The document discusses ways to promote and brand a service desk to ensure its value is recognized within an organization. It notes that branding helps build team identity and customer accessibility. Effective promotion methods include newsletters, intranet updates, open days, and social media engagement. Gathering customer feedback through surveys and calls helps identify areas for improvement. Representation in business meetings keeps the service desk informed of changes. The goal is to understand customer needs and provide consistent, high-quality support through visibility, communication, and integration with the broader business.
In CCIG we combine the worlds of our contractors and customers in ways that exceed their expectations.Every day we go beyond the beaten path and draw inspiration from the fact that everyone is unique. We make innovation of tomorrow available today, remembering that it is always worth to talk.
Slides from the latest Engage Business Network seminar on "Customer Service Delivery". Guest speakers included Jo Moran (Marks & Spencer) and Nicola Millard (BT).
Why Contact Centres are Costing More than They Should & How to Fix This!Hilario Fiandeiro
I share SIX insights on why contact centres are costing more than they should.
1. We're not embracing self-service automation to the max.
Often, it's because we think customers prefer to speak to a human. As it turns out, most customers actually prefer interacting with well-designed self-service systems.
2. We're dealing with too many repeat + transferred + escalated contacts.
Research shows that nothing erodes customer loyalty more than instances where customers have to make 'more than one contact' to resolve an issue.
3. Most of our 'first-time' contacts could be prevented in the first place.
We're getting good at reacting to service failures. We need to get much better at preventing service failures from happening in the first place.
4. Our contact centre group structures are unnecessarily specialised.
We tend to split our contact centres into smaller agent groups not because we should, but because we can. This means we're not benefiting, as much as we should, from 'economies of scale'.
5. Our 'slim-fit' AHT's (Average Handle Times) aren't as healthy as they appear to be.
We tend to look at AHT purely as a number that needs to be met, not as a behaviour that needs to be managed.
6. Our people aren't as productive as they should be.
We tend to rely too much on 'offering juicier carrots' or threatening with 'bigger sticks' to improve performance. Our focus needs to shift towards creating a culture that is intrinsically motivating.
Now here's the thing…
Not only do the above factors cost more they also more likely to damage customer loyalty.
So this has a 'double-negative' impact on an organisation's bottom line.
In CCIG we combine the worlds of our contractors and customers in ways that exceed their expectations.Every day we go beyond the beaten path and draw inspiration from the fact that everyone is unique. We make innovation of tomorrow available today, remembering that it is always worth to talk.
Slides from the latest Engage Business Network seminar on "Customer Service Delivery". Guest speakers included Jo Moran (Marks & Spencer) and Nicola Millard (BT).
Why Contact Centres are Costing More than They Should & How to Fix This!Hilario Fiandeiro
I share SIX insights on why contact centres are costing more than they should.
1. We're not embracing self-service automation to the max.
Often, it's because we think customers prefer to speak to a human. As it turns out, most customers actually prefer interacting with well-designed self-service systems.
2. We're dealing with too many repeat + transferred + escalated contacts.
Research shows that nothing erodes customer loyalty more than instances where customers have to make 'more than one contact' to resolve an issue.
3. Most of our 'first-time' contacts could be prevented in the first place.
We're getting good at reacting to service failures. We need to get much better at preventing service failures from happening in the first place.
4. Our contact centre group structures are unnecessarily specialised.
We tend to split our contact centres into smaller agent groups not because we should, but because we can. This means we're not benefiting, as much as we should, from 'economies of scale'.
5. Our 'slim-fit' AHT's (Average Handle Times) aren't as healthy as they appear to be.
We tend to look at AHT purely as a number that needs to be met, not as a behaviour that needs to be managed.
6. Our people aren't as productive as they should be.
We tend to rely too much on 'offering juicier carrots' or threatening with 'bigger sticks' to improve performance. Our focus needs to shift towards creating a culture that is intrinsically motivating.
Now here's the thing…
Not only do the above factors cost more they also more likely to damage customer loyalty.
So this has a 'double-negative' impact on an organisation's bottom line.
Join us Oct 1 (register at http://clearedjobs.net/cleared-jobfairs) at the Westin Tysons Corner to meet with cleared facilities employers, attend career seminars and have your resume professionally reviewed. The Job Seeker Handbook contains a listing of all employers and the cleared jobs they will be seeking to fill at the Cleared Job Fair. An active or current security clearance is required to attend.
