1. A Guide to Help Desk Concepts, Second Edition
Help Desk Operations
A Guide to Help Desk Concepts, Second Edition
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2. Objectives In this chapter you will learn:
The different types of customer service and support organizations
The components of a help desk mission
The role and operation of internal help desks
The role and operation of external help desks
How size influences a help desk’s operation
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3. Objectives
The benefits and challenges of centralized and decentralized help desks
The benefits and challenges of managing a help desk as a cost center or a profit center
The role of outsourcing in the support industry
The characteristics of a support center
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4. Types of Customer Service and Support Organizations
One type of customer service and support organization is a call center, which is a place where telephone calls are made, or received, in high volume
An inbound call center receives telephone calls from customers and may answer questions, take orders, respond to billing inquiries, and provide customer support
An outbound call center makes telephone calls to customers, primarily for telemarketing
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5. Types of Customer Service and Support Organizations
Telemarketing is the selling of products and services over the telephone
Some call centers are blended call centers, which means that they receive incoming calls and make outgoing calls
The term contact center is being used increasingly to refer to a call center that uses technologies such as and the Web in addition to the telephone to communicate with its customers
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6. Types of Customer Service and Support Organizations
Help desks are often structured in a series of levels, an approach commonly known as a multi-level support model
The help desk refers problems it cannot resolve to the appropriate internal group, external vendor, or subject matter expert
A subject matter expert (SME) is a person who has a high level of experience or knowledge about a particular subject
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7. Multi-level Support Model
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8. Help Desk Mission
Without a clearly defined mission that is determined by its customers’ needs, a help desk can fall prey to the “all things to all people” syndrome
A help desk’s mission is a written statement that describes the customers the help desk serves, the types of services the help desk provides, and how the help desk delivers those services
There are two principal types of help desks: internal help desks and external help desks
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9. Help Desk Mission
An internal help desk supports internal customers, or the employees who work at its company, whereas an external help desk supports external customers, the people who buy a company’s products and services
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10. Internal Help Desks
An internal help desk responds to questions, distributes information, and handles problems and service requests for its company’s employees
A company can have several types of internal help desks that employees contact for support
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11. Internal IT Help Desk’s Role
Historically, IT departments focused solely on the technology for which they were responsible, such as hardware, software, and networks, and concentrated on ensuring that the systems were “up and running”
IT departments are now being challenged to function as internal vendors
An internal vendor is a department or a person within a company that supplies information, products, or services to another department or person within the same company
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12. Internal IT Help Desk’s Role
In an effort to satisfy their customers, most IT help desks strive to resolve 70 percent to 80 percent of reported problems and service requests
They also take ownership of all incidents, whether or not they can resolve them
Taking ownership of an incident means tracking the incident to ensure that the customer is kept informed about the status of the incident, that the incident is resolved within the expected time frame, and that the customer is satisfied with the final resolution
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13. Internal IT Help Desk’s Role Training
Training involves preparing and delivering programs that provide people the knowledge and skills they need to use technology effectively
The help desk may also provide ad-hoc, or informal, and one-on-one training in the course of responding to users’ questions and problems
What kind of training could be provided?
