Adrian Chiffi: What do organisations expect from a modern Service desk in 2025? What are the fundamentals when delivering a meaningful user experience in IT support? And how do we strike the right balance between AI and human interaction?
Hello everybody, I'm Ade Chiffi and I lead Global Technology Operations for CGI in the UK and in today's podcast focused on service desks. I'm delighted to be joined by Jayne Kennington-Arnold, our head of Digital Workplace, and Nic Miles, who leads up our UK service desk. Hello both.
Jayne Kennington-Arnold: Hi Ade. Hi Nic.
Nicholas Miles: Hi Both, lovely to be here.
Adrian: Fantastic. Well, yeah, it's lovely to have you on. I've. I've been wanting to get your both on the podcast for ages, so really looking forward to this.
OK, so if I set the scene for us, then when thinking about digital support in 2025, is it fair to say that service desk is very much at the front line? So setting the tone, if you like for the end to end user experience, and it’s more than just the point of contact it's that critical enabler of productivity, really ensuring that users receive timely, effective - and we talk about it a lot - personalised assistance. So by striking that right balance between automation and human interaction, a well-structured service desk doesn't just resolve those technical issues. It builds trust and then that confidence in IT services. So all about striking that right balance. Jayne, I'm going to bring you in first in a second if that's OK then.
So, if we if we think about, you know where that service starts out, our agents, you know the agents in the service desk and making sure that we really look to empower them to understand the DNA of the customer; understand those user personas, so we can really drive personalised experience. What's your take, you know, and your experience of that over the years Jayne.
Jayne: So, at the moment, we're looking at the importance of emotional intelligence in IT support.
And really Ade, that has never been more relevant than it is today. So when we think about IT support we normally think about the technical elements. So, we thought think about all the technical fixes, all of that sort of stuff, but really our agents are speaking to users who are frustrated, who are under pressure, Who've got decisions to make.
And so for the agents to be able to demonstrate emotional intelligence and that empathy can only lead to a more positive user experience. So Ade, we're continually looking at how we train our agents and empowering them to make decisions on how they approach conversations with our end users.
Yeah, we've all experienced the frustrations on contacting service desk or call centres only to find the agent knows nothing about the previous experience we've had.
So, what we're trying to do is equip our agents with the most up to date information on users, to really make the call as personal as possible. This is good for the end user obviously, but it's also really good for the agents and takes away that worry factor when they go in on that call initially.
So, one of the statistics we often talk about is the number of clients that an agent will speak to, and one of the things we talk about all the time is that agents will often speak to more of our clients by a Monday lunchtime, than a lot of us will have spoken to in a month.
Adrian: So true.
Jayne: And often. Yeah. And often this can be the only contact that an end user has with CGI, right? So it's important for us that we get it right first time every time.
Adrian: Totally agree.
Jayne: So Ade, I talked about giving agents the most up to date information. So imagine you'd contacted the service desk three times this week, and you still haven't had your issue fixed. What you don't want to do is call the service desk to speak to an agent who knows nothing about your previous incidents. What you want is an agent who's in power to take control and take ownership of your incident to see it through to a fix.
Adrian: I can imagine the frustration. I think we've all been there, but you're overcoming that with driving that understanding of the of the user needs and then you're personalising it. So yeah, now I like it. Jayne makes a lot of sense, makes a lot of sense. Nic, let me bring you in now on this.
We both had the privilege of, you know, different parts of our career working on the service desk and hey, let's be honest, it's a tough role. What do you do, currently, to really empower agents to develop?
What was? What’s the secret sauce there, Nic?
Nicholas: Yeah, I think you know, as you say, agents - whilst it might have been a while since as I sat on the end of a phone taking a call out, the fundamentals, they broadly stay the same and you know Jayne talked about our agents being, you know, being able to show empathy and being to understand that they know the frustration or the place that the customer is in, you know, and what we do is, you know, we try and start with bringing agents into the business who've got a good basic set of skills around that empathy piece around being able to hold, you know, being able to hold a meaningful conversation; active listening and all of those things to keep the user engaged while they're trying to get to the root of the problem.
And you know, it's handy if agents have got a good technical base, but there's a whole bunch of stuff we can teach there, in terms of use of tools and some of the technology and so on. I think it's that empathy piece is really important.
And then what we do really is we really try and put a client lens in in front of that agent. And to do that, you know, we will, as well as providing the sort of the usual classroom sort of training that you might do; is, we actually send our agents out to go and spend a day or a couple of days or a week with our end users out in the field at their sites? You know, sitting alongside them as they're doing their job. So they really get a feel for what it means to the user, you know, when they do get something go wrong or when they do require that support really.
Its impact, isn't it Nic, we’re trying to get the agents to really understand the impact of what they're doing has on a client.
Nicholas: Absolutely. And I think beyond that then is that we look to; we really look to empower our regions to take control of their own development. So they may want to learn more about specific technology or a specific set of service management processes or they may want to progress into a, you know, down a more management or a business focused route.
