The Help Desk for your Service Desk

Behind the Scenes of the TOPdesk Help Desk

TOPdesk clients from all over the world can direct their questions, complaints and requests at the help desks in the UK, Germany and the Netherlands. The first line incidents are processed by the local support specialists in London and Kaiserslautern, while second line incidents are resolved by the head office in Delft. Here, 27 people process about 2500 calls per month. To introduce our Dutch help desk, we posed the most frequently asked questions to Jeroen Boks, Manager of the help desk, and Ivette van Putten, Support Specialist.
TEXT: NIEK STEENHUIS

How are calls registered at the help desk?

Jeroen: Almost half of our calls are phoned in. A quarter of them are registered via the Extranet, and the rest are received via email or passed on personally by colleagues. Many clients enjoy having personal contact. Ivette: Thats also nice for us; if we have the client on the line, we can identify precisely what is going on. We want to work together with the client to resolve the problem more as a colleague than as a service provider. We are only satisfied if the client is satisfied.

front office and the next day in the back office. Every support specialist can handle both first line and second line incidents. The most important thing for us is that we remain accessible; the customer should not have to wait. That is why we have set up the process so that there is always someone to pick up the phone. Even if no one is available to answer it in the back office, the call is transferred to the Sales department. They are also quite familiar with TOPdesk. They talk with the client, and if they cannot immediately come up with a solution, they create an incident for the back office.

We do not believe in making false promises as to when an incident will be resolved. Some problems have complex causes, and in that case, the resolution time is difficult to estimate. If you have a strict deadline, then you run the risk of closing an incident for the sake of meeting the deadline, even though the problem has not been completely resolved. Our work is meaningful if we are able to offer the client a solution, instead of just an answer.

Are the incoming calls prioritized?

Jeroen: We make a distinction between multiple sorts of priorities. Disturbances with a high priority are those that cause the client to be unable to continue working. Each day, one support specialist is designated to handle these sorts of problems. If we receive such a call, then this person drops everything to try to resolve the problem as quickly as possible. The less serious

Who do I get on the line when I make a call?

Jeroen: A call is first received by the front office. If they are all on the telephone, then it is picked up by someone in the back office. These two teams are manned by the same people: a support specialist works one day in the

How quickly will my call be processed?

Jeroen: In any case, the call will be examined within a day, so that the client knows what to expect. Almost half of these calls are resolved on that same day, and often within one conversation.

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disruptions, functional questions and change requests are entered into the normal process flow and are addressed according to the order in which they are received.

Communication department know if there is an error in the manual or if something can be improved upon. Ivette: If a call concerns the technical functioning of a module, then we pass on incidents to the project team in the Development department that is responsible for that particular module. Each team has a developer that has been appointed to keep track of and process incidents. If we receive questions about purchasing extra modules, we pass these on to the Sales department. Despite the fact that, internally, many departments work together to process calls, we make sure that the client only needs to have contact with one department, namely, the help desk. It doesnt matter who the client speaks to

Are the help desk employees able to resolve everything themselves?

Jeroen: Actually, we work together with all the departments within TOPdesk. For more complex problems, we ask the Test team to research the disruption. It is possible that an error only occurs if a combination of factors is present: for example, it can be dependant on the version number, the settings, the environment and/ or a certain order of processes. The possibilities are just about endless, so research can be quite time consuming. The Test team has specialists that are able to sort through all the details. We let the

at the help desk. All of us log the details thoroughly so that anyone can handle an incident. New clients often need to get used to this; at the end of the conversation they ask, Could I get your name please? After they have spoken with us a few times, they dont ask that anymore. They have come to know that their calls are always addressed and handled appropriately.

What happens to my suggestions for new functionalities?

Jeroen: If we receive an idea for a new functionality in the software, we first check whether it already exists or has already been submitted as an idea and then later rejected. If neither is the case, then we pass it on to the Development department. They assess the functionality to see if

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The added value of a good help desk

We asked Wolter Smit, Director of TOPdesk, what the important factors are when it comes to a good help desk at TOPdesk: When we began this company in the early nineties, I was the one on the line with clients. We wanted to do whatever it took to help the client as much as possible, regardless of the size of the organization. That is still one of our core values at TOPdesk. Call it a sense of pride. The client must be pleased and we must ensure that theyre pleased. The help desk plays an essential role in this. Moreover, the help desk adds a lot of extra value to the services we provide. The market is being flooded with more and more free and open source software. TOPdesk offers solutions at a price, so we need to distinguish ourselves from the rest. For example, one of the added values of purchased software is that the application is strong and well-integrated you dont need to fuse together a lot of individual applications. But the most important added value is the excellent support. For a large part, a software supplier is justified by a good help desk. And something that shouldnt be forgotten: if you are a supplier of help desk software, then you should of course have a good help desk yourself. We offer excellent support for a fixed annual price. Surveys have indicated that our help desk is always well appreciated. For example, clients are not forced to log incidents by email or on the Extranet. If a client prefers to speak to someone on the telephone, then that is of course possible. We believe in the human factor in doing business, so we have to make that apparent in our help desk. That is something for which we will not cut corners.

it is indeed desirable and whether it is feasible to create. As soon as something is decided, they let the Help desk know and we pass this information on to the client. Ivette: We also pay attention to the kinds of incidents we receive. If we get a lot of calls about a particular functionality, then we discuss it with Development. Perhaps they can do something about the design or the term used to clarify the functionality. Jeroen: Of course, we use TOPdesk to support our own processes. If we come up with ideas for improvement while we are working, we let Development know. We are actually are own beta testers. If we cant work with the software, then we dont let our clients work with it.

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