HDI Member Discussion Room / HDI Discussion Rooms / People and Customer Service

Level One Tech area of responsibility

csetley — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 13:35:40 GMT

My upper management instituted a policy that my level 1 team members also creates New User accounts/Email accounts and process terminations.Last month this resulted in approx 24 hours of work which means we were not able to answer the incoming calls for that time period. Now they are asking me for ways to improve the amount of calls that are answered by my team. Even though I have tried to convince them that in my experience, 1st level techs do not normally perform Network Admin Duties as their prime job function is to be available to receive inbound calls. Please reply and let me know if your first level techs have this responsibility or not.-Thanks

Training and Certification

rkibbe — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 15:47:04 GMT

We have recently been paying for course work and certification exam. Unfortunately, I have a few folks who did not pass their certification exams and we are now trying to decide if we will pay for a second attempt. What have others done? Please advise....

Need after hours support desk coverage

pmcdavid — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 15:18:55 GMT

My small group provides external support for customers of our proprietary business software. We have been providing support during business hours only, but a recent contract was sold that includes 24x7x52 support.

I am looking for something like an answering service that would get after hour calls and would compare the customer's request to a script. We would provide a list to the off-hours support company that includes a list of customers entitled to after-hours support. If the caller is not on the list, they will get a call back the next business day. If they are on the list, then we will detail "emergency" issues vs. issues that can wait until the next business day.

We anticipate very few calls. Maybe one or two a month in the beginning, and tapering off from there. I view this to be more of an insurance policy rather than something driven by need.

Do any of you use a service like this? Shoot--do any of you SELL a service like this? Please send vendor contact info if you have it.

Thanks.

Sandy

Sample Job Description

pmcdavid — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 15:18:55 GMT

Would anyone be willing to share some sample documents or content from service/help desk job postings or descriptions?

Incident Survey - Response Rate

pmcdavid — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 15:18:55 GMT

We solicit feedback from our customers (internal employees) regarding closed incidents. We randomly sample 5% of our closed tickets for the previous week and send them an e-mail requesting they complete the survey. We ask five simple questions about courtesy, quality, professionalism and timeliness. We use Share Point to gather the results (they only need to click radio buttons to indicate their response). We typically are getting about a 10% response to our survey. Any thoughts as to how we can get a better response rate? What is typical for response rates? Maybe I'm above the average for responses at 10%?

Changing Perception (for the good) of the Service Desk

pmcdavid — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 15:18:55 GMT

People who have been here a long time may have had a bad experience when they called the then Help Desk. Since they've had (one?) bad experience, they don't even try it again.

I was wondering others ever had to turn around their Service Desk and how they engaged people to call to help change their perception.

Customer Service Training for International Help Desk

pmcdavid — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 15:18:55 GMT

Hi All,

Wondering if anyone has suggestions for getting started on creating customer service training for an outsourced help desk located in the Philippines. Most clients are US based, and the folks in the Philippines requested additional training in terms of cultural issues, relating to irate customers or any other items that will help them to better understand the culture, and therefore the language when speaking with clients.

Any thoughts on where I could get started? Is there possibly anything on this site that could help?

Thanks for any input,
Kim

Customer Feedback Surveys

pmcdavid — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 15:18:55 GMT

I am looking for experienced survey requestors.

In the past we would send out a yearly survey that the customers would fill out. This survey was probably 20 - 30 questions. It was time consuming and difficult to manage. Now management wants more immediate feedback. I am being tasked to come up with 3-5 questions on the timeliness and quality of the service the caller received. I thought about setting up a rule in our call tracking system that would send out questions to the caller after a ticket is closed.

What I would like to know is if anyone else has done this and what they found was best practice. I would also like to know what types of questions you have asked that provided the best information to you and your managers. I am hoping to eliminate some of the revisions we will make moving forward with the project.

thanks

Connie

Employee Satisfaction Surveys

pmcdavid — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 15:18:55 GMT

I have been charged with implementing an employee satisfaction survey for our Service Desk agents. I have found some good examples of general employee satisfaction surveys from some HR related sites, but wanted to see if anyone has a more Service Center related example or resource that could help with this effort. Our IT department as a whole does an annual survey, but we want to measure quarterly.

Has anyone implemented a Service Center specific survey? Does anyone recommend a good survey resource to develop relevant questions and measurements?

Interview questions for new boss

pmcdavid — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 15:18:55 GMT

We are hiring a new manager to whom the helpdesk (Coordinator & Assistant) will report.

What interview questions would you ask this person to ensure a qualified applicant who understands the helpdesk function?

Call Shadowing for Quality

pmcdavid — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 15:18:55 GMT

I am looking for information pertaining to Industry standards for the Quality reviews of agent calls. We are in the Computer/Technical Health Care industry.

