Consumerization of IT Support - Can the Service Desk keep up?

Outside of the workplace, consumers have grown accustomed to on-demand answers via chatbots, digital assistants, and AI tools. As user experiences have evolved, the gap between expectations and the reality of Service Desk support has widened. The "consumerization of IT" represents a shift in technology, where trends from the consumer world now heavily influence how businesses deliver and support services. For IT service desks, this shift has introduced new challenges in meeting these elevated expectations. Gone are the days when it was enough to advise the user to send an email or submit a ticket. Today’s users demand frictionless, responsive, and seamless service experiences that mirror their everyday interactions with brands. For IT professionals, service desk managers, and technology leaders, this paradigm shift has redefined how service desk communications are delivered.

This blog explores the impact of IT consumerization on service desk communications and the challenges it brings.

What do we mean by Consumerization of IT?

The consumerization of IT refers to the adoption of consumer-grade technologies and practices within business environments. It bridges the gap between how employees and customers interact with technology in their personal lives and how they expect to engage with IT services in the workplace.

For IT service desks, this shift translates to increasing expectations for real-time, multichannel communication, instant resolutions, and seamless interfaces. Whereas businesses might once have relied purely on a "submit, wait, and resolve" pipeline for tickets, users now expect the kind of speed and sophistication they associate with their favorite apps and platforms.

How IT Consumerization Has Transformed IT Support Expectations

• Multichannel Communication: Users expect diverse channels, spanning live chat, email, self-service portals, and AI-fueled chatbots.
• Instant Feedback & Resolution: Real-time responses are the benchmark for satisfaction.
• Personalized Experiences: Technology is now expected to adapt to each individual’s needs seamlessly.

These trends have significantly shaped the expectations of IT service desk communications, with users now anticipating faster, more efficient support to match their heightened demands. However, the reality for many service desks remains unchanged, with users often stuck waiting for lengthy email responses, highlighting a gap between expectations and actual experiences.

The Current State of IT Service Desk Communications

While enterprises have made progress in modernizing IT systems, service desk communications remain largely under-optimized. According to Gartner’s 2024 data on IT Service Desk Analysis, 85% of service desk interactions are still handled manually by agents. Furthermore, 42% of queries continue to arrive via voice calls. The rest are shared across email, web forms, and chat systems—channels that, while adequate for certain use cases, often lack the dynamism users have grown accustomed to.

One of the most glaring issues lies in response and resolution delays. Ticket communication often involves lengthy back-and-forth exchanges as support staff attempt to clarify vague or incomplete user queries. These delays erode the user experience, leaving customers frustrated and service agents stretched thin with piles of unresolved cases. 
The complexity of the issues also adds stress. While technology brings many benefits to an organization, more advanced and fragmented technology landscape means, that more tickets require more nuanced knowledge and expertise, slowing the time-to-resolution.

While these traditional communication channels and systems deliver incremental solutions, they leave much to be desired in delivering a truly consumer-like experience.

Key Challenges Facing Service Desk Communications

1. The Demand for Instant Responses - Modern users no longer tolerate long wait times for resolutions. Even minor delays lead to frustration and dissatisfaction, especially when compared to consumer apps that at their best deliver near-instant support.
2. Communication Breakdowns - Miscommunication is an endemic issue in service desks. Often, users submit incomplete and unclear issue descriptions, causing lengthy back-and-forth clarifications between users and agents. The result? Reopened tickets, duplicated efforts, and inefficiencies across the service desk workflows.
3. High Volume of Manual Communication - According to Gartner’s analysis of Service Desks in 2024, nearly 70% of service desk tasks involve manual effort, from categorizing tickets to exchanging repetitive updates. This burdens agents with routine tasks instead of valuable problem-solving activity, hampering their overall productivity.
4. Scalability Constraints - Growth in ticket volume often requires expanding service desk teams—a resource-intensive and costly approach. Without scalable systems, many service desks find themselves stuck, unable to handle increased user demands effectively.

Future of a More Agile and Efficient IT Service Desks

The consumerization of IT makes one thing crystal clear—meeting the modern user’s needs is no longer optional. IT leaders and service desk managers must pivot, adopting advanced technologies like AI chatbots, self-service systems, and automation to bridge the gap between traditional practices and new-age expectations.

It's time to turn these challenges into opportunities. By modernizing service desk communications and focusing on user-centric solutions, IT professionals can redefine success for their organizations. Ready to take your service desk to the next level? Explore Matrix42 Service Management, tailor-made for IT's evolving landscape.