Service Desk Survival Guide
Asses your operations
· Conduct a benchmarking assessment
· Listen to your customer, team, peers, etc. (Sit in on the phones).
· Challenge your direct reports (“How Do you know” and “Show me”).
· D3 – Drill Down into the Details
· Enlist a Third Party Service Desk Expert
o Methodology
o Preparation
o Urgency
o Timeliness
o Executive Briefing
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
o 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?
Know What and Who You Should Know
· Identify the Critical Elements of Your Support Business
o Supply, Demand and SLA adherence
o Total Cost of Support, Cost per Contact and Solution
o Don’t forget the customer’s who stopped calling!
o Service Desk Professional Utilization
o Top 5 Call Types by Volume and Mean Time To Resolve
· Identify and Report Business Impact and Employee Productivity Trends
o Barriers to Total Contact Ownership
· Identify Key Sponsors and Champions of Service Desk
o Senior Level Management
o Customers
o Business Drivers
Invest in Training Your Team
· Increase productivity
o High Impact Training
o Screen Human Harmony
o Automate the Manual
· No better time
o Create Career paths
o Invest in Training and Certification
o Mentor and Coach
· Former Intel CEO Andy Grove says never forget that your career is your business:
o “Every person … is like an individual business. Your career is your business –and you are its CEO.”
o Although your career may be on track, be sure not to ignore turning points that could lead to greater success –or bitter failure.
o 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
o Read newspapers, trade magazines and books (“Leaders are Readers”)
o Attend industry conferences
o Listen to associates to learn when change is imminent
