Technical Support Fundamentals (ITP 4107)

Lecture 10

Help Desk Operation

Help Desk Operation

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Lesson Intended Learning Outcomes

On completion of the lesson, students are expected to
•apply primary user support and customer services
skills to provide possible solutions to relevant
problems
•identify typical management issues and good
practices in managing user support projects.

Help Desk Operation

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Overview
• About help desks and a typical help desk organization
• The incident management process
• How technology and tools are used to manage incidents
• The mission of a support group
• Steps in staffing a support position
• Contents of a training program for support staff
• How to manage a user support project

Help Desk Operation

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Advantages of Help Desk

• Provides a single point of contact for users in

need of technical support
• Help to streamline the process of handling
requests

Help Desk Operation

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Multi-level Support Model

• Multi-level Support Model is a common help desk structure
• Organizes support staff and services into several levels (or
tiers)
• Each level is staffed by a worker with different skills
• Goal: to handle as many incidents at the lowest possible level
in the support hierarchy
• Save higher-level, more experienced staff resources for
incidents where more expertise is necessary. E.g. for
complex problems and difficult users.

Help Desk Operation

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Multi-level Support Model

(continued)

Help Desk Operation

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The Incident Management Process

• Incident Management is a well-defined, formal
procedure that help desk staff follow to:
• Handle problem incidents
• Get information to users
• Solve user problems
• Maintain records about the incident
• Call Management is primarily concerned with handling
telephone contacts
 incident management is a more general term (refers to
telephone, face-to-face, e-mail, and Web-based forms of support)

Help Desk Operation

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Steps in the
Incident Management Process
1. Receive the incident 7. Assign the incident
2. Prescreen the incident 8. Track the incident
3. Authenticate the user 9. Escalate the incident
4. Log the incident 10. Resolve the incident
5. Screen the incident 11. Close the incident
6. Prioritize the incident 12. Archive the incident
In all incident-handling situations (written and verbal), the above general flow
of steps and the guidelines on client service, communications, and interpersonal
skills (i.e. customer service skills) described in Lecture 2 still apply.
Help Desk Operation
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Help Desk Technology and Tools

• Impact of automation on help desk industry

• Help desk software packages
• Web-based and E-mail supports

Help Desk Operation

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Help Desk Software - Features

• Often interface with telephone/e-mail system
• Log and track incidents
• Manage incident queues
• Set incident priorities
• Assign incidents to support staff
• Escalate incidents
• Contact information
• Store, edit, and recall contact and location
information in a database (e.g. clients, staff, vendors)
Help Desk Operation
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Help Desk Software - Features

(continued)
• Product information
• Product features
• Product limitations
• New versions
• Configuration constraints
• Known bugs
• Product availability
Help Desk Operation
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Help Desk Software - Features

(continued)
• Configuration information for client systems
• Hardware configuration This is critical for supporting internal

• Software licenses clients, so that the basic info about the

user’s system can be easily accessed

• Network protocols and updated.

• Diagnostic utilities
• Diagnostic software is used to analyze performance
of a remote system and to look for potential problem
areas (e.g. remote access utilities to facilitate the problem
diagnosis and repair process)
Help Desk Operation
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Help Desk Software - Features

(continued)
• Problem solutions knowledge base
• Contains information about common problems and their
solutions (may be built from problems solved and archived)
• Sometimes called a “smart” database
• May use search strategies based on artificial intelligence
tools
• Expert systems (sequences of IF-THEN rules)
• Neural networks (automated learning systems)
• Case-based reasoning (pattern-matching strategies)

Help Desk Operation

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Help Desk Software - Features

(continued)
• Product order entry
• Order-entry capability
• Can integrate with other business systems, such as shipping
and invoicing
• Client feedback
• Client feedback measures the level of user satisfaction with
 Products and services
 Help desk support

Help Desk Operation

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Help Desk Software - Features

(continued)
• Asset management
• Equipment inventory
• System installation information (e.g. software licenses)
• Service management
• Warranty information
• Reminders of next preventive maintenance
• Service history
Help Desk Operation
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Help Desk Software - Features

(continued)
• Telephone system interface
• Facilitate managing large volume of incoming and outgoing calls
• Links to Communications and Information
Resources
• E-mail
• Internet
• Online help files
• Product documentation
• Problem archives
Help Desk Operation
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Help Desk Software - Features

(continued)
• Statistical reports
• Predefined reports
• Abandonment rate (callers who hang up)
• Number of unresolved incidents
• Average length of time on hold
• Average time to resolve problems
• Productivity of support agents (incident closure rate)
• Inventory control reports
• Frequently asked questions
• Customizable interface and reports
• Augment by built-in reports to address specific needs

Help Desk Operation

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Popular Help Desk

Software Packages
• Large-scale Operations • Small or Mid-scale
• Remedy Help Desk Operations
• Peregrine ServiceCenter • HelpTrac
• Magic Solutions Service • Track-It!
Desk • Manage-IT!
• Clientele for Help Desks • Soffront Customer
Helpdesk
• BridgeTrak

Help Desk Operation

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HelpTrac Contact Information

for user Kevin Barnes

Help Desk Operation

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HelpTrac Problem Ticket

from Kevin Barnes

(this ticket is taken by a support agent called Bill)

Note: The button next to the problem categories is a Solution Tree
Help Desk Operation
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HelpTrac Solution Tree

Database Record

Help Desk Operation

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HelpTrac
Sample Management Report

