“Arise, ye service leader! The time is now!” In the last issue of SupportWorld, Peter J. McGarahan exhorted support center executives to embrace service leadership. Service leadership, he argues, comes down to leadership, customer advocacy, business savvy, a “get it done” attitude, and an ambassadorial spirit. In this article, he focuses on the role of the service leader on the help desk, with specific guidance relating to delegating, reporting, marketing, trategizing, and training.

1. 2
SERVICE
PAR
T
Lead•er•ship:
E IS NOW!
THE TIM
by Peter J. McGarahan
“Arise, ye service leAder! The Time is now!”
In the last issue of SupportWorld, Peter J. McGarahan
en•gage your team /
exhorted support center executives to embrace service It’s not easy handing day-to-day operations off to your team, but
leadership. Service leadership, he argues, comes it shouldn’t be hard either. As you leave day-to-day operations
in the capable hands of your team, make sure you take the time
down to leadership, customer advocacy, business to mentor/coach them—that is, lead by example. They need to
see you in action to know what’s important, why it’s important,
savvy, a “get it done” attitude, and an ambassadorial
and how to handle any situation. Never assume that everyone
spirit. In this article, he focuses on the role of the can just figure this out. Make yourself available to them for
coaching, answering questions, and making sure they know the
service leader on the help desk, with specific
boundaries for making frontline decisions.
guidance relating to delegating, reporting, marketing,
I will never forget the lesson I learned one day when I called
trategizing, and training. the support center while I was on vacation. When I asked how
18 SupportWorld I September/October 2010

2. leadership Leadership
everything was going, the senior team member replied, “Pete, For example: “Thank you for asking; everything is going very
we have everything covered, you trained us yourself. Go and well. We’ve recently completed an assessment of our support
enjoy your vacation with your family and do not call in here operations against customer needs, industry benchmarks, and
again. Got it?” Lesson learned. My help desk was functioning demonstrated best practices. From there, we created a 30–60–
quite well without me. 90 continuous improvement plan, which aligns our support
strategy, structure, and services to better address our customers’
just the facts / business needs and objectives. We delivered against phase I
Management does not really enjoy hearing about problems on targets and have eliminated 10% of our calls, are solving more
a regular basis. In your reporting, you need to establish the problems, are faster at level 1 while reducing the total cost of
facts, the actual numbers, the real business impact, the costs, support to the organization. Our ‘shift-left’ strategy is working
the trends, and what you recommend doing about it. Establish and I’d love to share additional results, our focus on delivering
reporting that meets the needs of your audiences and stake- more business value, and customer testimonials at your
holders. I always tried to separate operational reporting, which convenience. By the way, please stop by the help desk any
was geared toward me and the team, from management/market- time to see us in action!”
ing reporting, which should focus on areas that impact IT and
the business. strategic think•ing /
It’s often difficult make time for strategy when you are focused
Support leaders must know the numbers, the story behind those on tactics. The following guidelines have seen me through
numbers, and how to tell/sell their successes. many difficult situations:
sell your suc•cess•es / • Assessment (where you are): How do we track our
If you don’t tell people about your successes, who will? A help progress along the journey?
desk success story is a brief, eight-to-ten-slide presentation on • Strategy, vision, end-metric, or result (where you are
the value proposition of the support organization. It should going): What is the right outcome for the customer and
include information about: the business?
• Roadmap (how you plan to get there): How do we
• The breadth and depth of your services make forward progress?
• Involvement in current IT/business projects
• Business impact measurements These three simple guidelines have always helped me simplify
• Cost-effective best practices and articulate information to senior management. The goal was
• Customer testimonials for them to “get it quickly.” Always ask yourself, “In the end,
• The many proactive roles in your organization how will I know if we are successful? What does success look
(contained in an organization chart) like? How will I know if we have achieved it?” Envision the end
first, then build the roadmap that will take you from where
Tell your support success story to anyone who will listen. It you are today to where you want/need to be tomorrow. And
works. I know one CIO who was so impressed by the help remember, your arrival must be empirical, quantifiable, visible,
desk’s success story that he had it mounted on an easel outside and well articulated.
his office. As senior executives walked by and inquired about it,
Success depends entirely on how you define, pursue, and
the CIO shared the help desk’s success story. That’s the kind of
measure it. It comes by focusing on and working relentlessly
high-visibility, high-impact marketing money can’t buy.
toward the right end-metrics. In short, success comes to service
For unexpected encounters with senior management, prepare leaders who plan the work and work the plan. Service leaders
an “elevator pitch,” a focused, deliberate, 20-30 second message use this success strategy to inspire themselves and their teams
that paints a memorable picture of the help desk’s business to provide valued services to their customers. Remember, your
value (e.g., impact, results, continuous improvement, etc.). customers are depending on you to make their voices heard!
Don’t disappoint them!
www.ThinkHDI.com I The IT Service and Technical Support Community 19

