While those of us here in Canada are still feeling drowsy from the effects of the tryptophan from turkey I began to wonder if the value of having a VIP queue is like saving a certain bit of turkey for your uncle.
It is likely that if you ask the VIP they may have mixed reviews on whether they should in fact be on the list. On the other hand they may not even realize that they are on a list as their executive assistant handles all things great and small.
First of all, what makes up a VIP? It could be a fairly subjective thing. It is possible that your team determines anything above a certain title qualifies. The challenge I pose is are their requests more important than that of the staff which are in the business performing daily activities. In some cases you may have a senior leader who would rather not be on an executive support list and would rather see the support teams focus on those things which impact the business
So to ask again what makes a VIP? Is it possible to make it service centric. If we were able to identify services which were of a VIP nature perhaps we could have those who work with those services defined as VIP as well.
The challenge is that there needs to be a way to manage this list as well as the expectations behind it. If you have a system which is able to tap into people attributes and identify if they have a particular role whether VP or executive assistant you may be able to keep on top of it. However if you do not there may be more effort spent on keeping the VIP queue accurate than if you just focused on providing service equally across the board.
Another consideration is the management of the support as it must be consistent throughout IT. Just because the service desk is able to identify a VIP and escalate it to a specific team does not mean that they will action that request first. It must be understood on what is the expectation for VIP service much like an internal SLA in essence. If teams are expected to drop everything to get this request handled it could impact service for the general staff down the line. In some cases if desk side support is required in person they may have to re-arrange their day to account for this need at the last minute which could adversely affect the delivery of service and actually increase resolution rates for the majority of people because of a small group of VIP’s
The real question you need to address:
Are the “VIP’s” asking to have this implemented or are we assuming that they need/want it. At the end of the day we are accountable to ensuring exceptional service delivery. Does this satisfy that?