Training might take place in a classroom setting with an instructor, on a one-on-one basis in a user’s office, through media such as audio, video, computer-based training, or Internet-based training
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14. Internal IT Help Desk’s Role Training
Computer-based training (CBT) uses computer software packages to train and test people on a wide range of subjects
Internet-based training (IBT) uses training systems that people access from any personal computer that has an Internet connection and a browser
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15. Internal Help Desk’s Role Network and System Administration
Network and system administration activities include day-to-day tasks such as setting up and maintaining user accounts, ensuring that the data the company collects is secure, and performing and database management
Other activities include file management, printer and server management, monitoring server and network performance, performance tuning, and capacity and disaster recovery planning
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16. Internal Help Desk’s Role Asset Management
Asset management activities include moving equipment, installing and configuring new systems, and upgrading existing systems
These activities are often referred to as moves, adds, and changes (MACs)
Most companies prefer to have experienced staff perform these tasks because they can complete them more quickly than an inexperienced user, and they know about and can avoid many of the problems that may occur during the installation process
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17. Internal Help Desk’s Role Asset Management
Some internal help desks operate very informally
Others have very formal processes and require users to follow clearly defined procedures to obtain services
Some organizations have established Service Level Agreements with their internal clients
A Service Level Agreement (SLA) is a written document that spells out the services the help desk will provide to the customer, the customer’s responsibilities, and how service performance is measured
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18. Internal Help Desk’s Role Asset Management
Examples of customer responsibilities include:
Customers must call the help desk (not someone else in the company) when they have a problem
Customers must maintain their systems
Customers must attend training
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19. Internal Help Desk’s Position in the Organization
One ongoing challenge that internal help desks face is proving their worth to the company
Although computers, tracking systems, and people are expensive, they are investments that help the company avoid lost productivity and lost opportunity, which are also costly but harder to quantify
An efficient, effective help desk can help lower those costs by increasing the effectiveness with which employees can use technology
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20. Internal Help Desk’s Position in the Organization
The technologies that internal help desks use to do their work usually reflect the company’s willingness to invest in the help desk
The best help desks strive to provide high-quality service within the limits of their funding
Instead of rejecting requests that are beyond their capabilities (sometimes called out-of-scope requests), under-funded help desks provide the best possible alternative by directing the customer to another source that can help
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21. External Help Desks
External help desks support customers who buy their company’s products and services
Most hardware and software companies have external help desks to support their customers
The services that external help desks provide vary by industry
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22. External Help Desk’s Role
External help desks can provide a variety of services to customers
Some external help desks provide pre-sales support, meaning that they answer questions for people who have not yet purchased the company’s products or services and may take orders and respond to billing inquiries
Most external help desks provide traditional post-sales support, which involves helping people who have purchased a company’s product or service
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23. External Help Desk’s Role
Post-sales support activities include:
Answering questions
Helping the customer learn to use the product
Explaining the advanced features that the product offers
Resolving problems
Customer relationship management (CRM) involves using customer contact and relationship information to generate additional sales and increase levels of customer service and retention
A CRM initiative involves implementing software products and processes that enable the help desk to collect, maintain, and share information about the company’s customers with other authorized company employees
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24. External Help Desk’s Position in the Organization
In much the same way that an internal help desk shares information with other groups, such as development and network support, an external help desk exchanges information with its company’s sales, marketing, field services, development, and research and development (R&D) departments
External help desks have become a major focal point for customer interactions
They are responsible for creating a customer memory, a record that includes all the information and transactions relevant to a given customer
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25. External Help Desk’s Position in the Organization
As with internal help desks, the resources available to an external help desk reflect the company’s commitment to customer satisfaction and willingness to invest in the help desk
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26. Sizes of Help Desks Help desks range in size from small to large
Although it may seem logical for small companies to have small help desks and large companies to have large help desks, that is not always the case
The size of a help desk is determined by its mission and the scope of its responsibilities
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27. Small Help Desks
Small help desks have anywhere from one to 10 people on staff
Companies may have small help desks for a number of reasons
Some companies have a single-person help desk, although most will grow to have more people in time, if only to provide backup for the primary analyst
Efficiently and effectively operating one-person help desks are rare, but they do occur
Some large companies prefer to have a number of small help desks, rather than one large help desk
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28. Small Help Desks
Some smaller companies set up their help desks as a one-stop shop, which means that the help desk is fully responsible for resolving all problems and service requests, even if the solution requires extensive research or even coding changes
Small help desks tend to be people-dependent, which means that individual analysts specialize in a particular area, such as a customer community, vendor, product, or suite of products
Medium help desks have between 10 and 25 people on staff and can take on the characteristics of both small and large help desks
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29. Large Help Desks
Large help desks vary in size, depending on whether they are internal or external
Large internal help desks have more than 25 people on staff, whereas large external help desks can have as many as several hundred people
Large help desks evolved in several ways
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30. Large Help Desk Setting
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31. Large Help Desks
Many grew from small help desks over the years as the company produced more products
The challenges that large help desks face are different than those for small help desks
Large help desks, particularly those that have evolved over time, may lack the discipline that a larger work force needs
Large help desks enable people to work in a team setting and usually offer many opportunities for advancement
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32. Help Desk Structures Centralized vs Decentralized
What’s the difference?
