How to Solve Tech Issues in Your Organization Faster

Tech issues can slow your organization down. Whether it’s a massive blackout or someone’s forgotten password, you need to be able to solve these issues quickly.

What strategies can you implement to make sure your tech issues get resolved faster so your business can maintain peak productivity?

Create and Manage an Archive of Self-Help Content

One of your best options is to create and manage an archive of self-help content. In other words, you should have internal tutorials, guides, and articles that help people understand the most common tech issues they’re likely to face and how to fix them on their own. Many of the issues your IT team is tasked to handle can be resolved with simple strategies like downloading an update or resetting a device, and resolution comes much faster when people are empowered to try these steps on their own.

There are many tools and methods that can facilitate this type of content creation.

For example, you can use a screen recorder to demonstrate key problems and how to fix them. People who are visual learners and people with limited tech experience will especially appreciate the combination of video and audio guidance.

Ultimately, your content archive should be:

• Comprehensive. You don’t have to explore every little issue that could possibly arise, but you should cover the most common issues and complaints. The majority of employees who find themselves with a tech problem should be able to resolve it after consulting your guides.
• High-quality. Your content also needs to be as high-quality as possible. Work with your best writers, your most knowledgeable tech staff members, your most articulate communicators, and your best videographers if you have them.
• Direct and clear.If you’re trying to resolve a problem like network connectivity disruptions, there’s little to no reason to go on an hour-long diatribe about how your network is set up. Instead, be direct, clear, and to the point. Many little issues can be resolved with just a few sentences of instruction.
• Easily accessible.Your archive of self-help content is only going to be effective if people can access and use it reliably. Make sure it’s hosted somewhere where anyone in your organization can access it at any time.
• Searchable.Ideally, this archive will also be easily searchable. Even people who aren’t familiar with technical terminology should be able to find what they’re looking for quickly. Run some live tests with actual staff members to evaluate this.

Practice Ongoing Monitoring

IT monitoring comes in many forms, and can help you prevent or mitigate a host of tech issues. If you notice network slowdown or bottlenecks, for example, you can take intervening action even before people start complaining.

Automate What You Can

You should also strive to automate whatever you can. Automated alerts, automated issue resolutions, and automated ticketing systems can all accelerate your IT team and lead to faster issue resolution. Automation can’t be applied to everything, but it can be very powerful in a variety of contexts.

Facilitate Faster Communication

Almost everything else can be accelerated with faster, more efficient communication.

• Establish clear channels and protocols for communication. First, establish clear channels and protocols for communication. If someone has an issue related to IT what should they do first? What communication channels should they use and who should they contact? What should their backup plan be if they can’t get in touch with someone?
• Have someone available 24/7.On the other end, you should have a human IT representative available 24/7, especially in a large organization. Make sure you’re adequately staffed for the busiest hours of the day. Your employees should be able to open a dialogue in relatively short order under a wide range of circumstances.
• Integrate self-help options. Through typical IT communication channels, consider directing people with inquiries to your self-help content. Integrating self-help options isn’t just faster – it’s also preferred by most of your staff members.

Many people reaching out to a representative to solve a persistent issue can find what they’re looking for and resolve it on their own. Not everyone in your organization will pursue this option, but it’s worth making it available for those who will.

• Educate your employees on how to describe tech issues.Finally, strive to educate your employees on how to accurately describe tech issues. Sometimes, fixes are delayed simply because your tech experts don’t fully understand what’s happening or arrive at incorrect conclusions based on poorly described issues.

These strategies won’t allow you to eliminate or prevent all the possible tech issues your company could face. There may also be significant tech issues that take a long time to solve. However, this combination of strategies can expedite delivery of IT services and keep your team as productive as possible.