Help Desk Mission and Vision statements.

Help Desk mission and vision statements are a must
Help Desk Mission and Vision statements

Does your company have Help Desk Mission and Vision statements that incorporate the corporate business goals and objectives? Help Desk Mission and Vision statements should clearly and precisely be focused on what your business is all about and related to the technical support your Help Desk team provides. A well-defined Help Desk vision statement will provide a guide for clear and directional decisions to lead to long-term prosperity. The Help Desk mission statement will bring a strategic focus of underlining the goals and objectives of your Help Desk based on company values. Taking some time and defining your Help Desk mission and vision statements will pay long-term dividends and help you move your Help Desk from good to great.

Help Desk mission and vision statements should incorporate the goals and objectives of the business. 

You first should completely understand what your business owner or executive committee ultimately envision the goals and objectives of the business to be. Then determine what your Help Desk team’s mission is in meeting those goals and objectives. The help desk or service desk mission statement should be written from the customer’s perspective, be very specific, and it should fit with the vision for the business. Check out a great book Make Your Mission Statement Work: 2nd edition

The help desk or service desk mission statement should answer five questions:

What do we do?
How do we do it?
For whom do we do it?
What sets us apart from our competitors?
How will you use your resources to reach your goals?

To provide a help desk mission statement example, Build a Help Desk’s mission statement is simply; “We provide validated industry-standard knowledge by translating it into real-life customer service examples to improve support practices for Help Desk management worldwide.” Notice we did not use all five questions but if applicable you can build yours.

A good vision statement will allow you to create effective strategies for managing the company toward that vision. A vision statement is important to know why the business exists and why it’s worth investing in. John Kotter writes in Forbes “70% of all employees are unknowingly misaligned with your company’s strategic direction.” John continues with “if the vision is unclear 70% of your company doesn’t know what they are striving toward and operating on false assumptions, your team will move slowly and defensively rather than swiftly and proactively. Worst of all, they might be off and running, applying valuable energy in the wrong direction.”

Here at Build a Help Desk, our vision statement is simply; “To continue to be recognized nationally by our customers as the leading professional team building resource site for the industry standard for Help Desk support procedures”.

Help Desk mission and vision statements should reflect your company’s core values

If your company has communicated its core values, you should incorporate these into your mission and vision statements. The major online retailer Zappos.com has ten core values and has published them on its public website. Zappos states as they “grow as a company, it has become more and more important to explicitly define the core values from which we develop our culture, our brand, and our business strategies”.

In our previous examples, we have incorporated the core values of customer service, industry-standard procedures, and team building into our mission and vision statements.

Help Desk mission and vision statements should be part of Help Desk agent training 

All IT Help Desk training documentation and new hire material should have the mission and vision statements incorporated into them. All Help Desk staff, including management, should be required to review the mission and vision statements at least annually. In one on one meetings with your direct reports or in team meetings, the Help Desk staff should discuss the mission and vision statements and what they mean. Pick out the core value keywords of the statements and have the staff identify how our daily work reflects those core values. Only through repetitive discussion with staff will the staff understand how critical living the values from the mission and vision statement is.

Help Desk mission and vision statements should be part of all customer communication

Your Help Desk agents should be conveying the Help Desk mission and vision statements to the customers they support. If you have a newsletter published by the Help Desk, the mission and vision statements should be front and center. When Help Desk agents speak to the customers on the phone, the values in the Help Desk mission and vision statements should be reflected in their greeting and interaction.

4 Benefits of a Mission Statement

  1. Provides a Department Compass
  2. Establishes a Formal Commitment to Goals
  3. Enhances Staff Integration
  4. Supports your Company’s Brand

It is surprising with all the information about mission statements available that some companies and departments choose not to have one. In other instances, some companies and departments may have a mission statement, but it is significantly dated. Having a focused and up to date mission statement will assist in planning and executing department activities. Here are some of the benefits of a mission statement.

Provides a Department Compass –  A mission statement can be a lodestar to inspire and guide the direction for your department, especially when tough decisions need to be made. This why people refer to a mission statement as a compass. A compass will constantly display the direction you are traveling. Like using a compass, a mission statement will allow you to periodically validate you are going in the correct direction towards your goal. If you happen to be off course, you can make adjustments to get back on track.

Formal Commitment to Goals – A mission statement is a documented affirmation by leadership and staff on the departments’ core beliefs, values, and how the department will handle customers. This affirmation is very important. If leadership is not on board with the mission statement, then the effort will fail. If the staff does not embrace the mission statement, there will be little progress towards the aspirational goals stated in it. That is why it must be a formal and public agreement to completely follow the statement. Everyone must know the entire department is on board and being true to the mission statement.

Enhance Staff Integration – Have you ever worked for a company where your peers seem to be doing their own thing? In a situation like this, you may be on the same team but so much energy is wasted arguing about how work is supposed to be done. To reduce confusion and align staff to work together, a mission statement can build a cohesive team culture. A mission statement can reflect a department’s common goal and purpose. When there is an issue, the team can come together and review the mission statement. They can review the issue together and figure out how to overcome it. By working together, the staff will become integrated into a common purpose.

Support your Company’s Brand – One of the most important things a company needs to build from the customer’s perception is its brand. The brand is the identity of the company. The brand makes a lasting impression on the customer. For a company brand to be effective, all the company’s employees need to be unified in the work they do to support the brand. A mission statement will be a constant reminder of how to be true to the brand. For example, if part of your department brand is to be known for outstanding customer service, then your mission statement should reflect this in part. The entire team should be empowered to strive for 100% customer satisfaction in every interaction with the customer.

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