Hello Folks !
One of the harder parts of onboarding new staff to a platform like Freshservice is the wealth of features available to them. Even after the initial training, new features and updates are being added each month. Keeping your agent base up to speed on these developments can be a challenge, particularly as the monthly release notes are written for an admin audience, rather than the agent base. New features either just work, are only relevant to ‘under the hood’ admin set up, or need to be configured by the admin team before the agent base can use them. That is, if the admin team even want to configure a specific new feature in the first place!
These all present barriers to keeping your agent base updated and engaged with the platform. Expecting them to read and understand the release notes simply isn’t viable. The responsibility for delivering these updates sits firmly with the admin team. The real challenge is how these updates get delivered.
The approach I have taken is to ‘bundle’ these updates into a quarterly update session. Alongside the information from the release notes, it is an opportunity to highlight other work being done by the admin team, and to spotlight future enhancements that have been previewed in the Freshworks roadmaps. It is also an opportunity to gather feedback from your user base, find out the pain points in their processes and to share best practice across the agent base. It is an ideal time to help the agent base shape the development of your Freshworks implementation, focusing on areas that will deliver the greatest impact.
I call these sessions ‘What’s new, What’s Coming, and Tell Us What You Want’. They are one of the most attended sessions in our quarterly training weeks, with additional views on the recording after the live presentation. Feedback from the sessions has been overwhelmingly positive, and has transformed our agents into advocates, directly leading to other areas (such as HR) onboarding to the platform. I highly encourage all admins to consider a similar approach.
I’d love to hear how other Freshservice admins approach this challenge. How do you keep your agent base informed, engaged, and confident as the platform continues to evolve? What’s worked well for you — and what hasn’t?
Best
Kenny