Thank you,

Sally Ruffolo

E-Commerce Quality Assurance

Merging 2 helpdesks into 1 question

pmcdavid — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 15:18:55 GMT

We are about to be acquired by another Co. They run on a older version of remedy. We run on magic 7.5 and is half a country away. Initially, we will be running seperately, but the question is...what is the best way to share tkt information between the 2 company help desks?

Service Level Standards

pmcdavid — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 15:18:55 GMT

I'm in the process of writing a Service Level Agreement and was wondering if there was perhaps a place to obtain standard levels of performance say for servers, switches, routers etc. You like availability, reachability...also looking for trap levels like where should we set our enterprise tools for things like virtual memory utilization, partition usage etc.Any Thoughts?-Drew

how to recover from a blunder

pmcdavid — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 15:18:55 GMT

customer calls: one of your help desk agents told web development to change an end user url to the admin url

my response: do you have a ticket number so I can review what transpired between our group and the web development group.

customer: no but web development said they would send it to me.

my response: I'll go ahead and search for the ticket just in case it doesn't get forwarded.

My investigation:

I find the ticket and it turns out that the customer reporting an error in relation to an end user link was good, up until the help desk agent referenced the URL as the admin URL they use to reset passwords with

The agent assigns the ticket to the web development team who assumes the URL is the URL the customer is talking about and bada boom bada bing URL gets translated to the admin URL.

Resolution:

I talk to day shift supervisor and ask him to review what went wrong with the agent's ticket in addition to schooling all agents that there is an end user entrance and an admin entrance.

What would be the best response to our poor customer and should it be through a reply to the email he sent or call?

Need some good advice to keep customer happy. This is #2 error customer states......

What would you say to the customer?

Data Accuracy Benchmarks

pmcdavid — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 15:18:55 GMT

Hi,

I'm trying to find out what the Industry Standards are for accurately capturing the customer's inquiry in a database.

In one of our departments the representatives are required to log cases to account for customer inquiries and also so that the engineer can work on the case toward resolution. We've encountered some issues around the data accuracy of the support cases being logged and are interested in what the standard would be for this..i.e 95% data accuracy.....

Thanks,

Difficult Customer

pmcdavid — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 15:18:55 GMT

This may be off topic, but I’m hoping someone will respond.

We have a customer using our product to produce and end-product to their own.

I have extreme difficulty with this customer:

Does not follow instructions if it does not fit their “wants” (such as meeting specific hardware requirements – notice I said “wants” and not “needs”)
Waits until the last possible second to report technical difficulty and then calls in a panic. (implying that if a solution is not immediately forthcoming chaos will ensue and it is all due to our product “failure”). This is true, except the product is “failing” because this customer insists on using it outside of specific parameters.

This is an important customer, and I want to find a solution that will satisfy them, but I cannot do that if they don’t follow instructions or report problems within a reasonable amount of time. (I’ve tried repeatedly to help, but they continuously insist that any solution should be to their liking no matter what.) Does anyone have advice on how to handle this situation?

Ratio of Level 1 to Level 2 Agents for External Support

pmcdavid — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 15:18:55 GMT

****o. My help desk supports external customers using a transactional / processing website. Our current ratio of Level 1 to Level 2 Agents is about 7.5 to 1. We have used staffing models to determine our need for Level 2 staff, but I am also curious to get a feel for the ratio in other external help desks. Would you let me know your current or ideal ratio? Thank you!

After Hours Support Systems

pmcdavid — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 15:18:55 GMT

Anyone knows of a good support service vendor that is effective during after hours?

Must be live person on the other end to take and distribute messeges

Need to know the cost and if contract

Or how do your industry handles after hours calls that are critical?

Do you develop your own system or do you contract out?

What is the industry doing when call centers are growing in this case and moving to a 24/7 support center.

Justifying Head Count

pmcdavid — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 15:18:55 GMT

I'm currently working on a proposal to justify head count for my help desk. There are 9 analysts, supporting 6800 employees. I'm looking for suggestions on an effective approach. Thanks.

Incident Survey Logic - What is the best practice?

pmcdavid — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 15:18:55 GMT

I am implimenting an anonomoyous incident survey, to be sent on each incident that is resolved by our ISD (Help Desk and Desk Side support teams only). I was wondering if others choose to allow members of these two groups to recieve surveys for tickets that they open for other members of the 2 groups?

The two drivers of this question are:

1 - Since the survey feedback will establish a baseline for the goals of my level 1 team, and the desk side teams, I do not feel that the opportunity should be allowed. My concern is that someone may try to manipulate their stats to meet indivividual and team goals, if they are allowed to participate in survey feedback. (I do trust my team, but my past work experience has tought me to be cautious when establishing metric based goals, for the reason I listed).

