Cranford solutions white paper part 2

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With Special thanks to the individuals from the organisations below that took the time to contribute and share their ideas. All named contributors are listed at the end of the paper.

Service Desk Excellence - Part 2 White Paper – February 2014

Introduction

Service Desks are the face of the IT department. No longer providing simple technical support, they now offer an array of services to the customer, managing expectations and meeting their every need.

About Our Survey

The questions asked by Cranford Solutions were aimed at identifying what makes an effective and excellent Service Desk and the challenges they face each day.

They were targeted at both private and public sector, with an aim of focusing on the Leadership, People and Culture side of Service Desks.

We particularly targeted:

» Individuality & Uniqueness » Motivation & Reward » Appraisal & Staff Satisfaction » Development and Progression » Culture & Environment » Communication & Customer Satisfaction

Our first White Paper concentrated on the great people that make up the Service Desk. This paper is centred on ways of promoting your Service Desk to ensure its value is recognised across your organisation.

This includes the culture on the desk, how it is used by the customer for support, ways of engaging & communicating with customers, how integrated the Service Desk is with the business and finally some personal anecdotes from our contributors.




“Brand is more than a font or logo – it’s our promise and this takes time” Robin Goldsbro, DLA Piper

Branding the Service Desk can strengthen its place within the organisation by enabling customers to have a clear path to support. Knowing who to contact, how to contact them and where support is based will ensure that the desk is easily accessible and readily used. Additionally it can help to build a team mentality on the desk and provide a feeling of belonging and support.

Aside from formal branding the Service Desk can be promoted in other ways too. A key point is keeping customers updated and included in any changes on the desk or with the service is provides. Alerting users to change and getting the message across appears to be a challenge that if not done effectively can cause confusion and annoyance. Missed tickets are a common output of this. If tickets are registered incorrectly, customers will then become frustrated when they are navigated back to re-register their ticket before they can get their problem resolved.

Getting the Service Desk noticed and utilised is vital to the success of the Desk and is integral to the role of Service Desk Manager. Some common themes of achieving this are regular newsletters, intranet updates, floor walking, posters and open days on the Service Desk. Success in this naturally increases utilisation, some ideas used to raise awareness of the Service Desk include:

» Monthly IT Clinics » IT Service Desk business cards » “How to” guides and training videos available to customers » 1-2-1 sessions with all new starters » Social Media » Road shows » Forums

“I believe that the product is the marketing. If we champion our customers experience, deliver simple and powerful technologies that enable our customers to do their best work our reputation will spread” Robin Goldsbro, DLA Piper



Service Desk Branding & Promotion

Branding your Service Desk is an emerging idea that came through in response to our survey with a few companies establishing a strong brand for their desk. Ideas ranging from wearing branded polo shirts for easy identification whilst in the business community, to having signs above and around the desk all contribute to creating a brand for the Service Desk.


“Through the message of us being the first point of contact for IT and that our objective is to “Fix, first time and fast” Keith Barber, Severn Trent Water

...business BUT only 10% of these use it for IT Support too. With the emergence of Social Media as one of the most popular mediums of communication in the modern world it seems a clear path for IT Support to follow, as customers demand a faster, easier way of reaching their support teams.

It is now common for Service Desks to have their own designated space and it seems that an open plan, welcoming environment is the way forward. It appears from responses that gone are the days of shutting away support teams in a small side office. Service Desks are now open plan, often within the same space as other IT functions and invite customers to come in and ask for support. Practical face-to-face support is becoming one of the most popular methods of support as customers look for a personal touch that cannot be obtained via other methods of communication. Getting to know their support teams makes customers feel more valued but in turn also makes them more flexible in their demands. Once they know the person providing their support personally they are more likely to understand when they are told they may have to wait a short while as they have faith their issue is being dealt with. Visibility seems to help greatly with building trust with the user community.




98% of respondents in our survey reported using Social Media within their...




Human behaviour dictates that people engage less when all is going well and there will always be an element of complaint directed at the Service Desk. Nobody wants to need the Service Desk so when they do they can be frustrated and impatient. By personally dealing with the issues and then studying the problem a positive spin can be taken on complaints. The more knowledge you have of what is going wrong the more opportunity you have to make positive changes. All feedback is positive as long as it is dealt with constructively. It can be used in training sessions and added to problem/incident management if a recurring theme is noticed.

“Ensuring staff moral within the team is paramount to us. We capture feedback in 1:1¹s, appraisals, and we have recently introduced a staff survey to capture the levels of staff morale and satisfaction ” Karen Taylor, Cheshire Shared Services ICT

Recording customer calls into the Service Desk is another great way of learning more about your customers. The majority of responses that have this technology in place use it as a way to measure their Analyst’s performance and feed into their appraisals and reviews.

“A selection [of calls] per person are checked on a regualr basis and outcomes feed in to their 1-2-1” Russell Noblett, O2

But even without the technology you can still make a point of listening in to live calls in order to spot check service.

“Quality is reviewed through listening into calls when they are live ” Geraint Jones, Callcredit

The opportunity should not be missed to learn more about the customers that call into the service desk. Are there particular teams which call in regularly? Are there more issues from a certain office? This data can be analysed and used to create service improvement plans targeted at the individual groups that need it most. Whether it is extra training on the systems, better induction processes or a deep-rooted technical problem that needs addressing.

Working With The Business

It is important to know what the business and customers want and expect from the Service Desk. Getting to know what customers expect is vital and methods of obtaining this information range from regular satisfaction surveys, reviewing comments and complaints and face-to-face meetings. All of which can all be used to feed into service improvement plans.




Ideally the Service Desk should be a part of all new employees induction process into your company. Knowing how to get IT support is useful to make them feel supported in their early days and will instil the value of the desk into colleagues from the very beginning.