You Answer It, You Own It
Before you can successfully implement TCO, you will need all stakeholders—especially the service desk and assignment groups— to commit to building relationships with each other and with customers. As discussed earlier, the service desk and assignment groups must keep the customer in mind when they’re designing the integrated incident management and request management process TCO requires. To provide a customer-validated resolution
and fulfillment, the service desk and all assignment groups must work together seamlessly and transparently on successfully completing all activities/tasks related to the process (per the RACI matrix), ensuring that all relevant information is collected during the first customer contact, setting the customer’s expectation, and providing regular status updates.
Building Intelligent Customer Service with Microsoft DynamicsPaul Hennessy
Leading Irish experts share their views on building successful customer service in contact centres and service organisations. This presentation outlines key insights in customer service experience, technology trends and challenges facing contact centres.
To learn more about the great benefits that Microsoft Dynamics CRM can offer your organisation, please visit http://aka.ms/buildingintelligentcrm
Alternatively try it out for yourself and take a Test Drive – visit http://aka.ms/buildingintelligentcrmtestdrive
You can also register for a 1:1 Customer Engagement Workshop – visit http://aka.ms/Dynamics1to1
Building Intelligent Customer Service using Microsoft DynamicsPaul Hennessy
Leading Irish experts share their views on building successful customer service in contact centres. This presentation outlines key insights in customer service experience, technology trends and challenges facing contact centres.
To learn more about the great benefits that Microsoft Dynamics CRM can offer your organisation, please visit http://aka.ms/buildingintelligentcrm.
Alternatively try it out for yourself and take a Test Drive – visit http://aka.ms/buildingintelligentcrmtestdrive
You can also register for a 1:1 Customer Engagement Workshop – visit http://aka.ms/Dynamics1to1
The Future of Contact Centers: A New Paradigm for Superior Customer ExperienceAggregage
Most contact center leaders view the touchpoint from agent to customer as the most important. The rise of chatbots and AI has changed that. Join Jim Rembach, Editor in Chief of CX Global Media, and learn how to seamlessly weave great technology with happy, empowered contact center agents.
Leading Irish experts share their views on building successful customer service in contact centres. This presentation outlines key insights in customer service experience, technology trends and challenges facing contact centres.
To learn more about the great benefits that Microsoft Dynamics CRM can offer your organisation, please visit: https://www.microsoft.com/en-ie/dynamics
The second part of a two-part series whitepaper that will tell you not only how to generate quality leads for your MSP business but also how you can reach out to them so as to make them take notice.
Transcript: Selling digital books in 2024: Insights from industry leaders - T...BookNet Canada
The publishing industry has been selling digital audiobooks and ebooks for over a decade and has found its groove. What’s changed? What has stayed the same? Where do we go from here? Join a group of leading sales peers from across the industry for a conversation about the lessons learned since the popularization of digital books, best practices, digital book supply chain management, and more.
Link to video recording: https://bnctechforum.ca/sessions/selling-digital-books-in-2024-insights-from-industry-leaders/
Presented by BookNet Canada on May 28, 2024, with support from the Department of Canadian Heritage.
Kubernetes & AI - Beauty and the Beast !?! @KCD Istanbul 2024Tobias Schneck
As AI technology is pushing into IT I was wondering myself, as an “infrastructure container kubernetes guy”, how get this fancy AI technology get managed from an infrastructure operational view? Is it possible to apply our lovely cloud native principals as well? What benefit’s both technologies could bring to each other?
Let me take this questions and provide you a short journey through existing deployment models and use cases for AI software. On practical examples, we discuss what cloud/on-premise strategy we may need for applying it to our own infrastructure to get it to work from an enterprise perspective. I want to give an overview about infrastructure requirements and technologies, what could be beneficial or limiting your AI use cases in an enterprise environment. An interactive Demo will give you some insides, what approaches I got already working for real.
Join us Oct 1 (register at http://clearedjobs.net/cleared-jobfairs) at the Westin Tysons Corner to meet with cleared facilities employers, attend career seminars and have your resume professionally reviewed. The Job Seeker Handbook contains a listing of all employers and the cleared jobs they will be seeking to fill at the Cleared Job Fair. An active or current security clearance is required to attend.
You Answer It, You Own It
Before you can successfully implement TCO, you will need all stakeholders—especially the service desk and assignment groups— to commit to building relationships with each other and with customers. As discussed earlier, the service desk and assignment groups must keep the customer in mind when they’re designing the integrated incident management and request management process TCO requires. To provide a customer-validated resolution
and fulfillment, the service desk and all assignment groups must work together seamlessly and transparently on successfully completing all activities/tasks related to the process (per the RACI matrix), ensuring that all relevant information is collected during the first customer contact, setting the customer’s expectation, and providing regular status updates.
