Global Help Desk

8/2/2019 Global Help Desk

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The Service Desk

Introduction and Objectives

Increasingly often customers require a high quality, efficient support service 24 hours a

day, regardless of their geographical location.

In order for the business to be able to develop properly it is essential that customersand users perceive themselves to be receiving a rapid and customised service that

helps them by:

Resolving service interruptions rapidly.

Raising service requests.

Reporting on compliance with the SLAs.

Being the first port of call for sales information.

The point of contact with the customer may take various forms, depending on the

breadth and depth of the services offered:

Call Centre: The aim is to manage a high volume of calls and redirect users(except in trivial cases) to other levels of support and/or sales.

The Help Desk: Its main objective is to provide a first line of supporting resolvingservice interruptions as quickly as possible.

The Service Desk: This is customers' and users' interface with the whole range ofIT services offered by the organisation focusing on business processes. Apart from

offering the services mentioned above, it provides customers, users and the ITorganisation itself additional services such as:

o Supervising maintenance and service level contracts.

o Channeling customers' Service Requests.

o Software licence management.

o Centralising all the processes associated with IT management.

The main benefits of implementing an effective Service Desk include:

Reducing costs by ensuring efficient allocation of resources.

Better customer care, leading to greater satisfaction and loyalty.

Opening up new business opportunities.

Centralising of processes improving communication and information management. Proactive service support.

The Service Desk

Implementation

Implementing a Service Desk requires meticulous planning. First of all, you need to

answer the following questions:


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What are the needs?

What should its functions be?

Who will be in charge of it?

What professional qualifications will its team have?

Will some services, such as hardware technical support, need to be outsourced?

What structure should the Service Desk have (Distributed, centralised, virtual) to

best meet your needs and those of your customers?

What technology tools do you need?

What metrics will be used to determine the performance of the Service Desk?

In addition to these technical questions, it is essential to consider other factors more

directly linked to "human aspects". These can be just as important to the success ofthe Service Desk, or indeed more so, than technical factors:

Establishing strict protocols for interaction with the customer.

Motivating the staff responsible for direct customer relations.

Informing customers of the benefits of this new customer care and supportservice.

Ensuring management's commitment to the Service Desk philosophy.

Sounding out customers to find out more about their needs and expectations.

The objective is NOT to set up the Service Desk as quickly as possible, but to createaService Desk whose objectives are aligned with your business processes, thatimproves customer satisfaction, optimises the view of your organisation from theoutside, and which serves as a platform on which to identify new businessopportunities.

The Service Desk

Structure

As discussed earlier, the Service desk is "the" point of contact between the ITorganisation and customers and users. It is therefore essential that:

It be readily accessible.

It offers a uniform service of consistent quality.

It keeps users regularly informed and logs all interaction with them.

It provides support for the business.

To achieve these goals an appropriate physical and logical structure is needed.

Logical structure

The members of the Service Desk team must:


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Be familiar with the protocols for interaction with customers: scripts, checklists,etc.

Be equipped with software tools they need to log their interactions with users.

Know when to escalate incidents to higher levels or contribute to discussions onthe compliance with SLAs.

Have the relevant knowledge bases at their fingertips so as to give a better

service to users.

Receive training on the company's products and services.

Physical structure

The structure of the Service Desk opted for will vary depending on the service needs(global, local, 24/7, etc.).

There are three basic formats:

Centralised

Distributed

Virtual

The main characteristics of each format are described below:

Centralised Service Desk

In this case all contact with users is channeled through a single central structure.

The main advantages are:

Costs are reduced. Resources are optimised.

Management is simplified.

However, this approach may have significant drawbacks when:

Users are spread across several geographical locations, with different languages,products and services.

Maintenance services need to be delivered on site.


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Distributed Service Desk

This is the structure traditionally used when the company offers services at differentgeographical locations (whether these are cities, countries or continents). Theadvantages are clear in these cases. However, geographically distributing the ServiceDesks in this way can entail serious difficulties:

It is generally more expensive.

