June 20, 2014 Linda Sinclair

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

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/users Provides 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) 4

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

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

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?

Support Desk metrics provide you with information required to give proper support This 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 times Abandoned Calls Average time to Answer Grade of Service Agent performance

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? Total: 70,269

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

Top 3 Cause Items by Month -Appears to always be the same 3 items each month ABC Application DEF Application GHI Application