The influences of media choice on help desk performance perception

Abstract

Along with the increasing complexity of IT, frequent changes and updates to new technologies have made developing an effective help desk challenging. The main purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of different media on the end-users' satisfaction of help desk functions. The major theme of this paper is to show that when electronic media are combined and properly used with conventional human-based media higher end-user satisfaction can be achieved. Media richness theory is used to develop hypotheses about the relationship between media choice and end-user satisfaction for help desk functions. Survey results support that use of richer media is related to help desk satisfaction through assurance, and end-users who use various types of communication media have a higher satisfaction level when they match the media choice to different types of problems. The result suggests that automating help desks should be considered as a way to provide more various options to end-users, not a total solution for help desks, and automation should be more carefully designed depending on problem types.