Service Management Best Practices

Overview

Service management organizations that manage demand reactively are always slightly behind. They staff up after demand spikes. They invest in capacity after bottlenecks appear. They develop new services after customers have already found informal workarounds for unmet needs. Reactive demand management produces a service organization that is perpetually scrambling to catch up rather than confidently leading.

Best Practice

Develop the capability to anticipate service demand rather than simply react to it. Monitor demand patterns and trends for signals of emerging changes. Engage proactively with organizational leaders about upcoming changes — new initiatives, organizational restructuring, workforce changes — that will generate new or changed service demand. Use the service pipeline to prepare new services in advance of predicted demand rather than after it materializes. Build capacity in advance of predicted demand spikes rather than after they occur.

Benefit(s)

Proactive demand management produces a service organization that leads rather than follows. Capacity is in place before demand spikes hit. New services are available before customers resort to informal workarounds. Service quality is maintained through organizational changes because the service organization anticipated the demand implications of those changes in advance. The organization develops a reputation for service foresight that strengthens its relationships with business leaders and increases their confidence in the service management capability.