Running a successful company is no small feat; the bigger your enterprise gets, the greater your responsibilities. In today’s fast-paced environments, it can become challenging to keep all the cogs in place. There will inevitably be challenges along the way—your support teams keep getting swamped with endless, repetitive tasks, or your customer support teams can suddenly no longer access their CRM systems, creating a backlog in issue resolution- things seem to be dissolving into chaos.
Businesses often must support customers and employees, leaving IT customer support and other teams buried under mountains of service requests. Repetitive service requests keep popping up (which IT teams are equipped to handle), and letting daily disruptions build-up can affect team productivity, customer satisfaction, and overall operations.
To help customer support and IT teams tackle challenges effectively, businesses need to give them the right tools and backup. Let’s face it, not all service requests are simple. Agents often need help from service providers, and it’s tough for organizations to always know the “what” and “why” behind each request.
That’s where service request management saves the day. ITIL defines these requests as anything from password resets to handling software licenses or setting up new hardware. It simplifies the process, makes important data clear, sets expectations, and helps teams work together to get things done faster.
In this article, we will explore what service request management systems are, some of the best request management practices, and the benefits these tools bring to your company.
Key pointers
- Service requests involve users submitting requests regarding access to services, information, password changes, and other issues that may arise. They can be submitted by external customers or company employees. Service request management refers to the techniques companies use to manage these inquiries.
- Some of the best service management practices involve reviewing service level agreements (SLAs), standardizing and automating routine tasks, identifying information that can be accessed via knowledge bases and self-service features, gathering customer data without overloading them with questions, etc.
- Good service request management policies and tools can help companies enhance customer experiences and streamline processes. They also give IT teams some breathing room, allowing them to focus on more complicated or urgent tasks, improve efficiency, and improve business operations.
What is service request management?
Service requests usually refer to requests or inquiries submitted by employees, customers and vendors. These are generally low-risk, routine demands, like needing password reset access to certain information. They initiate a sequence of predefined actions for service delivery.
Unlike incident management, which deals with interruptions in service or failures in the process, service request management deals with everyday tasks. For example, a customer may need to reset their passwords to regain access to their account. They can submit a service request, triggering a predefined set of actions which IT departments can use to log and evaluate their problems.
Service request management involves managing service requests and ensuring these tickets are fulfilled and completed successfully. The right management practices and systems can help companies keep up with the countless requests they receive in a day, improving employee productivity and customer satisfaction.
Traditional ticket management systems were sufficient until recently. However, as businesses grow and customer demands increase, legacy systems have become somewhat inefficient. Businesses must now invest in software solutions incorporating omnichannel customer engagement and support, real-time ticket and inbox management, artificial intelligence, and more.
Service request management examples
To give you a clear picture of exactly what service requests refer to, here are some common examples:
- Password resets
- Access to specific software for employees
- Time-off requests
- Software installations
- Information regarding certain topics
- Purchase order approvals
Benefits of service request management
There are many service request management benefits. These processes allow companies to track, monitor, and fulfill requests easily. Other advantages include:
1. Efficient tracking
Several processes are underway from the moment a ticket is submitted to the time it is resolved. Service request management requires proper tracking capabilities to ensure that all departments are on track, involved parties are up to date, and the request is fulfilled smoothly. Tracking service requests can also allow companies to collect data, identify repeated requests, and improve the efficiency and time it takes.
2. Enhanced user experiences
Standardized request processes ensure that consumers receive streamlined and straightforward care when submitting their inquiries. Consistency also makes the process smoother and more efficient and instills trust in your IT department. Well-managed service request management processes can significantly improve a business’s customer satisfaction rates.
3. Reducing workloads
IT and customer support teams are often the backbone of a business’s operations. Having burnt-out employees and mountains of customer service requests benefits no one. To reduce these departments’ workload, service request management systems can automate repetitive tasks, use data to create knowledge bases, provide self-service options and tracking, and leverage AI-chatbot and virtual assistants. This way, IT and customer support teams can focus more on urgent and complex issues. This also allows companies to optimize resource allocation.
4. Better resolution times
Service request management can define clear workflows, automate routine or repetitive tasks, and enhance the efficiency and speed at which tickets are handled. Tracking features also allow support teams to address any gaps in the process and bridge them to avoid delays, which also improves customer satisfaction rates. DevRev’s workflow engine, for example, adapts to your needs. They eliminate the need for third-party tools, have customizable automation, seamless integrations, and 1-click data transformations. DevRev’s system also prevents you from building ineffective workflows during designing through data type matching of your variables. Our platform does now allow you to choose variables that lead to broken workflows.
