IT Live Chat: A New Channel to Engage IT Customer Support

Directorate: IT Service Desk, Information and Digital Services

Division: Corporate Services

Project summary

Focus Area:

• Improving access to mainstream services through better systems and processes.

Project objective

Information and Digital Services (IDS) provide customer service and support, through the IT Service Desk team to help employees with IT issues and fulfillment of IT requests.

To improve accessibility and customer experience, IDS will introduce a new Live Chat contact channel for customers who prefer to engage and get support through text. Customers will be able to access the IT Live Chat feature in the ServiceNow web portals by clicking a button that opens a chat box. This starts an interactive conversation with the IT Service Desk team.

The chat service enables staff with hearing disabilities to engage IT support in a convenient manner. 

The challenge

Why is this important?

Research has shown that customer preferences have changed. There is growing demand for more digital services, including social media and online chat services. In 2021, 41% of customers now expect a real-time live chat option for sales and support. 

In addition, Live Chat provides a quicker resolution time than traditional email-reply services. It enables a text-based channel with real time responses, complimenting telephone channels.

The Live Chat feature will:

Provide a new way for customers to engage with IDS. Customers can choose their preferred channel, convenient and accessible to their needs.

Customers can continue to work while chatting with customer support and avoid telephone queues for non-urgent IT issues.

Customers will have an opportunity to learn about the Self-Service options available that may help them the next time they need support.

What will success look like?

Customers can use Live Chat to interact with the IT service team.

Status report

Current Status: Completed

Date: July 2022

Status Notes:

July 2022

The IT Live Chat was consolidated into a single ServiceNow instances in June 2022.

May 2021

The pilot phase of the IT Live Chat was completed in October 2020, with enhancements made to improve both technology and how the IT support team manages workflows.

The second phase commenced in December 2020. That provided support to more than 5,000 customer enquiries. The service received positive feedback from many customer groups and representatives from the Disability Employee Network.

IDS is officially launching the IT Live Chat service for all customers and IT services in August 2021.

Chat Services enabled from Dec-20. Since the introduction, we had managed 3000 customer engagements and received a handful of positive feedback from the customers with hearing disabilities.

The IT Service Desk receives on average 200 chat interactions per day.