Building Intelligent Customer Service with Microsoft DynamicsPaul Hennessy
Leading Irish experts share their views on building successful customer service in contact centres and service organisations. This presentation outlines key insights in customer service experience, technology trends and challenges facing contact centres.
To learn more about the great benefits that Microsoft Dynamics CRM can offer your organisation, please visit http://aka.ms/buildingintelligentcrm
Alternatively try it out for yourself and take a Test Drive – visit http://aka.ms/buildingintelligentcrmtestdrive
You can also register for a 1:1 Customer Engagement Workshop – visit http://aka.ms/Dynamics1to1
Building Intelligent Customer Service using Microsoft DynamicsPaul Hennessy
Leading Irish experts share their views on building successful customer service in contact centres. This presentation outlines key insights in customer service experience, technology trends and challenges facing contact centres.
To learn more about the great benefits that Microsoft Dynamics CRM can offer your organisation, please visit http://aka.ms/buildingintelligentcrm.
Alternatively try it out for yourself and take a Test Drive – visit http://aka.ms/buildingintelligentcrmtestdrive
You can also register for a 1:1 Customer Engagement Workshop – visit http://aka.ms/Dynamics1to1
The Future of Contact Centers: A New Paradigm for Superior Customer ExperienceAggregage
Most contact center leaders view the touchpoint from agent to customer as the most important. The rise of chatbots and AI has changed that. Join Jim Rembach, Editor in Chief of CX Global Media, and learn how to seamlessly weave great technology with happy, empowered contact center agents.
Leading Irish experts share their views on building successful customer service in contact centres. This presentation outlines key insights in customer service experience, technology trends and challenges facing contact centres.
To learn more about the great benefits that Microsoft Dynamics CRM can offer your organisation, please visit: https://www.microsoft.com/en-ie/dynamics
The second part of a two-part series whitepaper that will tell you not only how to generate quality leads for your MSP business but also how you can reach out to them so as to make them take notice.
Transcript: Selling digital books in 2024: Insights from industry leaders - T...BookNet Canada
The publishing industry has been selling digital audiobooks and ebooks for over a decade and has found its groove. What’s changed? What has stayed the same? Where do we go from here? Join a group of leading sales peers from across the industry for a conversation about the lessons learned since the popularization of digital books, best practices, digital book supply chain management, and more.
Link to video recording: https://bnctechforum.ca/sessions/selling-digital-books-in-2024-insights-from-industry-leaders/
Presented by BookNet Canada on May 28, 2024, with support from the Department of Canadian Heritage.
Kubernetes & AI - Beauty and the Beast !?! @KCD Istanbul 2024Tobias Schneck
As AI technology is pushing into IT I was wondering myself, as an “infrastructure container kubernetes guy”, how get this fancy AI technology get managed from an infrastructure operational view? Is it possible to apply our lovely cloud native principals as well? What benefit’s both technologies could bring to each other?
Let me take this questions and provide you a short journey through existing deployment models and use cases for AI software. On practical examples, we discuss what cloud/on-premise strategy we may need for applying it to our own infrastructure to get it to work from an enterprise perspective. I want to give an overview about infrastructure requirements and technologies, what could be beneficial or limiting your AI use cases in an enterprise environment. An interactive Demo will give you some insides, what approaches I got already working for real.
Slack (or Teams) Automation for Bonterra Impact Management (fka Social Soluti...Jeffrey Haguewood
Sidekick Solutions uses Bonterra Impact Management (fka Social Solutions Apricot) and automation solutions to integrate data for business workflows.
We believe integration and automation are essential to user experience and the promise of efficient work through technology. Automation is the critical ingredient to realizing that full vision. We develop integration products and services for Bonterra Case Management software to support the deployment of automations for a variety of use cases.
This video focuses on the notifications, alerts, and approval requests using Slack for Bonterra Impact Management. The solutions covered in this webinar can also be deployed for Microsoft Teams.
Interested in deploying notification automations for Bonterra Impact Management? Contact us at sales@sidekicksolutionsllc.com to discuss next steps.
Neuro-symbolic is not enough, we need neuro-*semantic*Frank van Harmelen
Neuro-symbolic (NeSy) AI is on the rise. However, simply machine learning on just any symbolic structure is not sufficient to really harvest the gains of NeSy. These will only be gained when the symbolic structures have an actual semantics. I give an operational definition of semantics as “predictable inference”.
All of this illustrated with link prediction over knowledge graphs, but the argument is general.
Software Delivery At the Speed of AI: Inflectra Invests In AI-Powered QualityInflectra
In this insightful webinar, Inflectra explores how artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming software development and testing. Discover how AI-powered tools are revolutionizing every stage of the software development lifecycle (SDLC), from design and prototyping to testing, deployment, and monitoring.
