The Service Desk Survival Guide 2005 Peter McGarahan
The Outlook For 2005 Go After Project Funding Globalization/Consolidation Outsourcing/Offshoring Career Development in/outside of IT Cost Containment Technology/Automation ITIL Service Management Best Practices mapped into tools Security issues dominate Supporting the business applications
How Can I Best Prepare? Assessment and Benchmarking Continuous Improvement Plan 30, 60 90-day plan Gap analysis of Strategy and Assessment Build The Roadmap Business Focus and Alignment Support the proprietary, mission-critical business apps Create and Market Value Proposition to Senior Managers Business Value Metrics & Reporting Running your support business Identifying trends that impact business/productivity Map Best Practices to Automate Tools Invest in developing/mentoring leaders
Identify Pain-Points The proactive support mantra Minimize business impact Improve employee productivity Leverage RCA and reporting to highlight painpoints Just the facts In God we trust, all others must bring data Take advantage of opportunities to sell support strategy and value-add Pain-points Business impact What you can do to minimize impact Leverage customers Customer Advocacy Champions Sponsors The Voice
The Create Your Survival Guide Now! Service Desk For 2005
Assess Your Operations Conduct a benchmarking assessment Listen to you customer, team, peers, etc. Sit in on the phones Challenge Your Direct Reports How Do You Know and Show Me D 3 - Drill Down into the Details Enlist a Third Party Service Desk Expert Methodology Preparation Urgency Timeliness Executive Briefing Education & Staffing Measurement & Reporting Systems & Technologies Service Desk Methodologies & Procedures Structure & Strategy Perception & Performance
Review Your Delivered Services List Services Currently Delivered Rank in Order of Importance/Value To Customer Categorize Services Into Problem And Request Identify Services Where You Add No Value Look for ways to Deflect or Eliminate Estimate Cost To Deliver Services Map Your Team s Skills To Your Services Any thing left over for the valued services?
The Support Best Practices Roadmap Source: STI Knowledge
Protect and Leverage Your Investments Identify where you are on best practices roadmap Strengthen and reinforce positioning Assessment, Validation, Value Marketing, Communication and Support Story Review strategic objectives and where you are going Create gap analysis for continuous improvement Utilize existing investments in technology and people
Know What and Who You Should Know Identify the Critical Elements of Your Support Business Supply, Demand and SLA adherence Total Cost of Support, Cost per Contact and Solution Don t forget the customer s who stopped calling! Service Desk Professional Utilization Top 5 Call Types by Volume and Mean Time To Resolve Identify and Report Business Impact and Employee Productivity Trends Barriers to Total Contact Ownership Identify Key Sponsors and Champions of Service Desk Senior Level Management Customers Business Drivers
Daily Operational Report Reports: Morning report ACD Open tickets SLA/OLA adherence First Contact Resolution KBU Individual performance reports HDP Utilization First Contact Resolution vs. Escalated Call Monitoring/Quality Assurance Daily Checklists: Professional ticket review Manager s checklist Case Aging Financial business impact Customer Surveys Source: STI Knowledge Report Generated on 6/1/01 9:35:35AM XYZ Company Calls for For 5/21/01 through 5/26/01 SLA Answer/Abandon Rate Total Calls Received Metric Answered SLA Abandoned Non-SLA Abandoned Total 229 % SLA Answer Time Total Calls Answered Metric Overview Calls Received and Tickets Created For 5/21/01 through 5/26/01 Total 204 % SLA Abandon Time Total Calls Abandoned Metric 204 89 Average Wait Time 0:22 Minutes Average Abandon 9 4 9 4 In 30 Seconds or Less 167 82 15 Seconds or Less Total 0:48 6 18 % Minutes 31 to 60 Seconds 16 8 16 to 30 Seconds 3 17 Voice Mail 7 3 Total Talk Time 770 Minutes 31 to 60 Seconds 3 17 Tickets For 5/21/01 through 5/26/01 SLA Call Logging Ratio Total Calls Answered 204 Metric Total % Tickets Created 112 55 ACKNOWLEDGED 6 5 CLOSED 99 88 RESOLVED 3 3 TRANSFERRED 4 4 Closed Same Day 73 65 Ticket Status as of 6/1/01 only. Snapshots Tickets Aging Total Tickets Open Metric Total % Average Talk Time 3:46 Minutes 61 Seconds or More 6 Tickets by Status 33 1.) < 24 Hours 7 21 2.) 24 - < 72 Hours 3 9 3.) 72 Hours - < 1 Week 4 12 4.) > 1 Week 19 58 All Tickets as of 6/1/01 only. SLA Tickets Transferred Ratio Tickets Created 112 Metric Total % Transfer to Technician First Contact Resolution Average Transfer* 33 79 6:14:20 * Average Time between ticket creation and transfer. A full report explanation is available that includes definitions used in this report. Contact your Help Desk Manager to request a copy. All numbers are for the period, that is, the date range in the report heading. The period is specified at the time the report is run and may be daily, weekly (week ending on Sunday), and monthly. Reports should be e-mailed to Help Desk Team members daily with weekly reports e-mailed on Mondays and monthly reports e-mailed the first working day of each new month. 33 33 29 71 hh:mm:ss MR612001
Balanced Scorecard Financial Scorecard Customer Scorecard Operational Scorecard Learning Scorecard
The Project Score Card Represented either graphically or numerically Percentage of a goal or absolute value Select three or four key metrics that are easily measured and have business impact Measures baseline, actual and target over time Critical to demonstrating success and establishing credibility Serves as valuable input into the investment decision making process Assists in quickly identifying gaps so they can be addressed and corrected
Become the Customer Advocate The Support Center is the voice of the customer You are the customer advocate Root-cause analysis Trend reporting Business impact The customer tour Listen to your customer Listen to calls Ask what you are NOT doing Survey the customers who are NOT using your services Identify customer champions and sponsor
Report, Market and Communicate Reporting Operational Marketing Always tell a story with your reports Always add you analysis and recommendations Know the purpose of your reports What it tells you What it tells stakeholders Follow-through to make sure stakeholders are gaining value from your reporting Market all the time Communicate until they say Uncle
