tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7496986701852108514Sun, 11 May 2008 02:43:44 +0000http://helpdesk.wyopub.com/noreply@blogger.com (Steven McElwee, CISSP)Blogger16125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7496986701852108514.post-8643233968147518941Fri, 02 Feb 2007 02:39:00 +00002008-05-10T21:40:32.018-04:00ManagementMotivation is one of the great challenges of help desk management. Keeping good morale among analysts and encouraging them to strive for continuous improvement is difficult in a line of work where there are so many customer requests, and most of them come from frustrated end users who have already tried everything to resolve their problem on their own. One great enabler of positive morale in http://helpdesk.wyopub.com/2007/02/competing-for-performance.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Steven McElwee, CISSP)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7496986701852108514.post-211851445602913431Fri, 02 Feb 2007 02:34:00 +00002008-05-10T21:36:06.974-04:00ToolsOne of the greatest frustrations of customers and help desk associates alike is when a help case must be escalated outside of the help desk. These are the requests that fall into a black hole. The customer calls up regularly to inquire about the status. The help desk contacts the support technician assigned to the case for a status. The customer is frustrated because the delay is affecting her http://helpdesk.wyopub.com/2007/02/priority-reports-for-support-teams.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Steven McElwee, CISSP)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7496986701852108514.post-1518851755587386731Fri, 02 Feb 2007 02:16:00 +00002008-05-10T21:18:05.292-04:00ProcessDo you know what your service desk customers think about the quality of service they receive from you? You may think that you understand their expectations and current performance. You may be unsure, but hope that you are doing well. Finding the voice of the customer and defining your service catalog and service levels around their expectations will guarantee a level of satisfaction higher than http://helpdesk.wyopub.com/2007/02/finding-voice-of-help-desk-customer.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Steven McElwee, CISSP)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7496986701852108514.post-4929893363414520945Tue, 02 Jan 2007 02:40:00 +00002008-05-10T21:41:39.005-04:00ManagementMany help desks become the dumping ground for security, administrative tasks, training, non-support communication, change management, and ID setup. In addition, many second or third level support teams use the help desk as a shield to keep away from customer interaction. Most of these things are distractions that cloud your main purpose and prevent you from serving your customers effectively. http://helpdesk.wyopub.com/2007/01/help-desk-dumping-ground-or-focused.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Steven McElwee, CISSP)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7496986701852108514.post-5933412108499205613Tue, 02 Jan 2007 02:37:00 +00002008-05-10T21:39:06.929-04:00ToolsOne of the challenges in measuring the performance of any support team is to create a meaningful view of performance. Although it is not possible in a single chart to capture all of the facets of peformance, there is one chart that provides a great monthly peformance dashboard. This chart, shown below, provides a look at the backlog of open support cases at the beginning of a month, the number http://helpdesk.wyopub.com/2007/01/help-desk-performance-in-single-chart.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Steven McElwee, CISSP)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7496986701852108514.post-7698470514623103310Tue, 02 Jan 2007 02:23:00 +00002008-05-10T21:24:00.197-04:00ProcessThe first step in creating Service Level Agreements (SLA) or Service Level Objectives (SLO) is to create a service catalog. At its most basic level, a service catalog is a list of all the services your help desk will provide. In most cases, an SLA is used to define the support requirements of a team to which the help desk escalates cases. The helpdesk may have internal goals for first call http://helpdesk.wyopub.com/2007/01/service-catalogs-and-service-level.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Steven McElwee, CISSP)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7496986701852108514.post-8717916105817141845Fri, 24 Nov 2006 02:46:00 +00002008-05-10T21:47:09.344-04:00TrainingHelp desks can create great entry level positions, since responsibilities can be divided according to skill level, with senior analysts handling the difficult calls and entry level analysts handling more routine calls or email. With this in mind, it's especially important to create a logical progression from entry level to senior level analyst. This will help you to retain the help desk analysts http://helpdesk.wyopub.com/2006/11/training-for-help-desk-analysts.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Steven McElwee, CISSP)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7496986701852108514.post-5844219648947891731Tue, 05 Sep 2006 01:24:00 +00002008-05-10T21:25:25.585-04:00ProcessThe service desk or help desk is a high transaction function. In a perfect world, every case would be resolved in 15 minutes or less. While this is a lofty goal, it demonstrates the transactional characteristics of the service desk. To keep such transactional work on track, it is not sufficient to have a monthly or weekly meeting to review performance. To be successful you need a daily view of http://helpdesk.wyopub.com/2006/09/daily-service-desk-metrics.