Learn about:
• The Future of Testing: How AI is shifting testing towards verification, analysis, and higher-level skills, while reducing repetitive tasks.
• Test Automation: How AI-powered test case generation, optimization, and self-healing tests are making testing more efficient and effective.
• Visual Testing: Explore the emerging capabilities of AI in visual testing and how it's set to revolutionize UI verification.
• Inflectra's AI Solutions: See demonstrations of Inflectra's cutting-edge AI tools like the ChatGPT plugin and Azure Open AI platform, designed to streamline your testing process.
Whether you're a developer, tester, or QA professional, this webinar will give you valuable insights into how AI is shaping the future of software delivery.
Generating a custom Ruby SDK for your web service or Rails API using Smithyg2nightmarescribd
Have you ever wanted a Ruby client API to communicate with your web service? Smithy is a protocol-agnostic language for defining services and SDKs. Smithy Ruby is an implementation of Smithy that generates a Ruby SDK using a Smithy model. In this talk, we will explore Smithy and Smithy Ruby to learn how to generate custom feature-rich SDKs that can communicate with any web service, such as a Rails JSON API.
GraphRAG is All You need? LLM & Knowledge GraphGuy Korland
Guy Korland, CEO and Co-founder of FalkorDB, will review two articles on the integration of language models with knowledge graphs.
1. Unifying Large Language Models and Knowledge Graphs: A Roadmap.
https://arxiv.org/abs/2306.08302
2. Microsoft Research's GraphRAG paper and a review paper on various uses of knowledge graphs:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/blog/graphrag-unlocking-llm-discovery-on-narrative-private-data/
Dev Dives: Train smarter, not harder – active learning and UiPath LLMs for do...UiPathCommunity
💥 Speed, accuracy, and scaling – discover the superpowers of GenAI in action with UiPath Document Understanding and Communications Mining™:
See how to accelerate model training and optimize model performance with active learning
Learn about the latest enhancements to out-of-the-box document processing – with little to no training required
Get an exclusive demo of the new family of UiPath LLMs – GenAI models specialized for processing different types of documents and messages
This is a hands-on session specifically designed for automation developers and AI enthusiasts seeking to enhance their knowledge in leveraging the latest intelligent document processing capabilities offered by UiPath.
Speakers:
👨🏫 Andras Palfi, Senior Product Manager, UiPath
👩🏫 Lenka Dulovicova, Product Program Manager, UiPath
GDG Cloud Southlake #33: Boule & Rebala: Effective AppSec in SDLC using Deplo...James Anderson
Effective Application Security in Software Delivery lifecycle using Deployment Firewall and DBOM
The modern software delivery process (or the CI/CD process) includes many tools, distributed teams, open-source code, and cloud platforms. Constant focus on speed to release software to market, along with the traditional slow and manual security checks has caused gaps in continuous security as an important piece in the software supply chain. Today organizations feel more susceptible to external and internal cyber threats due to the vast attack surface in their applications supply chain and the lack of end-to-end governance and risk management.
The software team must secure its software delivery process to avoid vulnerability and security breaches. This needs to be achieved with existing tool chains and without extensive rework of the delivery processes. This talk will present strategies and techniques for providing visibility into the true risk of the existing vulnerabilities, preventing the introduction of security issues in the software, resolving vulnerabilities in production environments quickly, and capturing the deployment bill of materials (DBOM).
Speakers:
Bob Boule
Robert Boule is a technology enthusiast with PASSION for technology and making things work along with a knack for helping others understand how things work. He comes with around 20 years of solution engineering experience in application security, software continuous delivery, and SaaS platforms. He is known for his dynamic presentations in CI/CD and application security integrated in software delivery lifecycle.
Gopinath Rebala
Gopinath Rebala is the CTO of OpsMx, where he has overall responsibility for the machine learning and data processing architectures for Secure Software Delivery. Gopi also has a strong connection with our customers, leading design and architecture for strategic implementations. Gopi is a frequent speaker and well-known leader in continuous delivery and integrating security into software delivery.
Securing your Kubernetes cluster_ a step-by-step guide to success !KatiaHIMEUR1
Today, after several years of existence, an extremely active community and an ultra-dynamic ecosystem, Kubernetes has established itself as the de facto standard in container orchestration. Thanks to a wide range of managed services, it has never been so easy to set up a ready-to-use Kubernetes cluster.
However, this ease of use means that the subject of security in Kubernetes is often left for later, or even neglected. This exposes companies to significant risks.