Another important tool highlighted is that the Service Desk has representatives within the business to champion their work and make sure that all business changes and communications are filtered down. Attending business meetings is useful in understanding the direction the business is taking. Therefore ensuring that the Service Desk can keep up to date with the changes and maintain high levels of support and service during those changes. This also helps with future budget considerations, e.g. resource planning, training and shift patterns.

Understanding the business and the people within it enables the Service Desk to provide the best support possible. It is clear from our survey that not all customers get a replicable service from the desk, some respondents did report that all customers were treated the same but the majority said not and the reason for this is simple, not all customers are the same. With

answers ranging from:

» The need for differing support due to differing time zones and cultures » Enhanced support during business critical projects » VIP policies set by the organisation » SLA agreements with certain clients » Levels of IT literacy vary across any organisation as does complexity of issues » Client facing users and executives may get priority due to the enhanced impact of downtime on the business

Only by working closely with the business is it possible to be aware of the many different factors that affect the way calls are dealt with.

Other organisations take a less formal approach to why customers get treated differently.

“Everyone is different. Some are OK with an informal approach, some are more IT literate, some need more TLC and others just want their incident resolved” Dean Archer, Zodiak Media

“It is important to engage with the customer on their level” Louise Upton, Triumph Motorcycles




Funny moments on the desk:

“I think I have a rat in my drawers….turned out to be shredding ” Karen Washburn, IMD Media

“The team being showered in milk after someone bought milk in to the office in an ice cream container ” Geraint Jones, Call credit

“Practical jokes on the Service Desk…if you leave your machine unlocked & unattended for too long you will learn a harsh security lesson, courtesy of an emotional email to your team from your email account. ” Sally Comley, Arqiva

Unique challenges:

“Losing 7 staff in a 12 month period and still achieving SLA targets” Yvonne Batchelor, Service Birmingham

“Setting up a team of 36 and training them to take over from an outsourced desk in 2 months ” Hayely Worsley, Audatex

“With 71 offices in 31 countries the people who contact the desk are diverse. The needs and expectations are different and the details on the form are complicated. ” Robin Goldsbro, DLA Piper

Anecdotes from the Front Line:

Life as a Service Desk Manager can be equally rewarding as it is challenging. We asked participants in our survey to share some of their most memorable moments on the Service Desk and here is a selection of the stories that came back to us.




Proudest moment:

“A service desk team member winning the prestigious ‘employee of the year’ award” Basim Zaidi, Vaultex

“Getting to the final of UK Service Desk of the year awards” Damian Bowen, NTT Data

“Turning the Service Desk round from being a failing Service Desk when I started to a successful and well recognised Service Desk. It is now seen as the best in the market place – something I am very proud of” Jason Lloyd, iSAMS

ConclusionThe responses from this paper have highlighted the importance of visibility within the organisation and working closely with the business. Being seen as an integral and positive part of the overall team is key to success and utilisation. There is no magic formula for any individual or company but many of the Service Desk Managers who responded have come up with innovative and well-received ways to establish their desk.




Index of Contributors:

Arqiva ArvatoAudatexCallcreditCSSDLA PiperEliorIMD MediaiSAMSNetwork RailNTT DataO2On365Rank GroupService BirminghamSevern Trent WaterTriumph MotorcyclesVaultexZodiak Media

Sally Comley Nicky StanleyHayley WorsleyGeraint JonesKaren TaylorRobin GoldsbroPaul BrockbankKaren WashburnJason LloydMatt Turner Damian BowenRussell NoblettAlisa GillYvonne Batchelor Frieda Morton-EvansKeith BarberLouise UptonBasim ZaidiDean Archer

Service Desk Manager



IT Support Services Manager

Workplace Services Manager


IT Service Desk Manager

Head of Service Delivery



Client Service Delivery Director

Senior Service Desk Manager


Service Support Manager

Head of Service Delivery

IS Service Desk Manager

IT Operations Support Manager

Service Desk & Change Manager

IT Service Delivery Manager

Cranford SolutionsCranford Solutions are a specialist Service Desk provider covering the full 360 degrees of the Service Desk needs, People, Processes and Tools.

» Tool Selection & set up » Best Practice » Resource Provision » Bespoke Recruitment Solutions



SOLUTION PLUS SUPPORT PLUS

SERVICE PLUS KNOWLEDGE PLUS

Achieve Service Desk Excellence Flexible On-Demand Resource

Bespoke Recruitment Solutions Shared Experience

Reviews & Health checksTool selection, implementation & configurationFully Project Managed SolutionsResource & Recruitment strategy

Bench of high quality Service Desk Resource1st, 2nd, 3rd line, Team Leaders & Managers Fully Managed by Client Services Director Short and long term solutions Flexible, reliable & responsive Cost effective

No more hassle reviewing CV’s and shortlistingAll face to face interviewsSecondary interview with our Client Services DirectorFREE Replacements for 6 months All Service Desk Resource covered

White Papers generated from industry leading Service DesksNetworking events to share experiences and ideasKnowledge base of articles

Complete Service Desk Solutions

YOUR SERVICE DESK

• Are we as good

as we could be?

• Where can improvements

be made?

• How do we achieve Service

Excellence?

• How do I manage risk when hiring resource?

• Time spent with poor recruitment

companies

• Unreliable contract staff

• Recruitment is time consuming & frustrating • High rates of

attrition• High costs

with minimal guarantee

• What are other companies doing?

• Share experience and learn

• Meet up & Network

Imp

rovem

ent

Resource Education

Recruit

ment

The face of IT

Improve – Support – Recruit – Educate




Technology

Cranford solutions white paper part 2