2 - Since "we are all customers to each other", my Manager feels that we should allow each other to provide feedback via the survey system because everyone's satisfaction is important. She feels that it is necessary to be all inclusive of any potential positive or negative feedback for anyone that utilizes our services. Her thought is that if we do not include them, we are also potentially skewing our stats. I do agree with her points, but feel that my concern above outweighs the potential value lost or gained by allowing this.

This all came about in testing. I happened to get a survey for one of my phone Support Specialists opened a ticket and resolved it for a fellow phone Support Specialist. (For testing, I am set up to receive all surveys, so that we can make sure they are working properly before rolling them to our customers.)

In the future, I will have survey results goals established at an individual level and team level, so that is what prompted my concern. Again, although I agree with my Managers points, I feel it is a bad practice to open the door to the potential for someone to manipulate statistic results, especially when they can be manipulated in a way that will benefit one's self/team.

All feedback is welcome!

I can also be contacted directly at tony.walton@win-na.com (since I am using a shared id, I am not set up with any automation within this forum)

Industry Standard for Grade of Service

pmcdavid — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 15:18:55 GMT

What is the industry standard for average speed of answer? What should the ASA be measure by 30 seconds or 60 seconds?

Thanks for any assistance.

Beth

Support Center Naming Conventions

pmcdavid — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 15:18:55 GMT

I am in the process of renaming our tech support team, and my CIO is concerned about compliance with industry naming standards.

We are a relatively small group (4 full time staff, including myself plus 2 summer interns -- we support around 500 computers worldwide). The team handles helpdesk calls, deskside support, 2nd/3rd level support, and software/workstation engineering and distribution. In addition, we handle support of video-conferencing, cell-phones, and almost any other technology - short of actual telephony.

Currently we use the terms PC Helpline and PC Tech Team interchangeably. I would like to come up with a term that encompasses more of what we actually support. My preference is Technical Assistance Center, but the CIO feels that this is not a commonly recognized IT term .

Finally, I would like to change my own title, which is currently "PC Technical Team Lead". I am now at the manager level, and would like that to be reflected, possibly employing part or all of the new team name.

Thanks for any thoughts or suggestions.

Paul

Technician Level 1,2,3 differentiation

pmcdavid — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 15:18:55 GMT

****o everyone,

I currently have 3 levels of technician, level 1-3. I am wondering how you differentiate between your technician levels? Is there a skill set difference, the amount of supervision that is required or some other type of criteria that is used?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks.

Jim

Help Desk Job Descriptions - Levels I, II, and III

pmcdavid — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 15:18:55 GMT

Hi Folks,

Our job descriptions were never really written specifically with a full time help desk position in mind. Now I'm trying to re-write them and would like to make sure I'm accurate within the industry standards and definitions.

Does anyone have a resource that would allow me to review many differnt Help Desk job descriptions? Would anyone be willing to share what they've already written?

Much appreciated!

George D. Marquis
Help Desk Supervisor
St. Francis Hospital
gmarquis@stfranciscare.org

Helpdesk Closing every call

pmcdavid — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 15:18:55 GMT

The helpdesk wants to close every call that they create. Even the ones sent off to level 2. They feel they own the call and should be doing the callback to ensure the matter is fixed. One we aren't staffed for this, but does anyone else have helpdesk do callbacks on calls sent to level 2?

Service Desk "Walk-Ups"

pmcdavid — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 15:18:55 GMT

We're creating a new Service Desk from scratch, and would like to assess how much we should prepare for "walk-ups" (in-person visits to the Service Desk by users). The majority of our users are local, on-site.

A couple of questions:

1. Anyone know of any industry benchmarks for percentage of Service Calls that are "walk-ups"? This would need to be measured as a percentage of on-site users who have the option to stop in in person.

2. Benefits of walk-ups? Do you encourage them? With a Service Desk, being a customer-facing and customer-advocate approach, you would want to be as visible and accessible as possible to your users/customers.

3. Does anyone track walk-ups as a percentage of their total Service Call volume? I'd be interested to see some real-life stats.

Any input is much appreciated.

Thanks!

Animosity between Level 1 and Level 2

pmcdavid — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 15:18:55 GMT

There's a fair amount of animosity between Level 1 and Level 2 in our Helpdesk. Some level ones never escalate issues to level twos; level twos are not happy with the questions asked by level ones and talk down to those who call for help. This borderline hostile relationship negatively affects our productivity and efficiency. Any advice how to improve the situation? Thank you. Deb.

Moving to 24X7 Coverage

pmcdavid — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 15:18:55 GMT

We are contemplating moving to a 24X7 model and wanted to see if anyone had any advice or learnings they could share. I'm particularly interested in how people dealt with coverage when forecasts might only call for 5-10 calls an hour and how the agents dealt with the schedule changes.