5. Enhanced communication
Service request management systems give your company a centralized platform to coordinate between different teams and departments. This improves communication, ensures information isn’t lost, and provides stakeholders with real-time updates regarding tickets. This is usually accomplished using automation features, self-service portals, and tracking. DevRev’s Turing AI enhances communication capabilities within the organization. It can seamlessly escalate conversations to human agents when a request falls outside it’s knowledge base. Turing AI can also autonomously create tickets and assign them to the appropriate customer service agent through its Product Assist feature.
DevRev’s AI can also provide AI agents with a quick overview of conversations, allowing them to comprehend the issue promptly. This makes it unnecessary for agents to sift through endless cat logs and reduces customer wait times.
What is the service request management process?
Standardizing the service request management process is crucial for ensuring smoother operations. The management process refers to the entire journey from the request’s initiation to assessment, fulfillment, completion, and follow-up. The simplest way to approach service request management is as follows:
1. Initiating the request
The first step in the service request management process is submitting a request. This is where users report an issue or ask for access to specific resources. Ideally, the submission should include all relevant details, like the nature of the request and its purpose. A smooth, user-friendly submission process ensures requests are logged quickly, accurately, and with minimal hassle.
2. Assessing the request
Once the request is submitted, the next phase begins. During the assessment stage, customer support and other team members review the request to determine its priority, validity, and alignment with company policies and regulatory requirements. This step ensures the request is both actionable and compliant before moving forward.
3. Fulfilling requests
Once the request is assessed and approved, the relevant teams—such as IT or software development—take over to fulfill it. This is the stage where the necessary actions, information, or support are delivered. Simply put, this is where customer requests are resolved, ensuring a positive outcome and a seamless experience.
4. Completion
After a customer request has been assessed, approved, and fulfilled, the service request reaches the final stage of its lifecycle. In this stage, the request is considered to be resolved, and the customer has received the assistance or information they sought.
5. Following up
After completion, companies may choose to follow up with their customers to receive feedback on satisfaction levels and ensure that they have received the desired support. This helps companies determine if they are meeting customer expectations. This process also allows customers to report any additional issues or requirements. Following up with consumers can help enhance their overall experience and increase brand loyalty.
The best practices for service request management
What are some best practices to maximize your service request management? For starters, it is essential to focus on the well-being of employees and departments. Resolving service requests can often be exhausting, with endless similar requests day after day. Reviewing processes, identifying problem areas, and providing the proper training and tech resources can go a long way.
A singular portal where users and employees can submit requests is also essential. Handling hundreds of requests daily is hard enough- imagine if they were simultaneously coming at you from all angles. A centralized platform where people can submit their requests helps streamline support request management. Customer support, IT, product development, and marketing teams can be looped in together without the concern of information being lost.
Another way to improve service request management is to identify and automate low-effort, repetitive tasks. Many service requests are not too complicated. However, repeatedly performing the same task can be time-consuming and increase the possibility of human error. Automation reduces the workload for support teams, improves accuracy, and resolves tickets quickly and efficiently.
In conclusion
Legacy systems have been unable to keep up with the increase in customer demands, technological advancements, and the need for personalization and speed expected from ticket management systems. Service request management software must keep up with countless demands, provide a centralized platform for different departments to communicate, enable self-service features, and leverage AI and automation wherever possible.
DevRev is an AI-native platform that provides all these features. It combines customer support and product development teams to provide the best possible request management. This modern CRM system allows for real-time ticket and inbox management, omnichannel customer engagement, and customizable workflow automation.
For starters, DevRev streamlines ticket assignment by implementing advanced criteria that go beyond the traditional priority and agent skill criteria, allowing for optimized resource allocation and quicker response times.
It also has generative AI-powered search and knowledge management, encouraging self-service for internal teams and customers. Consumers and employees can input their inquiries and get accurate and efficient solutions without navigating extensive knowledge bases. Companies can achieve an 80% deflection rate in support tickets and sharply improve resolution times.
DevRev is a standout service request management solution using advanced automation and intelligent ticket management features. Our platform harnesses self-learning GPT technology to let companies automate their support conversations, allow IT teams to improve ticket resolution times and handle tickets more efficiently. It also ensures SLA compliance is not missed. DevRev’s shared inboxes can allow for seamless communication and implement proactive measures to meet all service-level agreements.
To know more about our offerings and how they can improve your service request management, visit DevRev today!