3. on-the-job ex•pe•ri•ence / in place of a messy, weepy goodbye. I asked them to keep
I recently completed a four-month project for a customer where this list at the front of their minds as they engaged customers,
I was asked to replace the help desk manager, assess the team’s teammates, and peers on a daily basis. I promised that if they
performance, and implement recommendations for continuous focused on these ten best practices, they would be rewarded in
improvement. It was a wonderful experience to be able to more ways than they could possibly imagine.
practice what I preach and gain further insights into team and
organizational dynamics. There were a few basic components
missing from the way this help desk operated. In sum: the top 10 service and support
• They were not a team. best prac•tices /
• They had not embraced industry best practices.
• They lacked trust, communication, and shared goals.
• They were individual contributors, doing their jobs their 1. Attitude is everything. Go into every situation with a
own ways with little concern for the right way. positive attitude and the intent to do the right thing for the
I started my assignment by observing, interviewing, communi- customer, for the right reasons.
cating, and building trust—leading by example. To me, the 2. No excuses, just solutions. Never dead-end your customer
first step is establishing what is important to you in terms of or assume you know the details of their issue/request with-
performance and professionalism. You have to communicate out “seeking to understand.” Always ask the right questions
what matters most to you, what you care about, and what they and actively listen during all conversations.
should care about! Once they understand, you must be
relentless in ensuring that these are ingrained in their daily 3. Teamwork. Empowering the team to make frontline
behaviors. Provide one-on-one and team training to show them decisions and coordinate best practice processes is the only
and connect their new and improved actions/your expectations way help desks can survive and thrive in today’s demanding,
to results/consequences. We implemented daily fifteen-minute complex environment. Remember your roles as the customer
team meetings to rebuild the trust and open up the commu- advocate and single point of contact (SPOC) for all customer
nication channels. The team had come to rely on the manager issues, questions, and requests.
to make all of their decisions for them and I believed this was
4. Customer advocate. Represent the “voice of the customer”!
holding them back. I pushed back on making decisions for
The customer trusts you to represent them and their issues/
them when I knew they could make them on their own or by
requests, coordinate timely resolutions, and eliminate
consulting their teammates.
recurring issues.
The natural leaders quickly rose to the challenge and helped the
5. Total contact ownership. TCO is built upon the premise
other team members who were struggling with new directives
that the help desk will continue to address a customer’s
aimed at harnessing the power of the team. We used examples
issue/request and follow up on it until the issue or question
and scenarios to clearly communicate to the team the difference
has been resolved to the customer’s satisfaction. The entire
between unacceptable, expected, and over-and-above performance.
team must diligently follow up on all unresolved issues
The team agreed to police their own performance using a daily
(especially the ones without an updated status), no matter
scorecard and work with other team members who needed
who is currently assigned to work on it.
coaching on the newly focused support best practices. I think
the greatest satisfaction for me with this team was restoring 6. Quality ticket documentation. Research, diagnose, prioritize,
their pride in themselves, their work, and their team. Pride is and document thoroughly (it didn’t happen if it’s not
a key component of success. The help desk must take pride in documented in the ticket). Always ask yourself, “If I was
its professionalism, its customer service culture, and its at- sending this to myself, would I have the right information to
titude/approach in supporting the business. Then—and only begin resolving the issue from the last troubleshooting step
then—will the organization respect it and treat its staff as the attempted by the help desk?”
outstanding service professionals they are!
7. Fun! Having fun is a key feature of successful teams. It is
After transitioning my responsibilities to a permanent help up to all of you to make your environment and help desk
desk manager, I sent this best practice top ten list to the team culture a place that is supportive, respectful, hard-working,
20 SupportWorld I September/October 2010

4. focused, and fun. Fun is much more “fun” when you all
agree that you have earned it and deserve it.
8. Being proactive. This involves spotting trends, related
issues, and recurring issues and working to ensure that you
minimize business impact, communicate appropriately, and
learn from every situation. It results in bringing visibility to
issues and their impact, identifying what is needed to isolate
the root cause and achieve a long-term resolution, and
eliminating the recurrence of these problems.
9. First contact resolution. You should use all available
resources (e.g., team members, training, tools, documentation,
past incidents, etc.) to facilitate solving customer issues on
first contact. It leads to a higher level of customer satisfaction,
improves the help desk’s image, allows level 2 teams to be
more responsive, and improves productivity. Research
issues in depth and escalate only when you have exhausted
all other avenues at the help desk level. If you don’t know
the answer, research the issue or ask someone; either way,
you will be better prepared the next time you encounter
this issue.
10 Solve the business problem first and then address
technical or policy issues. Always ask yourself who the
customer is, what are they trying to do, what they can’t do,
and how critical is it in terms of productivity, impact, and
customer care.
Anyone can be a great service leader. So, once again, arise,
ye service leader! The time is now!
To access the full version of this white paper,
visit www.ThinkHDI.com/resources/whitepapers/.
About the Author
Peter J. McGarahan is the founder and president
of McGarahan & Associates. His value to the
service and support industry and business is his
thought-leadership. For over twenty-five years,
as a practitioner, product manager, and support
industry analyst and expert, Pete has influenced
the maturity of the service and support industry.
IT Support News named him one of the “Top
25 Professionals in the Service and Support Industry” in 1999, and
support professionals voted McGarahan “The Legend of the Year” in
2002 and again in 2004 at the Help Desk Professionals Conference
for his boundless energy, mentoring, and coaching and his valuable
contribution to the support industry and community.