you possibly deliver an Amazon-like experience of IT to your customers with the resources available to you?

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Topics: ITIL Consulting, ITIL Strategy, IT Service Catalog, IT Service Catalog Workshops, Service Catalog Consultant, Service Portal, ServiceNow, Service Now, ServiceNow Partner, Service Catalog Planning, ITSM Strategy, Customer-Centric IT, Customer-Centric ITSM, Employee Self-Service Portal, ServiceNow Solutions, ServiceNow Support, ServiceNow Virtual Support, ServiceNow Admin, ServiceNow Remote Admin, Evergreen Evolve



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