Managing and monitoring the service is more complicated.

It is more difficult for data and knowledge to flow between the different Service

Desks.


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Virtual Service Desk

Thanks to high speed communications networks, the geographical location of the

Service Desk can nowadays be irrelevant.

The main aim of a virtual service desk is to utilise the advantages of both centralised

and distributed service desks.

In a virtual Service Desk:

Knowledge is centralised.

Unnecessary duplication is avoided, with the consequent cost savings.

A "local service" can be offered without incurring extra costs. The quality of service is uniform and consistent.


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The Service Desk

Activities and Functions

The activities of the Service Desk can include almost all aspects of IT ServicesManagement in one way or another. However, its main function is that of managingrelationships with customers and users, keeping them informed about all the processes

of interest to them.

Some of the key functions a Service Desk should offer are:

Incident Management

Although managing incidents in full requires the collaboration of other departments andstaff, the Service Desk must be able to provide a first line of support to help resolveinterruptions to service and/or service requests from customers and users.

Its specific tasks include:

Logging and monitoring each incident.

Checking that the support service required is included in the associated SLA.


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Tracking the escalation process.

Identifying problems.

Closing the incident and obtaining confirmation from the customer.

Information CentreThe Service Desk should be the main source of information for customers and users,informing them about:

New Services.

New releases to correct errors.

Compliance with the SLAs.

...

This direct contact with customers should also be used to identify new businessopportunities, and to assess customers' needs and their level of satisfaction with theservice they are given.

The Service Desk is ideally positioned to provide inside information on all the ITservice management processes. For it to do so, however, it is essential that it log allinteractions between users and customers properly.

Supplier relations

The Service Desk is also responsible for relations with external suppliers providingmaintenance services.

In order to offer a high quality service, it is essential that there be close links betweenexternal maintenance providers and Incident Management. This should be channeledthrough theService Desk.

he Service Desk

Team selection and training

A company's brand image can depend to a large extent on the quality of service givenby itsService Desk.

We have all endured frustrating experiences dealing with large companies that promisehigh quality, round the clock support, and when it comes to the crunch, turn out tohave a contact centre with staff who are poorly trained, if not downright rude.

"Your Service Desk's success is your company's success" and it depends to largedegree on the people in the team. It is therefore essential to establish strict selectionand training protocols for them.

Ideally, the Service Desk staff should:

Share the organisation's customer care philosophy.


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Deal with customers in a way that is correct and polite, using language thecustomer can understand.

Have an in-depth knowledge of the services and products offered.

Understand customers' needs and redirect them, if necessary, to the experts inquestion.

Control all the technological tools available to them in order to offer a high quality

service.

Be able to work as a team.

The training they are given should relate to all these aspects and not be limited tobuilding their technology skills.

It is also essential for the management to be committed to:

Close monitoring of the services delivered, particularly as regards their

effectiveness and performance.

Continuous support to the service desk team in its difficult task of dealing directlywith customers.

Team work.

And finally, remember that you never get a second chance to make a first impression.

The Service Desk

Monitoring the process

The best measure of the success of a Service Desk is customer satisfaction, althoughthis is not the exclusive responsibility of the service desk.

It is important to try to set up well defined metrics with which to measure the

performance of the Service Desk and the perception users have of it.

Progress reports should include points such as:

The average time taken to respond to requests sent by e-mail, phone or fax.

The percentage of incidents closed at the level of the first line of support.

The percentage of queries responded to in the first instance.

A statistical analysis of the incident resolution times organised according to theirurgency and impact.

Compliance with the SLAs.

The number of calls handled by each member of the Service Desk team.

Another important monitoring task is that of overseeing the level of customer

satisfaction. This can be achieved by means of surveys allowing the customer'sperception of the services provided to be assessed.


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You could opt to close each incident or query with a series of questions allowing thecustomer's opinion about the attention received to be gathered, along with his or her

satisfaction with the solution offered, etc. All this information should be compiled andanalysed periodically to enable the quality of service to be improved.

