Lesson 3 the customer experience

The Customer ExperienceCOMP2071

o The helpdesk is operated using controls, methodologies, processes, procedures, and tools

o We will explore all of these operation items throughout this courseo Help desk and incident reporting auditing is an examination of the

controls within the help desk operationso The audit process collects and evaluates evidence of an

organization's help desk and incident reporting practices, and operations

o The audit ensures that all problems reported by users have been adequately documented and that controls exist so that only authorized staff can archive the users’ entries

o It also determines if there are sufficient controls to escalate issues according to proper priority

Helpdesk OperationsOperations

o Traditional – o Help desks have been traditionally used as call centers. Telephone support

was the main medium used until the advent of Internet. Although telephone support has worked effectively and is still being used today, it has a number of weaknesses. For example, it is frustrating for customers to be put on hold or navigate automated phone answering messages.

o Internet – o The advent of the Internet has provided the opportunity for potential and

existing customers to communicate with suppliers directly and to review and buy their services online. Customers can email their problems without being put on hold over the phone. One of the largest advantages Internet help desks have over call centers are that it is available 24/7. This is extremely important in today’s global business world where customers and staff members may be in different time zones.

Types of help desksOperations

o Writing & documentation are integral parts of every IT positiono For the Helpdesk/Enterprise Support Team documentation is

especially importanto Tickets raised will describe issues and make requestso It is important to be as accurate as possibleo Accuracy of the problem, fix, and any other stepso Proper spelling and grammar is important as well as others

could read your ticketso As well as tickets in a Helpdesk environment many manuals

are written to share knowledge with each other

Clarity & accuracy, grammar & spellingDocumentation

o To understand how many people read a ticket, below are some of the things that happen with tickets written:

o The ticket will be referenced and read by fellow analysts when the customer calls back

another time

o The ticket will be reviewed for trends by teams such as problem analysts

o The ticket will be read by other support teams whom a special function has been

requested

o In the event of an enterprise wide outage the ticket could also be read by executives and

incident recovery teams

o Manuals, Knowledge Base Documents, etc.o Read by helpdesk supervisors, managers, and fellow analysts for shared knowledge

o Read by other departments in the enterprise

o Referenced in projects that may directly affect the helpdesk

The Lifecycle of DocumentationDocumentation

o High QoS is often confused with a high level of performance or achieved service quality, for example high bit rate, low latency and low bit error probability

o Rather than referring to the ability to reserve resources Quality of service sometimes refers to the level of quality of service, i.e. the guaranteed service quality.

o Delivering food to a table is the service provided by a restaurant. How well the food met customer expectations is the quality of service. Quality of service metrics measure the quality of service provided.

Quality of ServiceQoS

oCustomers are those who receive services.oQuality of service metrics can be based on internal or external

customer needs. o Internal customers are within the organization delivering the service.

Engineers calling their company's help desk are internal customers. o Customers from other companies calling for help with software they

purchased are external customers. o The same quality of service metrics can be used for both types of

customers.

Definition of CustomerQoS

oQuality of service metrics, or QoS metrics, measure how well an organization is meeting quality standards.

o These standards can be customer satisfaction, hospital readmission rates or any other measure of customers who did not receive quality service.

o The quality of service rating at one specific moment is the service level.

Definition of QoS MetricsQoS

o Sales data only measures how many units were sold. oCustomer ratings provided via surveys yield quality of service

metrics. o System up time defines what percentage of time a customer has

access to a server. oUser help desk tickets or problem reports provide quality of

service metrics by providing data on how many users were unhappy.

Customer Volume Versus Quality of Service MetricsQoS

o SLAs have been used since the 1980s by telecom operators as part of contracts with their corporate customers.

o An SLA is a negotiated agreement between two parties, where one is the customer and the other is the service provider.

o This can be a legally binding formal or an informal "contract" (for example, internal department relationships).

o The SLA may specify the levels of availability, serviceability, performance, operation, or other attributes of the service, such as billing.

o In some contracts, penalties may be agreed upon in the case of non-compliance of the SLA

Service Level Agreement OverviewSLA

SLAService level agreements at different levels

• An agreement with an individual customer group, covering all the services they useCustomer-based SLA

• An agreement for all customers using the services being delivered by the service providerService-based SLA

• The SLA is split into the different levels, each addressing different set of customers for the same services, in the same SLA

Multilevel SLA

• Covering all the generic service level management (often abbreviated as SLM) issues appropriate to every customer throughout the organization

Corporate-level SLA

• covering all SLM issues relevant to the particular customer group, regardless of the services being used

Customer-level SLA

• covering all SLM issue relevant to the specific services, in relation to this specific customer groupService-level SLA

o ABA (Abandonment Rate): Percentage of calls abandoned while waiting to be answered.

o ASA (Average Speed to Answer): Average time (usually in seconds) it takes for a call to be answered by the service desk.

o TSF (Time Service Factor): Percentage of calls answered within a definite timeframe, e.g., 80% in 20 seconds.

o FCR (First-Call Resolution): Percentage of incoming calls that can be resolved without the use of a callback or without having the caller call back the helpdesk to finish resolving the case.

o TAT (Turn-Around Time): Time taken to complete a certain task.

Common MetricsSLA

Conclusion

The helpdesk exists and operates with the Customer in mind at all times. The people on a helpdesk are a team that works together towards the final goal and supports each other from a level 1 analyst to a Manager