In this talk, I'll show you step-by-step how to secure your Kubernetes cluster for greater peace of mind and reliability.
UiPath Test Automation using UiPath Test Suite series, part 4DianaGray10
Welcome to UiPath Test Automation using UiPath Test Suite series part 4. In this session, we will cover Test Manager overview along with SAP heatmap.
The UiPath Test Manager overview with SAP heatmap webinar offers a concise yet comprehensive exploration of the role of a Test Manager within SAP environments, coupled with the utilization of heatmaps for effective testing strategies.
Participants will gain insights into the responsibilities, challenges, and best practices associated with test management in SAP projects. Additionally, the webinar delves into the significance of heatmaps as a visual aid for identifying testing priorities, areas of risk, and resource allocation within SAP landscapes. Through this session, attendees can expect to enhance their understanding of test management principles while learning practical approaches to optimize testing processes in SAP environments using heatmap visualization techniques
What will you get from this session?
1. Insights into SAP testing best practices
2. Heatmap utilization for testing
3. Optimization of testing processes
4. Demo
Topics covered:
Execution from the test manager
Orchestrator execution result
Defect reporting
SAP heatmap example with demo
Speaker:
Deepak Rai, Automation Practice Lead, Boundaryless Group and UiPath MVP
LF Energy Webinar: Electrical Grid Modelling and Simulation Through PowSyBl -...DanBrown980551
Do you want to learn how to model and simulate an electrical network from scratch in under an hour?
Then welcome to this PowSyBl workshop, hosted by Rte, the French Transmission System Operator (TSO)!
During the webinar, you will discover the PowSyBl ecosystem as well as handle and study an electrical network through an interactive Python notebook.
PowSyBl is an open source project hosted by LF Energy, which offers a comprehensive set of features for electrical grid modelling and simulation. Among other advanced features, PowSyBl provides:
- A fully editable and extendable library for grid component modelling;
- Visualization tools to display your network;
- Grid simulation tools, such as power flows, security analyses (with or without remedial actions) and sensitivity analyses;
The framework is mostly written in Java, with a Python binding so that Python developers can access PowSyBl functionalities as well.
What you will learn during the webinar:
- For beginners: discover PowSyBl's functionalities through a quick general presentation and the notebook, without needing any expert coding skills;
- For advanced developers: master the skills to efficiently apply PowSyBl functionalities to your real-world scenarios.
From Daily Decisions to Bottom Line: Connecting Product Work to Revenue by VP...
Cranford solutions white paper part 2
1. @cranfordsol 0113 251 2208 info@cranford-solutions.com
www.cranford-solutions.com
LEEDS OFFICE: Building 3, City West One, Office Park, Gelderd Road,
Leeds, West Yorkshire LS12 6LX
LONDON OFFICE: Building 3 Chiswick Park, 566 Chiswick High Road
Chiswick, London W4 5YA
WithSpecialthankstotheindividualsfromtheorganisationsbelowthattookthetimetocontributeandsharetheirideas.
Allnamedcontributorsarelistedattheendofthepaper.
Service Desk Excellence - Part 2
White Paper – February 2014
2. Introduction
ServiceDesksarethefaceoftheITdepartment.Nolongerprovidingsimpletechnical
support,theynowofferanarrayofservicestothecustomer,managingexpectations
andmeetingtheireveryneed.
About Our Survey
The questions asked by Cranford Solutions were aimed at identifying what makes an effective and excellent Service Desk
and the challenges they face each day.
They were targeted at both private and public sector, with an aim of focusing on the Leadership, People and Culture side of
Service Desks.
We particularly targeted:
»» Individuality & Uniqueness
»» Motivation & Reward
»» Appraisal & Staff Satisfaction
»» Development and Progression
»» Culture & Environment
»» Communication & Customer Satisfaction
Our first White Paper concentrated on the great people that make up the Service Desk. This paper is centred on ways of
promoting your Service Desk to ensure its value is recognised across your organisation.
This includes the culture on the desk, how it is used by the customer for support, ways of engaging & communicating
with customers, how integrated the Service Desk is with the business and finally some personal anecdotes from our
contributors.
@cranfordsol 0113 251 2208 info@cranford-solutions.com
www.cranford-solutions.com
LEEDS OFFICE: Building 3, City West One, Office Park, Gelderd Road,
Leeds, West Yorkshire LS12 6LX
LONDON OFFICE: Building 3 Chiswick Park, 566 Chiswick High Road
Chiswick, London W4 5YA
3. “Brand is more than a font or logo – it’s our promise and this takes time”
Robin Goldsbro, DLA Piper
Branding the Service Desk can strengthen its place within the organisation by enabling customers to have a clear path
to support. Knowing who to contact, how to contact them and where support is based will ensure that the desk is easily
accessible and readily used. Additionally it can help to build a team mentality on the desk and provide a feeling of belonging
and support.
