What are the best ways to incorporate new desktop applications into your technical support training program?

New desktop applications can enhance your technical support team's productivity, efficiency, and customer satisfaction. However, introducing new tools also requires adequate training and support to ensure a smooth transition and optimal performance. In this article, you will learn some of the best ways to incorporate new desktop applications into your technical support training program.

1 Assess your team's needs and goals

Before you select and implement any new desktop application, you need to assess your team's current skills, knowledge, and challenges. What are the gaps and pain points that you want to address with the new application? What are the objectives and expectations that you have for the new application? How will you measure the impact and success of the new application? By answering these questions, you can identify the most suitable and relevant desktop applications for your technical support team.

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Idanai Murugani

IT Support Specialist
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The application should allow exporting of reports of queries from end users. Allow tracking of assigned specialist, adding of notes/workdone this will also foster knowledge sharing in the event a similar issue occurs.

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2 Choose user-friendly and compatible applications

The next step is to choose the desktop applications that match your team's needs and goals. You want to look for applications that are user-friendly, intuitive, and easy to learn. You also want to ensure that the applications are compatible with your existing systems, hardware, and software. You can research online reviews, ratings, and testimonials from other technical support teams that have used the applications. You can also request a demo or a trial version of the applications to test them out before making a final decision.

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Idanai Murugani

IT Support Specialist
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Suggestions of the appropriate tools should perhaps come from the team who would mainly use the application on a daily basis not from their management who would probably not even make use of it in a given period of time.

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3 Design a comprehensive and flexible training plan

Once you have chosen the desktop applications, you need to design a training plan that covers all the essential features, functions, and benefits of the applications. You should also include scenarios, examples, and exercises that demonstrate how the applications can help your team solve common technical support issues. Your training plan should be comprehensive, but also flexible enough to accommodate different learning styles, paces, and preferences. You can use a variety of methods, such as online tutorials, webinars, videos, manuals, quizzes, and feedback sessions.

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Idanai Murugani

IT Support Specialist
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More so, in most organisations training is mainly attended by the management who rarely use these tools as they mainly focus on decision making of the business. A training approach that includes the team members using the tools and atleast the person they report too would be a great way into making sure the tools are efficiently & used the right way.

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4 Implement the training in phases and stages

The next step is to implement the training plan in phases and stages. You don't want to overwhelm your team with too much information and change at once. You can start with a pilot group of early adopters who can test the applications and provide feedback. Then, you can roll out the training to the rest of the team in batches or groups, depending on the size and structure of your team. You can also use different levels of training, such as basic, intermediate, and advanced, depending on the complexity and functionality of the applications.

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5 Provide ongoing support and evaluation

The final step is to provide ongoing support and evaluation for your team after the training is completed. You want to make sure that your team can use the applications effectively and confidently in their daily tasks. You can offer follow-up sessions, refresher courses, tips and tricks, and troubleshooting guides. You can also monitor and measure the performance and satisfaction of your team and your customers using the applications. You can use metrics, such as resolution time, error rate, feedback score, and retention rate.

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6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?

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Clark Hately

Co-owner
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Depending on the type of company, utilizing products already in use by other departs can be a huge advantage in training, cost reduction/avoidance, up time, cross functionality, etc. Specially, in manufacturing environments, the manu engineering & maintenance departments have similar needs as IT/DT as there is an increasing use of IoT, mobile compute, windows based PLC/HMI, MES/WMS stations, networked systems, etc. Asset mngmnt tools & service level apps can serve all as the support models are interlinked between IT/DT, ME, & Maintenance. It provides a common platform to move planned/unplanned work orders between the teams; build data/resolution knowledge, provide lessons learned, develop best practices, & intra-depart collaboration.

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What are the best ways to incorporate new desktop applications into your technical support training program?

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2

3

4

5

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1 Assess your team's needs and goals

2 Choose user-friendly and compatible applications

3 Design a comprehensive and flexible training plan

4 Implement the training in phases and stages

5 Provide ongoing support and evaluation

6 Here’s what else to consider

Technical Support

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What are the best ways to incorporate new desktop applications into your technical support training program?

1

2

3

4

5

6

1 Assess your team's needs and goals

2 Choose user-friendly and compatible applications

3 Design a comprehensive and flexible training plan

4 Implement the training in phases and stages

5 Provide ongoing support and evaluation

6 Here’s what else to consider

Technical Support

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