Helpdesk

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Helpdesk

• Chapter 15

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What is a helpdesk?

• Either physical or virtual place, where people
  get answers to there computing questions.
• Report problems
• Request new services
• It is the public face of your organization

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Physical or Virtual

• A helpdesk might be a physical desk where
  customers can talk face-to-face
• Might be a virtual helpdesk that customers can
  access across electronically
• Email
• WEB
• Voice-Mail
• Self-Help
• Faq
• Knowledge base

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Impression

• Help desk makes a first impression to your
  customers and maintain your relationship with
  them.
• A good helpdesk reflects well on your
  organization.
• If Helpdesk does well, business looks good.
• If Helpdesk does bad, business looks bad.

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Friendly Face Set The Tone

• Physical helpdesk
• Interior design should be pleasant and welcoming
• Virtual helpdesk
• Design so colors are soothing and the fonts are
  legible.

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Friendly Face Set The Tone

• Tone of the staff is set by the supervisor
• Supervisor is mean to the staff the staff will be
  mean to the customer.
• Supervisor is good natured, and likable, then
  staff will be same to the customer
• Do unto others

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When do you need a helpdesk?

• Start looking for warning signs
• Notice communication problems are occurring in
  group because of size
• System administrator are not able to get work
  done because they are overwhelmed by customer
  request.

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Announce formal helpdesk

• There is always a help desk
• Whether it be one or two people who are the
  unofficial (adhoc) help desk.
• When you create a formal help desk let it be
  known. Whether it is physical or virtual.

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Components of a helpdesk

• Help desk should have a friendly face.
• Enough staff to support traffic
• Defined scope of coverage
• Set customer expectations
• Defines who, what, where, when, and how long
• How are out of scope problems handled
• Processes for staff
• Scripts
• Escalation process (things go wrong)
• Tracking software

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Staff Size

• The staff should be big enough to serve customers
  in a timely manner.
• If they dont the customer will look elsewhere.
  
• Dont look at customer-to-attendant ratios
  instead look at volume ratios and time-to-call
  completion ratios.

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Scope - What

• What is going to be supported.
• Just the personal computer or just the network,
  both
• Just certain operating systems
• Certain applications
• How are unsupported platforms handled?

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Scope - Who

• Who will be supported?
• Certain departments
• Buildings
• Ranking of people
• Upper vs. lower management
• People that pay vs. not pay
• Person moving from building to building.

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Scope - Where

• Where are the customers?
• What division
• What building
• Working from home
• On travel

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Scope - When

• The hours of the operation must be defined.
• When are you open and when are you closed.
• How are things handled when you are closed.
• What the customer should do in case of emergency
• Power goes out, who do they call.
• Leave a number or information.

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Scope - How long

• Average time it take to complete task.
• Some should take more time than others
• Establish goals for the staff and customers.

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Forgiving Scope

• Help desk should have a process for dealing with
  request out side the scope.
• Can say dont do any request outside the scope,
  unfriendly practice.
• Try to help but set a time limit to how long you
  will be there.
• Customer will appreciate the effort

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Escalation Process

• A layered system
• First layer should be able to handle around 80 to
  90 percent of request.
• Unanswered request move on to second layer where
  operator will have more experience, training, and
  other responsibilities.
• If a large number of calls are escalated to
  higher level, warning sign first level needs more
  training.

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Helpdesk Software

• Every helpdesk needs some kind of software to
  help manage it.
• Help desk should allow some kind of priority to
  be assigned to the tickets
• Helps organized helpdesk and SAs manage there
  time.
• Good for documentation
• Will most likely need customizing to fit
  environment.

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Using statistics for improvements

• Monitor the rate of escalations to determine
  where you need more training.
• If you have statistical data you can make a
  better case for your budget.
• Shows multiyear trends of customer growth
• Call volume
• Types of calls
• Services provided
• Customer satisfaction

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Using statistics for improvements

• Statistics become more important as the co. grow
• Management becomes less directly involved
• More difficult to statistics for smaller
  companies
• Often less animated
• Cant be instrumented to collect data.

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Out of hours / 24x7 Coverage

• If you have a big company
• Three shifts will most likely be required.
• Medium to smaller company
• Ways to provide 24x7 coverage that is less
  expensive
• Set up voice mailbox to access a pager when it
  receives a new message.
• Pass pager to different SAs to equalize
  responsibility

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Out of hours / 24x7 Coverage

• Give the number of the helpdesk supervisor to all
  managers
• He will then contact the correct SA for the job
• Give security guards different numbers to call
• Keep call until you reach someone.
• Give compensation to people working overtime.
• Time equivalent to fraction of the employees
  salary
• Time and a half compensation
• Comp time.

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Better Advertising

• The web
• All policies are accessible to all customers
• Pick the right message
• Communicate to the customer find out whats
  important to them.
• Email or send via memo critical messages.
• Use repetition
• Put posters in appropriate places
• Put help desk hours posted at all entrances.

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Different Desk For Different Problems

• There may be times when it makes sense for having
  more than one help desk.
• One for requesting services
• One for reporting and repairing problems after
  installation was successful.
• One for problems the other two can not solve.

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Different Desk For Different Problems

• Benefits from dividing the helpdesk.
• All groups under different supervisors
• Supervisors can effectively manage a smaller
  group of people.
• Smaller groups can be trained for the different
  skills for their tasks.
• Can have a narrow focus, and training can be
  customized.
• Less expensive than hiring someone how is able to
  do all the tasks.

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Questions