Aside from formal branding the Service Desk can be promoted in other ways too. A key point is keeping customers updated
and included in any changes on the desk or with the service is provides. Alerting users to change and getting the message
across appears to be a challenge that if not done effectively can cause confusion and annoyance. Missed tickets are a
common output of this. If tickets are registered incorrectly, customers will then become frustrated when they are navigated
back to re-register their ticket before they can get their problem resolved.
Getting the Service Desk noticed and utilised is vital to the success of the Desk and is integral to the role of Service Desk
Manager. Some common themes of achieving this are regular newsletters, intranet updates, floor walking, posters and open
days on the Service Desk. Success in this naturally increases utilisation, some ideas used to raise awareness of the Service
Desk include:
»» Monthly IT Clinics
»» IT Service Desk business cards
»» “How to” guides and training videos available to customers
»» 1-2-1 sessions with all new starters
»» Social Media
»» Road shows
»» Forums
“I believe that the product is the marketing. If we champion our customers experience,
deliver simple and powerful technologies that enable our customers to do their best work
our reputation will spread” Robin Goldsbro, DLA Piper
@cranfordsol 0113 251 2208 info@cranford-solutions.com
www.cranford-solutions.com
Service Desk Branding & Promotion
BrandingyourServiceDeskisanemergingideathatcamethroughinresponseto
oursurveywithafewcompaniesestablishingastrongbrandfortheirdesk.Ideas
rangingfromwearingbrandedpoloshirtsforeasyidentificationwhilstinthebusiness
community,tohavingsignsaboveandaroundthedeskallcontributetocreatinga
brandfortheServiceDesk.
LEEDS OFFICE: Building 3, City West One, Office Park, Gelderd Road,
Leeds, West Yorkshire LS12 6LX
LONDON OFFICE: Building 3 Chiswick Park, 566 Chiswick High Road
Chiswick, London W4 5YA
4. “Through the message of us being the first point of contact for IT and that our objective is
to “Fix, first time and fast” Keith Barber, Severn Trent Water
...business BUT only 10% of these use it for IT Support too. With the emergence of Social Media as one of the most
popular mediums of communication in the modern world it seems a clear path for IT Support to follow, as customers
demand a faster, easier way of reaching their support teams.
It is now common for Service Desks to have their own designated space and it seems that an open plan, welcoming
environment is the way forward. It appears from responses that gone are the days of shutting away support teams in a
small side office. Service Desks are now open plan, often within the same space as other IT functions and invite customers
to come in and ask for support. Practical face-to-face support is becoming one of the most popular methods of support as
customers look for a personal touch that cannot be obtained via other methods of communication. Getting to know their
support teams makes customers feel more valued but in turn also makes them more flexible in their demands. Once they
know the person providing their support personally they are more likely to understand when they are told they may have
to wait a short while as they have faith their issue is being dealt with. Visibility seems to help greatly with building trust
with the user community.
@cranfordsol 0113 251 2208 info@cranford-solutions.com
www.cranford-solutions.com
LEEDS OFFICE: Building 3, City West One, Office Park, Gelderd Road,
Leeds, West Yorkshire LS12 6LX
LONDON OFFICE: Building 3 Chiswick Park, 566 Chiswick High Road
Chiswick, London W4 5YA
98% ofrespondentsinoursurveyreportedusingSocialMediawithintheir...
5. @cranfordsol 0113 251 2208 info@cranford-solutions.com
www.cranford-solutions.com
LEEDS OFFICE: Building 3, City West One, Office Park, Gelderd Road,
Leeds, West Yorkshire LS12 6LX
LONDON OFFICE: Building 3 Chiswick Park, 566 Chiswick High Road
Chiswick, London W4 5YA
Human behaviour dictates that people engage less when all is going well and there will always be an element of complaint
directed at the Service Desk. Nobody wants to need the Service Desk so when they do they can be frustrated and impatient.
By personally dealing with the issues and then studying the problem a positive spin can be taken on complaints. The more
knowledge you have of what is going wrong the more opportunity you have to make positive changes. All feedback is positive
as long as it is dealt with constructively. It can be used in training sessions and added to problem/incident management if a
recurring theme is noticed.