The Service Desk

Practical Case

As an essential step in implementing the ITIL methodology in the company, themanagement of "Cater Matters" decided to set up a service desk centralising all the ITorganisation's contacts with customers and suppliers.

To do so, the following decisions were made:

A manager was appointed to be in charge of the Service Desk.

After a careful analysis of the needs of the organisation and users, the mainfunctions of the service desk were defined:

o Managing the first line of support for Incident Management.

o Monitoring the quality of service offered with respect to the SLAs.

o Providing sales-related information about the services offered.

o Conducting regular surveys on the level of customer satisfaction.

o Drawing up periodic reports with the information gathered.

Running a small promotion to present the new services to existing and potentialcustomers.

Setting web space so as to channel user interaction through the web as much as

possible, by means of:o Forms for queries and reporting incidents.

o Remote querying (by means of the associated web services) of the state ofactive incidents, incident history and compliance with SLAs.

o Up-to-date FAQs allowing users to run their own queries on the servicesprovided, known errors, etc.

Drawing up a "Customer Care Manual" describing the different protocols forinteraction with users, depending on the situation in question.

Choosing a software tool to help record and manage all the Service

Desk'sinformation flows.

Giving specific training:

o To staff responsible for dealing directly with users and customers on applying

the "Customer Care Manual".

o On the software tools used.

Creating a detailed plan for the progressive implementation of the Service Desk .


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Incident Management

Overview

The aim ofIncident Management is to resolve any incidents causing an interruption

of service in the quickest and most effective way possible.

Incident Management should not be confused with Problem Management, asunlike the latter, it is not concerned with finding and analysing the underlying causes of

a particular incident but solely with restoring service. Nevertheless, there is obviously astrong interrelationship between them.

The properties and functionalities ofIncident Management are briefly summarised in

the following interactive graphic:

Incident Management

Introduction and Objectives

The main objectives ofIncident Management are:

Detecting any alterations in IT services.

Logging and classifying these alterations.

Assigning personnel charged with restoring service, as defined in therelevant SLA.

This activity requires close contact with users, which means that the ServiceDesk needs to play a central role.

The diagram below summarises the incident management process:

Although the concept of an incident is naturally associated with a malfunctioning of thehardware and software systems, the ITIL Service Support book defines an incident as:

Any event which does not form part of the standard operation of a service and which

causes, or may cause, an interruption or a reduction in service quality."


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Thus, almost any call to the Service Desk may be classified as an incident. ThisincludesService Requests, such as asking for new licences, changing access to

information, etc. provided these services are considered standard.

Any change requiring a modification to the infrastructure is considered not to be astandard service and requires the initiation of a Request for Change(RFC), which

should be handled in accordance with the principles ofChange Management.

The main benefits of correct Incident Management include:

Improved user productivity.

Fulfillment of the levels of service agreed in the SLA.

Greater process control and service monitoring.

Optimisation of the resources available.

A more accurate CMDB, as incidents affecting configuration items are logged.

And, in particular: improved general customer and user satisfaction.

On the other hand, incorrect Incident Management may have adverse affects, suchas:

Reduced Service Level.

Valuable resources are squandered: too many people, or people of the wronglevel, working simultaneously on resolving the incident.

Valuable information on the causes and effects of incidents of use for futurerestructuring or upgrades is lost.

Customers and users are unsatisfied as a result of the poor and/or slow resolution

of their incidents.

The main difficulties when implementing Incident Management may be summarisedas:

The envisaged procedures are not followed and incidents are resolved withoutlogging or are escalated unnecessarily and/or the pre-defined protocols areomitted.

There is no operating margin allowing peaks in incidents to be managed, so they

are not adequately recorded and the correct operation of the classification andescalation protocols is hindered.

The service quality levels and products supported are not well defined. This canmean that requests not included in the services agreed beforehand with the

customer are processed.

