A Case Study on a Successful ITSM Intervention

Challenges Faced:

The client claimed that despite all their efforts, an average of 46% of the total internal customer calls in a month was getting dropped or unattended to. Before consultation with Senthil, the procedure for Service Desk enquiry was such that when an internal customer called the front line helpdesk, the front line employees would take the call and try to resolve the query and close the case, provided the query was within their scope. On the other hand, for complicated queries, front line employees from the Service Desk would note customer details and then log the call to the concerned technician who was in-charge of that particular IT platform. This takes considerable amount of time and slows down the front line employees' ability to handle the call volume.

Due to this procedure, all internal customers calling at a time when a technician was handling a complicated query would be made to wait in queue. This led to a lot of disgruntlement and dissatisfaction amongst customers. Hence call quality and service delivery levels were well below optimal levels.

They had also outlined that the employees needed to have a professional approach to customer service, problem solving and call handling as part of the IT Helpdesk operations. This included a change in the mindset toward a ‘culture of customer service', and also taking ownership.

Solution:

After consultation with the various managers and employees, Senthil and his team of consultants suggested that the client should perform a procedural change with respect to call handling in order to reduce waiting time.

It was suggested that when the internal customers get on line with IT Service Desk for sorting out a query, they would have to choose from a range of options that cater to their IT platform. When this number is pressed on their handset that corresponds to a particular IT platform, the call would directly get routed to the technician in-charge of the same. In this way, the waiting time was reduced. If more than one customer calls at the same time requiring support for a particular IT platform resulting in the technician being busy, the call would get routed to the front line Service Desk employees. They would then try to solve the customer's query. If the query was beyond their scope of work, they would log the call to the concerned technician.

Results:

In this way, calls were being effectively routed; this resulted in increasing the response rate of customer calls by over 90%. This, in turn, increased the call quality and effectiveness of IT support rendered. It also reduced the burden of call logging.

Senthil's consultation with this organization also helped to enhance the customer service mindsets in the employees bring about a change in employee mindsets towards developing a sense of teamwork and a ‘Culture of Customer Service'. They also understood the need to take ownership for all queries that came their way.

Conclusion:

The client organization was delighted with the results.

Senthil has handled many more cases from diverse organizations during his 9 year spell with leading Multi National Companies. Through his experience, he has the knowledge and competency that is aiding him to successfully spearhead training of IT Service Management at MMM Training Solutions.