Thanks,

Mark

Help Desk Recording

pmcdavid — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 15:18:55 GMT

I manage a help desk for a multiple hospital system. We have a help desk recording that informs callers of call monitoring and what information will be needed during the call. It last no more than thirty seconds. Some employees are annoyed that they must listen to the recording and have asked for a "bypass" selection to go straight to an analyst. I am concerned that once a bypass is in place, every customer will eventually use it. So, if everyone bypasses the message then there is no point to have one?

Is there a legal issue about having a disclaimer that says call will be monitored?

Is there anyone that has a bypass that goes straight in the queue?

Thank you.

Staff to Management ratio

pmcdavid — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 15:18:55 GMT

Anyone know the industry standard for the ratio of support staff to management personnel. If not the industry standard, what is the ratio at your company?

Thank You!

Telephone Audit Survey Forms

pmcdavid — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 15:18:55 GMT

Hi,

I work in quality assurance for a technical support help desk. One aspect of our quality assurance process is to audit the Specialist's telephone customer interactions. We currently have an audit form, but I am interested in any discussion on best practices for how to draft these survey questions. I'd also like to see what others are using.

Thanks!

Tammy

Staffing required by hits to website

pmcdavid — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 15:18:55 GMT

I am interested if anyone knows of a model that predicts average number of support issues based on number of hits/day to a website. My company is working on a RFP to develop and support a web site for a client. I am assisting in projecting required staffing to support 5000 hits per day. Thanks.

Agent communication styels

pmcdavid — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 15:18:55 GMT

Well, well, well. I'm listening to one of our agents talking to a customer about their issue with email. As the agent is explaining to our customer what is happening I hear the words, "...it's getting SUCKED down to your computer."

Is that a techinical term??????????

4 day workweek

pmcdavid — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 15:18:55 GMT

Anybody have any experience with a successful 4 day workweek at the Help Desk?? Thanks!

Rotating Staff

pmcdavid — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 15:18:55 GMT

I curious to hear if other help Desks rotate staff between 1st and second level to help avoid burnout. We currently have 8 staff memebers of which half will covers phones for a week and half will run second level calls. The following week they rotate (those who were on phones cover second level call and visa versa.) This has worked well for us, but we have recently been told that we may need to change this because our CIO just isn't used to doing it this way.

Does anyone else use this type of practice or something similar?

Industry Standards for IT staffing

pmcdavid — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 15:18:55 GMT

Does anyone know if there is an industry standard for IT staffing for the number of PC's supported?

Benchmarks for Staffing

pmcdavid — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 15:18:55 GMT

I'm looking for guidance on staff for a Help desk. We support 5 medical centers and 15 Clinics. We have approximately 7500 users we support as well as 5400 desktops. We are open Monday - Friday 6am to 12mid and Saturday and Sunday from 7:30 am to 4pm. We have become a "One Stop Shopping " Help Desk. Users call for issues related to access, Operation System problems, network problems, Office Applications,equipment problems ( printer, PC's PDA's ,scanners etc.) We also schedule and troubleshoot our Network Video conferencing. We create new user access and minimal training on how to get into the system. If we can't resolve the problem ( We resolve approx. 80%) of the calls to our Help Desk. they get assigned to appropriate staff at each facility. For the most part, our wait times are approx 5 minutes or less. Looking to see if anyone has a similar Help Desk and to look at staffing guidance for an operation like this.

On Call - how does your company compensate?

pmcdavid — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 15:18:55 GMT

Hi,

Wondering how other companies manage oncall situations for Help Desks that do not operate 24x7.

Our hours of operation are 5am-6pm M-F, and 5am-2pm, Sat. Closed Sundays. Staff is non-exempt, and oncall responsibilities rotate once every 10 weeks.

My questions are:

Any other companies with nonexempt staff working oncall hours?
how do you compensate for the oncall, given the nonexempt status?

Any feedback is appreciated.

Anita Nichols

"Dead Air" on calls

pmcdavid — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 15:18:55 GMT

Hi,

I manage an IT helpdesk.I am trying to find out more on industry standards (acceptable limits on an IT related call) and thoughts around "Dead air" on calls.Also what are the possible reasons and ways to handle "dead air" on calls.

"Dead Air" on call for us is an unexplained pause in conversation for more than 10 sec.

Would really appreciate if any document or information can be mailed across to the following email id :

shalu.manan@gecis.ge.com

Thanks

Closings

pmcdavid — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 15:18:55 GMT

Our helpdesk wants to use a closing such as "Are you satisfied with the solution you received" before a call is closed and the analyst hangs up with the user. Is there a standard that is used? What are other companies using? Any info would be greatly appreciated.