Communicate and Market Your Value Propositions The short presentation delivered to senior management and customers Educate them on your value-add in supporting business goals and objectives As CEO of the support business, you must articulate your: Scope of services Your current demand, supply and adherence to SLAs Other key metrics (including costs) depicting the health of your business Key projects and initiatives aligned with the business Customer advocates, business leader testimonials Leverage into your elevator speech Practice, deliver, push-down to team Take on Customer Tour Your Support Story
Visit Your Customers Plan a Customer Tour Listen Negotiate Look for More Business Articulate Your Support Story Get involved with their activities and meetings Sponsor team to spend time working with customers in the field Network Build a personal and business relationship
Target Calls for Self Service Always look for ways to: Eliminate calls Deflect repetitive, non-value-add calls to a non-phone support alternative Reduce the diagnostic time for complex calls It s about shifting work to more high value, business impact It s about keeping the phone-queue open for mission-critical problems Proactively Prevent problems from impacting productivity use Root Cause Analysis combined with tools and call deflection options Top 4 call types for Self-service: Status Calls Password resets Requests How To
Increase productivity High Impact Training Screen Human Harmony Automate the Manual No better time Create Career paths Invest in Training and Certification Mentor and Coach Former Intel CEO Andy Grove says never forget that your career is your business: Every person is like an individual business. Your career is your business -- and you are its CEO." Although your career may be on track, be sure not to ignore turning points that could lead to greater success -- or bitter failure. You've got to keep track of the market, watch for competitors and look for better ways to do things. Grove says a "mental fire drill" can help every career Read newspapers, trade magazines and books ( Leaders are Readers ) Attend industry conferences Listen to associates to learn when change is imminent Invest in Training Your Team
The Success Plan Source: STI Knowledge
Total Contact Ownership Provides customers with a single point of contact ( the frontline professional) this is responsible for managing customer expectations and driving SLA compliance with other support groups to insure that customers receive consistent, predictable service. Exceeding Customer Expectations Top 10 Industry Best Practices 1. Reduces costs by eliminating call backs 2. Improves customer services by insuring that all service levels are met and no contacts are mishandled Cost Effective Support Thru Knowledge Base and FCR Integrate knowledge base technology and processes to improve first contact resolution and collapse the tiers in which calls are resolved. (Solve more calls at T0 T1) 1. Increases customer service by solving more calls at T0-T1 without transfers 2. Decreases costs by improving the productivity of T1 professionals and collapsing costly escalations Problem Prediction and Prevention Using the daily and weekly categorization reports to determine what areas of the business need more attention. Act on the information to push marketing and communications customers to reduce inbound contact volumes. 1. Reduces costs by attacking identified problem areas and executing tactical plans to eliminate the problem 2. Improves service levels by resolving more calls at T0-T1 Alignment with Business Goals and Objectives Running the knowledge center like a business. Using your organization s Mission, Strategy and Goals to train the frontline professionals and how their customer interactions support the overall business. 1. Reduces costs thru lower turnover of professionals 2. Increases service levels with higher awareness of customers needs. Professional Certification Certified professionals provides consistent service any how, any where and any time. This includes all internal and external support groups. 1. Increase service levels by providing high quality, consistent customer interactions 2. Reduces costs with higher productivity and lower turn-over Source: STI Knowledge
High Impact Training ( HIT ) Daily, highly focused training on the most needed subject areas across all support groups. Exceeding Customer Expectations Top 10 Industry Best Practices 1. Reduces costs by shortening call resolution times 2. Improves customer service by solving more problems without escalation Root Cause Analysis Weekly determination of HIT areas and vital integration with content development team to facilitate creation of knowledge articles. 1. Increases business and customer awareness by linking all trends and activity to specific call types 2. Reduces costs by improving productivity of all professionals Logging 100% of Contacts Professionals log 100% of all contacts in order to provide a 360 o view of the environment - improving management and control. 1. Reduces risks of being unaware of trends 2. Improves service levels because management is able to make clearer decisions. Call Center Marketing Coordination Marketing both internally and externally on the services and service levels provided by the service desk to all stakeholders. 1. Improved customer service by setting clear expectations with the stakeholder 2. Reduce costs by creating a culture focused on exceeding customer expectations Balanced Scorecard Illustrates the operational, financial and customer metrics to show the positive impact the Knowledge Center is having on the bottom line and customer experience. 1. Improves customer service by demonstrating the service improvements in relationship to the investments utilizing the customers data feeds 2. Supports the overall service desk mission and vision and how the Knowledge Center is integral to the business Source: STI Knowledge
Continue to focus on. Look for more business (funded business) Accept more responsibilities, customers, call volume, work load, business units, etc. Improve SLA adherence commitments to the business Eliminate calls / problems, deflect repetitive calls to self-service and automate the manual Capture support savings that can be returned to bottom-line Run your support organization like a business Know your cost structure and business impact / value Maximize utilization of people and tools Deliver cost-effective industry best practices to dynamically meet the needs of your business Leverage the Balance Scorecard approach to reporting Quality vs. quantity, team vs. individual, business impact (short and longterm) Market your value daily to all stakeholders Offer value-based/alternative pricing based upon customer value
Thank You! Q & A Pete McGarahan McGarahan & Associates Pete@mcgarahan.com www.mcgarahan.com 714.694.1158