Introduction

Information technology (IT) support for end-users has emerged as one of the leading concerns of organizations. Continuous adapting and updating of new technologies have made development of effective and efficient help desk services challenging for organizations (Whiting, 1997). Organizations must actively search for new ways to provide better help desk services to satisfy growing customer demands and expectations. A number of commercial products using artificial intelligence techniques such as expert systems and case-based reasoning have become popular. Outsourcing the help desk function has also become a viable option for many organizations (Chalos & Sung, 1998). The move to help-desk automation and remote on-line troubleshooting using Internet-based products usually means that more and more help-desk services are computer-based rather than human-based.

Since end-user satisfaction has become the strategic imperative in business, the primary concern here is how to evaluate these new technology-enabled tools (e.g., e-mail and the Internet) with conventional media support (e.g., telephone and face-to-face), in an effort to provide more effective and efficient end-user support.

The main purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of different media on end-user satisfaction in help desk service. More specifically, we will relate the use of different media use along the dimensions of reliability, empathy, assurance, tangible and responsiveness, based on SERVQUAL (Parasuraman, Zenithal & Berry, 1985, 1988, 1991). The major theme of this paper is to show that use of each media is related to different dimensions of customer satisfaction. The results of this study should enable organizations to better design their help desk functions.