“Ensuring staff moral within the team is paramount to us. We capture feedback in 1:1¹s,
appraisals, and we have recently introduced a staff survey to capture the levels of staff
morale and satisfaction ”
Karen Taylor, Cheshire Shared Services ICT
Recording customer calls into the Service Desk is another great way of learning more about your customers. The majority
of responses that have this technology in place use it as a way to measure their Analyst’s performance and feed into their
appraisals and reviews.
“A selection [of calls] per person are checked on a regualr basis and outcomes feed in to
their 1-2-1” Russell Noblett, O2
But even without the technology you can still make a point of listening in to live calls in order to spot check service.
“Quality is reviewed through listening into calls when they are live ”
Geraint Jones, Callcredit
The opportunity should not be missed to learn more about the customers that call into the service desk. Are there particular
teams which call in regularly? Are there more issues from a certain office? This data can be analysed and used to create
service improvement plans targeted at the individual groups that need it most. Whether it is extra training on the systems,
better induction processes or a deep-rooted technical problem that needs addressing.
Working With The Business
Itisimportanttoknowwhatthebusinessandcustomerswantandexpectfrom
theServiceDesk.Gettingtoknowwhatcustomersexpectisvitalandmethods
ofobtainingthisinformationrangefromregularsatisfactionsurveys,reviewing
commentsandcomplaintsandface-to-facemeetings.Allofwhichcanallbeusedto
feedintoserviceimprovementplans.
6. @cranfordsol 0113 251 2208 info@cranford-solutions.com
www.cranford-solutions.com
LEEDS OFFICE: Building 3, City West One, Office Park, Gelderd Road,
Leeds, West Yorkshire LS12 6LX
LONDON OFFICE: Building 3 Chiswick Park, 566 Chiswick High Road
Chiswick, London W4 5YA
Ideally the Service Desk should be a part of all new employees induction process into your company. Knowing how to get IT
support is useful to make them feel supported in their early days and will instil the value of the desk into colleagues from the
very beginning.
Another important tool highlighted is that the Service Desk has representatives within the business to champion their
work and make sure that all business changes and communications are filtered down. Attending business meetings is
useful in understanding the direction the business is taking. Therefore ensuring that the Service Desk can keep up to date
with the changes and maintain high levels of support and service during those changes. This also helps with future budget
considerations, e.g. resource planning, training and shift patterns.
Understanding the business and the people within it enables the Service Desk to provide the best support possible. It is clear
from our survey that not all customers get a replicable service from the desk, some respondents did report that all customers
were treated the same but the majority said not and the reason for this is simple, not all customers are the same. With
answers ranging from:
»» The need for differing support due to differing time zones and cultures
»» Enhanced support during business critical projects
»» VIP policies set by the organisation
»» SLA agreements with certain clients
»» Levels of IT literacy vary across any organisation as does complexity of issues
»» Client facing users and executives may get priority due to the enhanced impact of downtime on the business
Only by working closely with the business is it possible to be aware of the many different factors that affect the way calls are
dealt with.
Other organisations take a less formal approach to why customers get treated differently.
“Everyone is different. Some are OK with an informal approach, some are more IT literate,
some need more TLC and others just want their incident resolved”
Dean Archer, Zodiak Media
“It is important to engage with the customer on their level”
Louise Upton, Triumph Motorcycles
7. @cranfordsol 0113 251 2208 info@cranford-solutions.com
www.cranford-solutions.com
LEEDS OFFICE: Building 3, City West One, Office Park, Gelderd Road,
Leeds, West Yorkshire LS12 6LX
LONDON OFFICE: Building 3 Chiswick Park, 566 Chiswick High Road
Chiswick, London W4 5YA
Funny moments on the desk:
“I think I have a rat in my drawers….turned out to be shredding ”
Karen Washburn, IMD Media
“The team being showered in milk after someone bought milk in to the office in an ice cream
container ”
Geraint Jones, Call credit
“Practical jokes on the Service Desk…if you leave your machine unlocked & unattended for too
long you will learn a harsh security lesson, courtesy of an emotional email to your team from
your email account. ”
Sally Comley, Arqiva
Unique challenges:
“Losing 7 staff in a 12 month period and still achieving SLA targets”
Yvonne Batchelor, Service Birmingham
“Setting up a team of 36 and training them to take over from an outsourced desk in 2 months ”
Hayely Worsley, Audatex
“With 71 offices in 31 countries the people who contact the desk are diverse. The needs and
expectations are different and the details on the form are complicated. ”
Robin Goldsbro, DLA Piper
Anecdotes from the Front Line:
LifeasaServiceDeskManagercanbeequallyrewardingasitischallenging.Weasked
participantsinoursurveytosharesomeoftheirmostmemorablemomentsonthe
ServiceDeskandhereisaselectionofthestoriesthatcamebacktous.
