June 20, 2014

Linda Sinclair

Help Desk vs Service Desk

ITIL regards a call center, contact centre or Help Desk as limited type of service desk which provides a share of what a service desk can offer

Help desk:• is required when something breaks and you need to fix it• takes away from paying out higher wages to second level

support for calls that can lead up to non-technical issues • increases first line resolution which is great for the

customer!• Passes a request onto second level support when they

cannot resolve the issue - this is where the Service Desk comes into play

Help Desk

4

The service desk focus is to reduce costs and raise efficiency. To reach these goals the service desk:

•Manages, co-ordinates and resolve incidents reported by customers/usersProvides information to customers regarding planned changes (Change Mgmt)•Provides a mechanism for identifying calls and registering incidents and enquiries•Provides the customer/user with information on service availability, an incident number or reference for use in follow-up communications, and progress updates on any request being managed by the service team•Make an initial assessment of all requests received, attempting to resolve appropriate requests or referring them to someone who can, based on agreed service levels (Service Level Management)

Service Desk Role

• The decision to combine a Help Desk and a Service Desk will provide you with a strong, efficient support that is not only cost effective for the business, but provides high customer satisfaction

Can I combine the two?

To alleviate excessive stress on your support desk - take the time to plan your requirements to be highly effective.

Consider the following:

• Do you have the full upper management support?

• Do you have enough personnel to perform all services?

• There are tools available to calculate averages of how many agents are needed based on the number of requests received

Do your homework

Do your homework

Also consider efficient tools are in place. Some examples are:

• fast computers for good response time• comfortable, hands free telephone sets in place • large or dual screens to allow for multiple

windows to be opened simultaneously• Research the Service Management tools for

Ticketing. Look for tools that support all processes, is very user friendly and has good response time and ease of tool configuration

• a strong program to gather metrics and perform good reporting

• Are there clear instructions to deal with problems and call escalation and processes? Ensure a strong Knowledge Base is in place

Why are they needed?

Metrics

Support Desk metrics provide you with information required to give proper supportThis allows you to manage and report the number of agents required, abandoned calls, and the average time a customer waits for their call to be answered

Examples:Customer wait timesAbandoned CallsAverage time to AnswerGrade of ServiceAgent performance

Agent and Team Statistics

Reporting – Get it Right!

Make sure you are reporting on accurate data – criteria selection is very important

# of Incidents Logged by Month by Seriousness- Why is majority of effort spent on reviewing Critical incidents?

0

1000

2000

3000

4000

5000

6000

7000

8000

1/2010 2/2010 3/2010 4/2010 5/2010 6/2010 7/2010 8/2010 9/2010 10/2010

LOW MEDIUM HIGH CRITICAL

# o

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Total: 70,269

# of Critical Incidents Logged by Day of Week – YTD- Notice the trend after the weekend?

0

4

8

12

16

20

24

Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday

6

22 23

20

12

19

6

# o

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Top 3 Cause Items by Month-Appears to always be the same 3 items each

month

ABC ApplicationDEF ApplicationGHI Application