Some companies have a single centralized help desk that supports all of the technologies used by its customers
Others have multiple decentralized help desks that support specific products or customer communities
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33. Centralized Help Desks
A centralized help desk provides customers with a single point of contact for support services
Customers appreciate this approach because they do not have to determine whom to call within the company
Customers contact the level one help desk, which contacts the level two resources at the remote site only when the level one help desk cannot resolve an incident
A trend is to provide on-site analysts with personal digital assistants (PDAs) that can be used to capture information about customer problems and requests when they cannot readily access the company’s call tracking system
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34. Centralized Help Desks
A centralized help desk receives a wide diversity of calls on any given day
Because of this, effective tools and adequate training are key
Need to access the information!
Without them, analysts can find the centralized help desk a frustrating place to work
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35. Decentralized Help Desks
Some companies establish multiple decentralized help desks in an effort to provide a high level of service to customers with specific needs
When help desk services are decentralized, procedures or technology must direct customers to the appropriate help desk, based on their questions or problems
How can we do this?
A decentralized help desk can provide fast resolutions for incidents because customers receive expert assistance immediately from someone familiar with their needs and who may be on-site as well
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36. Decentralized Help Desks
Help desks can be decentralized in several ways
Some companies establish internal help desks at each of their corporate offices
This approach provides customers with on-site assistance but can duplicate the same services from office to office
Decentralized help desks face challenges in providing quality support and service
They sometimes have difficulty justifying the resources that a centralized help desk can justify
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37. Centrally Decentralized Help Desks
Some companies, particularly large companies, take a “centrally decentralized” approach to delivering help desk services
This approach combines a single, central help desk with multiple, specialized help desks
The process of determining a customer’s need and routing him or her to the appropriate support group is known as triage
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38. Help Desks as Cost Centers or Profit Centers
Help desk services can cost companies a considerable amount of money
Whether internal or external, small or large, centralized or decentralized, help desks need many resources
To pay for these expenses, help desks are run either as cost centers or as profit centers
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39. Help Desk Expenses
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40. Help Desks as Cost Centers
Historically, help desks have been cost centers, in which the budget items required to run the help desk are considered a cost (or expense) to the company
When a help desk is run as a cost center, management’s main objective is to minimize and eliminate expenses so that profits will be as high as possible
Figure 2-8 shows the expanded services being offered by support centers
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41. Support Center Model
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42. Help Desks as Cost Centers
Technology is enabling this further consolidation of support services
Another area in which technology is consolidating support services is remote support
In the past, the help desk dispatched a field service technician to investigate problems it could not properly diagnose, or required customers to ship their equipment to the help desk, resulting in a delay of hours or even days
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43. Help Desks as Cost Centers
With remote support technologies, the help desk can take control of networked devices to resolve problems, distribute software, and deliver informal training on the spot
Under the support center model, companies can deliver services more efficiently and effectively, increasing customer satisfaction
The help desk industry is growing and changing, and clearly, one size does not fit all
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44. Summary
Although the underlying purpose of the help desk is the same from one organization to the next, the services it offers and its operating characteristics such as type, size, and structure vary, depending on the needs of the company and its customers
Call centers, contact centers, help desks, and support centers are all examples of customer service and support organizations
Help desks and support centers tend to handle technology-oriented problems and questions
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45. Summary
Customers can contact call centers using a number of methods, including the telephone, fax, , or the Web
The two principal help desk types are internal and external help desks
Within these two categories, some organizations are small and others are large, some are centralized and others are decentralized, some are run as cost centers and others as profit centers
Help desk outsourcing is a rapidly growing industry
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46. Summary
The success and profitability of a service agency is based on the quality of the services the help desk delivers to its customers
The consolidation of support services continues to be a primary theme in the support industry
The support center model challenges managers throughout the company to move transactions that directly involve customers into the support center
Technology is enabling a further consolidation of support services, which is resulting in more efficiently and effectively delivered services
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