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Steven McElwee, CISSP)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7496986701852108514.post-3518004845343277774Tue, 03 Jan 2006 02:42:00 +00002008-05-10T21:42:54.969-04:00ManagementOne of the most revealing ways to measure your help desk or service desk performance is to survey your customers. There are many approaches to surveying, but some are more effective than others. Many companies will annually send a customer satisfaction survey to the whole company to gauge performance. There are several problems with this approach. First not everyone surveyed will have used your http://helpdesk.wyopub.com/2006/01/case-by-case-customer-satisfaction.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Steven McElwee, CISSP)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7496986701852108514.post-1125041115987841262Fri, 04 Nov 2005 02:27:00 +00002008-05-10T21:28:03.021-04:00ProcessHow easy is it for your help desk or service desk customers to understand how to communicate with you? Many times, it is assumed that the end users know how to follow your predefined processes and that they will follow them naturally. The exact opposite is generally true. Contacting You By Phone Let’s start with your phone prompts - when end users call your help desk. Your prompts must http://helpdesk.wyopub.com/2005/11/create-clear-channels.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Steven McElwee, CISSP)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7496986701852108514.post-3831426624012064561Tue, 23 Aug 2005 01:44:00 +00002008-05-10T21:44:52.023-04:00ManagementSo what's all the hype about Erlang C? What does this have to do with leading a help desk? Erlang is a unit of traffic measurement. It is measured by looking at the usage time for all resources divided by the total time interval. It is used for telecommunications design, architecture, and call centers. It's a great fit for the help desk as well. On the help desk, Erlang C is a way of http://helpdesk.wyopub.com/2005/08/erlang-what.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Steven McElwee, CISSP)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7496986701852108514.post-216729700304768516Tue, 23 Aug 2005 01:43:00 +00002008-05-10T21:43:47.767-04:00ManagementOne of the worst labels that is often stuck on help desks at many companies is, "helpless desk." This name is a reaction to what end users feel when they call. Too often they get an analyst who knows less than they themselves know about supporting the product. As a result, the analyst takes up some of the end user's valuable time, only to create a ticket and assign it to a more specialized http://helpdesk.wyopub.com/2005/08/why-knowledge-management.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Steven McElwee, CISSP)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7496986701852108514.post-149901049607003613Tue, 23 Aug 2005 01:28:00 +00002008-05-10T21:29:43.391-04:00ProcessYou've heard the hype about Six Sigma. How companies like GE, Allied Signal, Motorola, and Amazon.com have dramatically improved the quality of their products and services by using it. Did you know that Six Sigma is a perfect fit for Help Desks? If your Help Desk is not meeting your or your customers' expectations, Six Sigma will help you quickly make measurable improvements. Let's take a look http://helpdesk.wyopub.com/2005/08/six-sigma-for-help-desks.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Steven McElwee, CISSP)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7496986701852108514.post-3107380872758635623Sat, 20 Aug 2005 01:30:00 +00002008-05-10T21:30:51.652-04:00ProcessThe biggest key to running an effective Help Desk is measurement. The volume of requests from end users is too high to use subjective measurements. Each request has important data that must be translated into meaningful performance metrics. In the world of projects, you see the execution unfold over several months. You know what the handful of sponsors and participants of the project think http://helpdesk.wyopub.com/2005/08/measuring-whole-picture.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Steven McElwee, CISSP)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7496986701852108514.post-7944086224667696392Sat, 02 Jul 2005 01:31:00 +00002008-05-10T21:32:40.238-04:00ProcessService Level Agreements, or "SLA's" are tricky but useful mechanisms for managing the risk of an on-going relationship with IT service providers. Unfortunately, most SLA's that show up in service contracts as worthless, cosmetic paper additions. SLA's can be extremely powerful tools to help you and your service provider get the most out of a relationship. What is an SLA? A service level http://helpdesk.wyopub.com/2005/07/service-level-agreement-sla-boot-camp.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Steven McElwee, CISSP)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7496986701852108514.post-3925573399129423708Thu, 02 Jun 2005 00:42:00 +00002008-05-10T22:43:44.312-04:00Your privacy is important to us. Please review our privacy policy. This privacy policy applies to all publications and web sites offered by Wyomissing Publishing. If you have questions about this privacy policy, please write to: Wyomissing Publishing, 259 Church Road, Mohnton, PA 19540. Information Collected During Your Visit Most Wyomissing Publishing web sites offer free information that http://helpdesk.wyopub.com/2005/06/privacy-policy.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Steven McElwee, CISSP)