Training Strategies for the Help Desk

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Training Strategies for the Help Desk

Eric Rabinowitz President and Founder IHS Support
Solutions
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Who are You..?

• President and Founder of IHS Helpdesk Service a
  12 M Company with 115 employees.
• Author of Deal with It Help Desk Edition and
  Managers Edition
• Member HDI Strategic Advisory Board
• Member Site and Individual Certification
  Committee
• Pentagon Forum on Military Spouse Employment
• HDI Service Providers Network Coordinating
  Partner
• Facilitations on Best Practices, Employee
  Retention, Training, Motivation and Team
  Building- HDI National and Local, IRS, Inc., Dow
  Jones, NJDEP, Internal.
• Trainer HDA, HDM, CSS, HDSA and Team Building
  Workshop

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Todays Agenda

• Training Facts
• Methods of Training
• Types of Training
• Evaluating Training ROI
• Training Case Studies

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Training Facts

• 1,711 - 2,311 a year is budgeted for training
  your support staff.
• 8.4 days is the targeted number of training days
  a year for support staff.
• 7.7 days is the targeted number of training days
  a year for managers.
• 58.6 Billion budgeted for training in the US.
• Firms that invest 1,500 vs. 125 per employee
  have 24 higher GP and 218 higher income.

Source Help Desk Institute 2002 Practices
Survey and ASTD
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What are your Goals for Training?

• New Skills-Soft /Hard
• Quality
• Certification
• Evaluation
• Productivity
• Profits
• Cost Reduction
• Initiative

• Staff Development
• Attitude
• Improve Morale
• Team Building
• Standardized Skills
• Leadership development
• Stress Reduction

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Learning Modes

• Reading 10
• Hearing 20
• See 30
• See and Hear 50
• Discuss with Others 70
• What we Experience 80
• What we teach someone 95
• else

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Methods of Training

• Group
• Classroom
• On-site
• Conferences
• Web-seminars (Webinars)
• Local Chapters
• Round Tables
• Group Meetings (Ticket Review Sessions)
• Brainstorming
• Role Play
• Coaching

• Self-Study
• Computer Based
• E-Learning
• Video Tape
• Audio Tape
• Books
• Magazines
• E-zines
• Web-sites

M I X E D
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Types of Training

• New Employee
• Corporate Orientation
• Help Desk Orientation
• Pre-Support Training
• Mentor/Mentee
• Continuous Staff Education
• Customer Service Skills
• Cross Training
• Among the team
• Tier 2 SME
• Tier 2 for a day

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Types of Training

• Continuous Staff Education
• Business
• Technical Training
• Just in Time
• Tools Training
• Proprietary Application Training
• Certification

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Types of Training (Continued)

• Management Training
• Leadership
• Stress Management
• Motivation
• Certification

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Training Return on Investment (ROI)
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Steps to Calculate ROI

• Collect Data
• Isolate the Effects of Training
• Convert Data to Monetary Value
• Determine Costs
• Calculate the ROI
• Identify Intangible Benefits

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Kirkpatricks Model

• Reaction as measured by post-course surveys (HDI
  post class surveys)
• Learning as measured by a test (Certification
  Exam)
• Behavior changes as measured by daily efficiency.
  (Number of calls handled, complaints/complements
  before and after the training)
• Business Results as measured by business metrics
  (Customer Satisfaction, ASA)
• ROI amount saved or amount profit

(
)
Realized monetary benefits Costs
X 100
Costs
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Collect Data Pre- and Post-

• ACD
• CMS
• Participants Questionnaires/Action Plan
• Manager/Supervisor - Questionnaires
• Determine appropriate Kirpatrick Level

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Types of Data

• Hard vs Soft Data
• Incoming Calls
• Outgoing Calls
• Average handle time
• Average Speed to Answer
• Results of On-going survey
• Remote Silent Monitoring

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Isolate the Effects of Training

• Adds credibility
• Identify other variables
• Be conservative in your presentation

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Trainings Value to Your Business

• Before and After Metrics
• Customer satisfaction
• Annual staff retention
• Number of total complaints/complements
• Average call handle time
• Average speed to answer
• Abandoned calls
• ACD vs. calls recorded in CMS
• Number of calls handled (inbound, outbound)
• Convert to Tangible Results

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Convert Data to Monetary Value

• Equate a Value where possible
• Staff Retention
• Average Call Handle Time
• Number of Call Handled (Cost per call)
• Direct Savings (Customer tells you of a savings)
• Other metrics?

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Training Costs

• Tuition or Development
• Administrative (Overhead)
• Travel (Local, Plane, Room, Board (off-site)
• Infrastructure (e-Learning)
• Students
• Lost Productivity
• Salary plus Benefits
• Other Costs
• Development, Facilities, Materials, Food,
  Instructor, Needs Assessment
• Allocation of Costs
• To avoid criticisms include all costs!!

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Calculate Training Return on Investment (ROI)
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Intangible Measures

• Customer satisfaction
• Reduced Complaints/Increased Complements
• ACD vs. CMS
• Reduced Re-opened tickets
• Better Work habits (decrease tardiness and
  absenteeism)
• Better Work climate (reduced grievances, better
  job satisfaction)
• Improved Attitude (loyalty, new ideas)
• Teamwork
• Cooperation
• Effective Communication
• Reduced Conflict

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Report

• ROI
• Intangible Results

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Help Desk Training Case Studies

• This Major Drink Manufacturer
• Uses a combination of classroom, real life and
  online training venues. Some of the most
  effective training from a help desk ROI has been
  getting the team to understand the business and
  what they are supporting. For example Sending
  a team member on a Route Drive so they see what a
  driver goes threw on a daily basis and how we
  support them. Some of the worst training is
  sending them to a Windows 2000 training program
  that does not follow your business guidelines
  from a support structure.

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Help Desk Training Case Studies

• This Major Car Manufacturer
• we do use e-training opportunities for the Help
  Desk agents,that they take part in it but that
  they much prefer in-person or live training, they
  miss the human interaction in e-training, and I
  see much less effective application of content or
  methodologies when the training is on-line versus
  live or interactive.
• When we do live hands-on training, whether
  home-grown or contracted, we typically do it on
  an off-day and make it as much a team-event with
  stress management and bonding built in as
  possible. I find those training events produce
  immediate behavior change, much more easily
  peer-recognized and reinforced, and often are
  referenced back to in conversation for a
  significant time following.

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Help Desk Training Case Studies

• This Services Company
• They had a major problem with employee turnover.
  Annual turnover was about 75 of help desk
  staff. Through a needs analysis they determined
  that their were some important issues between
  management and employees, the day staff and the
  evening staff as well as between tier 1 and tier
  2. They decided to contract for a Team Building
  and Motivation Program for Help Desks to enable
  communication between help desk support
  departments. Their goal for the first year after
  the program was to lower the turnover rate to 50
  saving 150,000. After the program they measured
  the results at 3, 6, 9 and 12 month increments.
  Their turnover rate was reduced to 25 saving
  over 200,000 (allowing for other possible
  causes). The full cost of training program was
  32,000 giving an ROI of
• 525 (200,000 - 32,000 / 32,000) 100

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Helpful Web-sites

• www.thinkhdi.com
• www.realmarket.com
• www.supportindustry.com
• www.techrepublic.com
• www.callcentermagazine.com
• www.geek.com
• www.helpdesk.com
• www.customercare.com

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Thank-you for attending For more
Information Eric.Rabinowitz_at_ihssupport.com 800
673-2241 www.ihssupport.com