8. @cranfordsol 0113 251 2208 info@cranford-solutions.com
www.cranford-solutions.com
LEEDS OFFICE: Building 3, City West One, Office Park, Gelderd Road,
Leeds, West Yorkshire LS12 6LX
LONDON OFFICE: Building 3 Chiswick Park, 566 Chiswick High Road
Chiswick, London W4 5YA
Proudest moment:
“A service desk team member winning the prestigious ‘employee of the year’ award”
Basim Zaidi, Vaultex
“Getting to the final of UK Service Desk of the year awards”
Damian Bowen, NTT Data
“Turning the Service Desk round from being a failing Service Desk when I started to a successful
and well recognised Service Desk. It is now seen as the best in the market place – something I
am very proud of”
Jason Lloyd, iSAMS
Conclusion
The responses from this paper have highlighted the importance of visibility within
the organisation and working closely with the business. Being seen as an integral
and positive part of the overall team is key to success and utilisation. There is
no magic formula for any individual or company but many of the Service Desk
Managers who responded have come up with innovative and well-received ways
to establish their desk.
9. @cranfordsol 0113 251 2208 info@cranford-solutions.com
www.cranford-solutions.com
LEEDS OFFICE: Building 3, City West One, Office Park, Gelderd Road,
Leeds, West Yorkshire LS12 6LX
LONDON OFFICE: Building 3 Chiswick Park, 566 Chiswick High Road
Chiswick, London W4 5YA
Index of Contributors:
Arqiva
Arvato
Audatex
Callcredit
CSS
DLAPiper
Elior
IMDMedia
iSAMS
NetworkRail
NTTData
O2
On365
RankGroup
ServiceBirmingham
SevernTrentWater
TriumphMotorcycles
Vaultex
ZodiakMedia
SallyComley
NickyStanley
HayleyWorsley
GeraintJones
KarenTaylor
RobinGoldsbro
PaulBrockbank
KarenWashburn
JasonLloyd
MattTurner
DamianBowen
RussellNoblett
AlisaGill
YvonneBatchelor
FriedaMorton-Evans
KeithBarber
LouiseUpton
BasimZaidi
DeanArcher
ServiceDeskManager
ServiceDeskManager
ServiceDeskManager
ITSupportServicesManager
WorkplaceServicesManager
ServiceDeskManager
ITServiceDeskManager
HeadofServiceDelivery
ServiceDeskManager
ServiceDeskManager
ClientServiceDeliveryDirector
SeniorServiceDeskManager
ServiceDeskManager
ServiceSupportManager
HeadofServiceDelivery
ISServiceDeskManager
ITOperationsSupportManager
ServiceDesk&ChangeManager
ITServiceDeliveryManager
10. Cranford Solutions
CranfordSolutionsareaspecialistServiceDeskprovidercoveringthefull360degrees
oftheServiceDeskneeds,People,ProcessesandTools.
»» Tool Selection & set up
»» Best Practice
»» Resource Provision
»» Bespoke Recruitment Solutions
@cranfordsol 0113 251 2208 info@cranford-solutions.com
www.cranford-solutions.com
SOLUTION PLUS SUPPORT PLUS
SERVICE PLUS KNOWLEDGE PLUS
Achieve Service Desk Excellence Flexible On-Demand Resource
Bespoke Recruitment Solutions Shared Experience
Reviews & Health checks
Tool selection, implementation &
configuration
Fully Project Managed Solutions
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Bench of high quality Service Desk Resource
1st, 2nd, 3rd line, Team Leaders & Managers
Fully Managed by Client Services Director
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No more hassle reviewing CV’s and
shortlisting
All face to face interviews
Secondary interview with our Client
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White Papers generated from industry
leading Service Desks
Networking events to share experiences
and ideas
Knowledge base of articles
Complete Service Desk Solutions
YOUR SERVICE DESK
•Are
we as good
as we could be?
• Where can
improvements
be made?
• How do we
achieve Service
Excellence?
• How
do I manage
risk when
hiring resource?
• Time spent with
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companies
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contract staff
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consuming & frustrating
•High rates of
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• What are other
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Improvem
ent Re
sourceEduc
ation
Recrui
tm
ent
The face of IT
Improve – Support – Recruit – Educate
@cranfordsol 0113 251 2208 info@cranford-solutions.com
www.cranford-solutions.com
LEEDS OFFICE: Building 3, City West One, Office Park, Gelderd Road,
Leeds, West Yorkshire LS12 6LX
LONDON OFFICE: Building 3 Chiswick Park, 566 Chiswick High Road
Chiswick, London W4 5YA