Virtual help desk

A virtual help desk allows IT support organizations to virtually deploy IT technicianson demand to support a computer user experiencing technical issues. IT canefficiently manage and allocate global help desk resources, including mostimportantly its personnel, to access any computer to provide support despite the


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end user or IT rep location. Virtual help desks allow IT reps to virtually access endsystems through support sessions where they can diagnose and fix computer issuesquickly. This eliminates in-person customer service calls and/or ineffective phone-only tech support sessions, making the help desk more efficient.

Another objective of the virtual help desk is to improve IT resource management andsave organizations money by increasing IT support efficiencies. Through anenhanced ability to allocate resources, IT organizations have the flexibility to createnew ways of using itstechnical supportknowledge-base. This technology usuallyrequires a software implementation and support contract.

Application/ Techniques

Organizations can gain considerable infrastructure and cost savings by

deployingvirtualizationtechnologies inhardwareenvironments, such asdata

centers. However, the concept of virtualization can also be applied to the waypeople work. When applied to thehelp desk, this translates into the same number

oftechniciansbeing able to handle more support incidents. As tech support

problems are typically handled by thecall center,contact center, or a help desk,

either bytelephoneorremote desktop software, its important that technicians be

able to work independently (or virtually) to quicklytroubleshootcomputer issues. The

following points provide a quick overview of the benefits to an organization

virtualizing its help desk:

1. Increased productivity: Companies can increase the number of support calls

handled per day and cut the costs of lengthy service calls. Also, companies can

eliminate the time and travel expense of technicians going on-site to resolve

customer tech problems, improving ITresourcemanagement.

2. Efficientrouting: As technology becomes more complex, a virtualized help desk

provides the infrastructure to better manage decentralized IT operations and assign

expert technicians across the queue to handle a particular tech support issue. This

helps streamline the overallcustomer serviceprocess, while minimizing the time a

support caller spends navigating through an automated phone tree.

3. Improved control: Putting a help desk rep in the driver seat to troubleshoot

computer issues not only enhances thecustomer experienceby lessening

frustration, but also reduces the stress and aggravation IT staff often face when
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walking non-tech savvy users through a tech support session. Ensuring that your

help desk staff is happy when dealing with customers significantly helps your

company build and maintain strongcustomer relations, not to mention reducing IT

staff turnover rates.

The virtual help desk resides between thesystems managementandservice

deskplatforms to work with the systems that track when trouble tickets open and

close, to provide an account of what happens during the support process. This level

of granular support activity (e.g. the what, how, when, why and even whose mouse

click is used) also helps organizations better manage its IT resources and optimize

the help desk. Using a centralized, virtual help desk solution to capture important

support details (e.g. record remote sessions, note where calls were transferred or

how the issues were resolved) enables IT organizations to build aneffectiveknowledge base. This increased level of understanding can be used inroot

cause analysisto minimize recurring help desk issues and begin to address the tech

support issues that result desktop incident resolution gap.

AboutGlobal Help Desk ServicesIf you are seeking guaranteed service levels for your help desk service, technical support,or customer service needs, our help desk outsourcing service can give you that and more.Your outsourced helpdesk will give you the freedom to focus on your core competencieswhile giving your employees or customers a pleasant, satisfying help desk experience. Ourpeople, processes and technology give you the information to identify trends and anticipatetraining needs, increase responsiveness to your internal (or external) customers, andultimately help you secure the reputation of providing quality service to those you serviceevery day.We'll show you how you can save money each year through help desk outsourcing whileproviding world class help desk support. When you partner with Global Help Desk Services,you gain a partner recognized by the Help Desk Institute as a leader in the help deskoutsource industry. Our state of the art technology and predictable, repeatable workflowprocesses will lead to distinct improvement in customer satisfaction levels. Give us a calltoday and let us help you identify your needs to build a custom-tailored help desk outsourcesolution that will delight your employees or customers and allow you to gain a competitiveadvantage in the marketplace.
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