(say, within a week)

Help Desk Operation

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Web-based Support
Vendor Web sites offer support services:
• Product information
• Order entry
• Rebate status
• Automated responses to
information requests
• Online documents
• Software downloads
• Troubleshooting wizards
• Knowledge bases (e.g. FAQ)
• Search engine
• Chat rooms
• E-mail links to staff
• Submit problem reports
• Contact information
• Customer satisfaction surveys
• Links to related sites

Help Desk Operation

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Web Support Advantages

• Lower cost to provide support than other
methods
• Makes users more self-reliant
• Reduces errors due to misinformation and
miscommunication
• Eliminates user time spent waiting on phone
for help desk agent

Help Desk Operation

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E-mail Support Advantages

• E-mail is asynchronous
• user and support staff do not have to be available
online at exactly the same time
• E-mail responses make more flexible and
effective use of support agent’s time
• E-mail responses to frequent questions can be
composed in advance and then pasted into the
response messages

Help Desk Operation

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Impact of Web and E-mail Use

on Support Staff
• More efficient use of support staff resources
• Writing skills become more important for support staff
than telephone skills
• Quick recall is less important than ability to locate
information in a knowledge base
• Ability to listen is less important than ability to read
and understand
• Skills in Web site design and programming may be
needed
• Customer service skills remain important
Help Desk Operation
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Common User Support Management

Concerns
I. Developing a mission statement
II. Performance measures
III. User support staffing
IV. Training for user support staff
V. Project management

User Support Management

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I. User Support Mission Statement

• A mission statement is a list of guiding principles that
communicate support goals and objectives to staff, users, and
management. (The list should be shorter, more focused)
• Example:
The mission of the user support group is to: (a) maximize operational
efficiency among users in an organization by providing timely
resolution to technology use questions and (b) effectively manage
problems to continuously improve the:
• quality of support services to users
• usability of information systems
• effectiveness of documentation and training
• users’ satisfaction with support services

User Support Management

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II. User Support Performance

and Justification
• Performance statistics are objective performance measure for the
user support or help desk operation (often directly related to the
mission statement)
• Examples: (objective, statistical measures)
• Average response time to incidents (wait time)
• Percentage of incidents abandoned (abandonment rate)
• Average resolution time for incidents
• Percentage of problems that could not be resolved
• Percentage of closed incidents that had to be reopened
• Number of incidents currently unresolved

User Support Management

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II. Use of Performance Statistics

• Most useful when compared across times of day,

days of week, or months to display trends
• Can be used for an entire support organization, a
help desk team, or to compare employees’
performances
• Often used to justify the need and budget for
support services

User Support Management

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II. User Satisfaction Survey

• User satisfaction survey is a subjective measure
on how satisfied users are with support operation
• Contents
• General questions about support services
• Questions about specific support staff members’ performances
• Example on Methods
• Follow-up phone call
• Mailed questionnaire
• E-mailed questionnaire
• Web-based survey
User Support Management
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II. Justifying User Support

• User support in an organization’s budget may be a
• Cost (or Expense) Center – justification more difficult
• Income (or Revenue) Center – justification easier
• Justifying user support as a cost center
• Performance statistics
• User satisfaction surveys
• Justifying user support as an income center
• Revenue based on support level
• Free support (no income)
• Fee-for-service (pay-as-you-go income)
• Premium support (stable contract income)
User Support Management
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III. Staffing a Help Desk

• How many help desk staff are needed to meet the service
level demands efficiently?
• Erlang is a unit of traffic (such as user calls) to be
processed in a given period of time, i.e. queue
management
• Erlang calculations are used to estimate the number of
help desk agents required to meet peak demand and off-
peak times (see web site: www.erlang.com)
• http://www.erlang.com/calldesign.html
User Support Management
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III. Steps in Recruiting

Support Staff
1. Use mission statement as basis for staff planning
2. Analyze knowledge, skills and abilities (KSAs) needed
for staff
3. Write position descriptions (duties & responsibilities)
4. Prepare classified ad for open positions
5. Screen applications received for best match with KSAs
(i.e. short-listing)
6. Interview applicants with best combination of KSAs
7. Check employment references of interviewees

User Support Management

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III. Common KSAs for

Support Staff
• Hardware, operating systems, and application software knowledge
and experience
• Specific technical skills
• Network skills and experience
• Internet and Web skills
• Troubleshooting and problem-solving skills
• Communications, listening, writing, and telephone skills
• Ability to work as member of a project team
• Understand business information systems and business perspectives

User Support Management

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III. Employment Interview Tools

• Interview questions about applicant’s educational
and work background and experience
• Knowledge and skills test measures an applicant’s
knowledge and problem-solving abilities
• http://www.pcskillstests.com/Testing/assessment.html
• Scenario questions give interviewee representative
problems to solve

User Support Management

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IV. User Support Staff Training

• Staff training for support staff includes
• New employee orientation
• Orientation to the company and support organization
• Payroll and employee benefit information
• Specific job skill training (e.g. use of help desk tools)
• Support group policies and procedures
• E.g. policy if client insists on a refund
• Performance appraisal criteria and procedures
• Professional development and career opportunities
• Ongoing training
• Requires scheduled down-time for agents
User Support Management
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V. Project Management Steps

• Project management is a step-by-step work plan and
process to reach a specific goal
• Steps
1. Project definition
2. Project planning
3. Project implementation
4. Project monitoring
5. Project termination

User Support Management

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