And really what we do then is we build time into their day and their week and their month that enables them to go and do some self-learning and really set themselves off down the path that they want to pursue.
Adrian: Yeah. And then you're tie in that customer experience in there to everything you've just spoken about in the way you build out our agent journey map to the to the client generator. So that day in the life in particular makes so much sense. So, when they’re, you know taking calls or interactions across various channels, there is that empathy built in.
Nicholas: Definitely.
Adrian: Talking about different channels, then, let's bring in a point around or a question around technology then.
So, and Jayne, I'm going to bring you in first on this one, if that's OK. So when we focus on driving the right level of efficiency, when thinking about bringing in technology, but at the same time whilst balancing fantastic customer satisfaction.
I know you've invested, both of you, invested heavily in AI within service operations, but tell me, how do you strike the right balance between AI and human interaction. Jayne, what's your take, to kick us off on that?
Jayne: Yeah, it's an interesting one, actually Ade and It's so topical at the moment. So it sounds a bit cliche, but we really look at it sort of – ‘AI works for efficiency, humans for complexity’, sounds obvious, but it is all about AI enhancing and not replacing. So we're looking at reducing those repetitive tasks whilst also maintaining that seamless transition or escalation from AI to human, so without repeating what's already being captured by AI. So for example, if you run a service desk and the first part of your call could be handled by AI, what you don't want is the second part of your call, if you’re transferred to a human, for them to have to repeat everything again. So it's getting that transition and that seamless transition, so again, end users don't become frustrated.
Adrian: Yeah. Agree. Nic - build on that.
Nicholas: Yeah. And I think, coming at it then - from perhaps the agent’s side of things, I think what's been key for us has been bringing agents along on the journey when we've looked to introduce some of this AI technology. So you know it would have been very easy to set up a couple of tools and throw them at agents and you know off you go, use those. You know, we very consciously haven't done that and where we've, for example, gone down the road of building some custom GPT models to support specific services.
When we've got agents along with us doing that, they've been building those models with us and for us, you know. So, I think bringing the agent on the journey and making them part of that and you know a lot of them, most of them are, you know, tech savvy and interested in technology, so giving them the opportunity to be hands on with that I think has been really beneficial.
Adrian: I would say they have a passion for it, Nic, from what I've experienced. I totally agree with you.
Well, listen, thank you both so much for your insights, you know, what I'd call, you know, real life experience there as we've been going through this some, you know, you've both got the scars from delivering across multiple services over the years and you know very much learning as we go as well. You know, as we find new ways of breaking ground building that through into service to make to make a difference.
Always looking to deliver amazing customer satisfaction, empowering our teams across the way. Look, I'm going to look to summarise the three points that I've captured as we've gone through and you know, give me your take on these when we get through them.
The first thing I've heard is - and Nic you just called it there - mapping the agent journey and their development to the customer journey and their user needs really does drive that best user experience and I'm very much looking for an equilibrium between the two.
Nicholas: That’s exactly it yes.
Adrian: Secondly. I’ve heard there's a real need for specificity, you'd call it, when building out a technology road map to ensure the right fit, and then look to really forearm our agents with the best in class solutions to deliver that personalised experience.
And the third thing I've heard is: There really does need to be the right balance between AI and human interaction, and Jayne, you called it there, it is so topical at the minute, but looking to focus on efficiency and price point, absolutely, but not at the expense of quality and meaningful outcomes. Ultimately, the service desk is a strategic enabler of business success and ensuring that it is not just seen as a back office function, it's really as front and centre here, so.
A vital partner in delivering seamless, you know, high quality, let's call it, digital experiences. Both of you in agreement with that?
Jayne: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, you know, service desks of old were really considered as you mentioned, to be back office, now with all of the technology we're using, you know, the agents are completely empowered to provide that end-to-end service to the end users and really provide an excellent, you know, an excellent service to our end users.
Adrian: Totally. Thank you, Jayne. Nic, any closing thoughts?
Nicholas: Yeah. So I just think really just building, I think you know the technologies then that we use to support that process and you know we talked about AI.
You know, it is there to enhance the sort of human experience, not to replace it. And I think that's going to be the case for a while I think.
Adrian: I agree. Watch this space - we'll be staying very close to it won’t we? Thank you both so much. Really enjoyed that. Finally got you on here and it's been great to spend a bit of time and have a good conversation.
Nicholas: Great stuff.
Jayne: So, Ade, I'd just like to thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak about something, that you can probably tell, I'm very passionate about. So thanks to you guys.
Nicholas: Yeah. Likewise, absolutely.
Adrian: Fantastic. Hopefully, this has given our listeners some food for thought. Do reach out to us if you'd like to discuss these areas further. And don't forget you can listen to all our Talking Transformation podcasts wherever you access your podcasts. Thank you so much. Have a great rest of the day.
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