SESSION 406 Thursday, November 2, 10:15am - 11:15am

Track: Improving Service Management

A Service Desk Evolution: From Underperforming to High Performing in 180 Days

Monica Morrison Senior Manager, Technical Support, Inovalon, Inc monicamd_2000@yahoo.com

Session Description If you’re new to service management or want to create a world-class service desk, this session is a must-attend. You’ll learn how Inovalon, Inc., overcame real-world challenges around people, process, and technology and implemented solutions that evolved an underperforming service desk to one that vastly exceeded expectations in just 180 days. You’ll leave with strategies that can be implemented on any service desk to enhance processes, performance, teamwork, and customer satisfaction.

Speaker Background Monica Morrison has twenty-two years of ITSM experience, implementing industry best practices that improved service in large companies and nonprofit organizations. She has experience coaching, mentoring, and building cohesive teams. Monica is a high-energy, passionate leader with remarkable strategic vision and focus on customer satisfaction, process improvement, team building, and solutions implementation. She holds ITIL and HDI certifications, and currently serves as VP of logistics for the HDI Capital Area local chapter.

Session 406: Service Desk EvolutionFrom Underperforming to High Performing in 180 days

Monica Morrison

• Twenty-two years of ITSM experience• Customer service advocate• Focus on process improvement, team building, and solutions implementation • ITIL and HDI certified• VP of logistics for the HDI Capital Area local chapter

This session will share strategies on how to:

Build a new or transform an under-performing Service Desk to world-class performance

Improve Service Desk metrics Increase customer satisfaction Build a cohesive culture that fosters teamwork and

knowledge sharing Increase staff retention Improve your team’s brand throughout the company Build trust in the ability of the Service Desk to deliver

solutions Offer more services and provide additional value to your

company

Challenges We Faced…

The Service Desk was failing

• Customer service was lacking• Processes and procedures were out of date or not

implemented at all• Performance metrics were disappointing

• Customer satisfaction was at an all-time low• Other technology teams lacked trust in our ability to

perform • Our brand within the organization was beyond

damaged

Areas of Focus

Process

Technology

People

Enhance Performance

Build Teamwork

Increase Customer Satisfaction

We overcame real-world challenges around…

…by implementing solutions that work!

• Insufficient staffing – inability to handle the volume of work, customer dissatisfaction

• Lack of qualified staff – poor technical support and customer service skills

• Unprofessional atmosphere/not conducive to productivity – customer complaints and dissatisfaction

• Poor customer service culture – low customer satisfaction

• Lack of collaboration and teamwork – no sharing of ideas and improvements among analysts

Challenges Around People

• Lack of collaboration and teamwork – no sharing of ideas and improvements among analysts

• Analysts in different physical locations – dissention and disunity

• Lack of motivation and enthusiasm amongst the team – poor performance and low morale

Challenges Around People:

• Lack of accountability – no standards set for analyst availability resulting in high ASA and abandon rates, customer inability to meet deliverables and general customer frustration

• Poor staff scheduling – staff not properly scheduled to accommodate peak call times resulting in high ASA and abandon rates, customer inability to meet deliverables and general customer frustration

• Inadequate call and ticket handling procedures – inability to address customer issues properly and multiple tickets being created for the same issue, no documentation in tickets, etc.

Challenges Around Process

• No separation of roles and responsibilities for different service channels (e.g. queue management, self-service, and email duty vs. phone coverage) – poor distribution of tickets and long wait times for issue resolution

• No proper escalation process – long wait times for less skilled analysts to troubleshoot; issues going unresolved; customer dissatisfaction

Challenges Around Process

• No self-service technology in place to alleviate routine, mundane calls – Hight volume of unnecessary calls

• Under utilization of ITSM system capabilities (e.g. categories, templates, knowledge base, metrics reporting) – no accurate reporting to recognize trends; no ticket shortcuts, and no centralized repository for knowledge

Challenges Around Technology

• Wired headsets – Kept analysts stationary throughout the day and inhibited greater collaboration

• Insufficient ACD Programming/No Wrap-up time –Not enough time to properly document tickets

• Insufficient notification of system failures – Long wait times during major incidents and increased user and agent frustration

Challenges Around Technology

IMPLEMENTING SOLUTIONS THAT WORK!!!

Care about your team, get them motivated, make work fun, lead by example, get involved!!!!!

Solutions Around People

• Determine staffing needs; use Erlang C formulas in Excel or resource management software

• Hire analysts with customer service attitude; professionalism and call center/technical backgrounds & Train and mentor those who don’t have call center or technical backgrounds

• Rearrange staff seating to create a professional atmosphere & pair analysts appropriately for mentoring and coaching to happen naturally

• Create customer service culture – lead by example; pair analysts who exemplify great customer service with ones who need to improve their customer service, post customer service and motivational quotes throughout your work area (have analysts find/choose quotes)

Solutions Around People

• Celebrate and champion customer service –Customer Service Week celebrations, customer service awards, praise boards, etc.

• Invest in customer service and technical training - ICMI has a great online product; HDI training; Online training as a less expensive option

• Reward excellent performance with morale events; gamification, competitions, and HDI analyst and desktop support technician of the year nominations

Solutions Around People

• Conduct teambuilding workshops and summits to encourage teamwork; reward team performance as opposed to individual performance; purchase books with teambuilding games, Myers-Briggs type testing

• Webcams, skype; office visits if possible; team meetings where everyone is tied in

• Career development planning; alternate role assignments; – let your employees know you’re concerned about their future; help your company by retaining good talent through internal promotions;

• Improve yourself – ask for feedback and accept constructive criticism, perform exit interviews and make improvements based on suggestions

Solutions Around People

Care about your team, get them motivated, make work fun, lead by example, get involved!!!!!

Solutions Around People

• Research, Study, and Implement Best Practices in ITSM!!!!

• Require 75% - 85% availability for analysts depending on utilization

• Determine call traffic throughout the day using, workforce management software and ACD reports and schedule analysts accordingly

• Create procedures for call and ticket handling

• Delineate roles on the team such as queue manager. Assign email duty in shifts (weekly or monthly shifts work much better than daily and hourly)

• Create escalation processes (i.e. time to spend troubleshooting before escalating and how and when escalation tickets should be handled)

Solutions Around Process

• Utilize Technology, Utilize Technology, Utilize Technology!!!!

• Implement self-service technology, budget permitting – password reset is an inexpensive and easy win

• Utilize ITSM system capabilities (e.g. categories, knowledge base, surveys, metrics reporting)

• Use your metrics reporting to determine baseline and set goals, measure and improve performance

• Invest in wireless headsets for agents – inexpensive easy win – gives analysts the ability to collaborate more freely

Solutions Around Technology

• Experiment with wrap-up time needed after calls and program your system accordingly - increase ticket accuracy by giving analysts enough time to document issues and resolutions and provide more time between calls to give analysts time to breath which will improve customer satisfaction

• Use phone system to create major incident announcements to notify users when systems fail. Will cut down on calls and provide greater customer satisfaction by reducing wait-time frustration

Solutions Around Technology

• Customer Outreach – Hold regularly scheduled roundtables, trainings/brown bag sessions with your stakeholders for feedback and improvement

• Newsletters – Publish monthly or quarterly newsletters to inform staff of initiatives, projects, and other pertinent information

Building/Repairing Your Brand

Core Values, Mission/Vision Statements

Building/Repairing Your Brand

• Get your Team Involved – have them create your core values, mission and vision statements

• Distribute them to staff

• Display them in your work area

Customer Service Week Celebrations Celebrate excellence in customer service and get the whole company involved

Building/Repairing Your Brand

Customer Service Week Celebrations

Building/Repairing Your Brand

World-Class Service Desk

Increased customer satisfaction

Great metrics, improved ASA, reduced abandon rate, and great survey scores

Great brand throughout the organization

Greater responsibility in the organization

Other teams bringing work to the Service Desk

Taking on Service Desk responsibilities for newly acquired companies

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9/26/2014 3/20/2015

Call Stats

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RESULTS

Pursue Excellence – Do not settle for mediocrity in yourself or your team

Never stop learning and improving – Invest in HDI membership and take advantage of free seminars and local chapter events

Certification and Training – Convince your organization of the value of HDI training and certification for you and your team

Advice for New Managers, Team Leads, Supervisors, and Analysts

Network – When attending conferences and trainings don’t be shy! Use every opportunity (breakfasts, lunches, breaks, and social events) to network with other industry professionals; Join ITSM management groups on sites such as LinkedIn to stay up-to-date with the industry

Advice for New Managers, Team Leads, Supervisors, and Analysts

Get Involved Locally – Participate in your HDI and itSMF local chapter events

Advice for New Managers, Team Leads, Supervisors, and Analysts

Love what you do – Bring passion and dedication to your work!!!

Advice for New Managers, Team Leads, Supervisors, and Analysts

Questions