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FAQs

1. Is help desk outsourcing a smart business decision during these unsure economic times?
2. How do I know that outsourcing will provide quality service to my environment?
3. How can I gain an understanding of the help desk industry and the terms used in the industry?
4. What is the average number of calls made by a user to the help desk each month?
5. Can you please describe "per incident" pricing vs. "per-call" pricing and any other pricing used?
6. What makes GHDSi different from its competitors?
7. Does GHDSi support hospitals?
8. Where or who do I call when there is an issue or change with the daily working relationship?
9. How do I contact Global Help Desk Services?
10. Where is Global Help Desk Services located?
11. What are some of the hurdles internal help desks face?

Is help desk outsourcing a smart business decision during these unsure economic times? back

    There a number of factors you should look at when considering outsourcing your help desk. Obviously, cost is the primary one everyone focuses on. But there are other questions you should consider such as:

    • Do you have enough staffing today or the expertise?

    • Can you keep them busy or interested?

    • Do you have Service Levels (i.e. ASA or ABR) today or would it be easier to hold an outside vendor to those?

    • What Quality Assurance measurements are in place today to improve agent performance?
    • What is the cost of downtime to your company's bottom line?

    • Is support focused on core competencies to improve this bottom line?

    • Are you getting accurate reporting and a clear picture of service from the help desk?

    • Do you have industry standard best practices and processes in place or could you benefit from that outside expertise?

    • Do you conduct customer satisfaction surveys to see how your service is doing?

    • Do you have the latest technology to improve the caller experience at the help desk?
    These are just some of the questions you should consider when looking at outsourcing your help desk.

How do I know that outsourcing will provide quality service to my environment? back

    There are a couple of key areas that are designed to guarantee quality:

      1.) Quality Assurance Reviews
      2.) Service Levels

    Quality Assurance Reviews - the job of our quality assurance team is to monitor calls and review tickets. They have rate cards to rank various aspects of the agent’s handling of the call as well as the agent’s documentation in the ticket and follow-through on documented processes; especially on those tickets escalated to another group. The QA specialist works with the Team Lead and agent to provide side-by-side coaching on calls and identify areas in which they believe the agent requires additional training.

    Service Levels - Service Levels are designed to hold the outsourcer, such as us, accountable for the services we provide. We have service levels such as average speed of answer, abandon rate, email response time, and customer satisfaction, to name a few, that hold us accountable to achieve service level thresholds. Our Team Lead manages service levels daily including adjusting staffing, staff schedules, and reaching out to dissatisfied users responding to surveys.

How can I gain an understanding of the help desk industry and the terms used in the industry? back

    We recommend the Help Desk Institute's course on Help Desk Management in order to gain a better understanding. For more information, please go to HDI's website.  www.thinkhdi.com

What is the average number of calls made by a user to the help desk each month? back

    An average user calls the help desk 1.25 times per month. Given this statistic, a population of 1,000 users would generate an average of 1,250 calls per month.

Can you please describe "per incident" pricing vs. "per-call" pricing? back

    Per-incident pricing typically allows you to contact the help desk multiple times until the issue is resolved.

    Per-call pricing is typically associated with non-technical customer service (only) centers that charge for every contact made in-bound and outbound.

    Sometimes in the help desk industry these two terms, "per-incident" and "per-call", are intermixed, so be sure to ask how you will be charged.

    Here are a couple of other pricing options used in the industry:

    Per-minute pricing is typically used by non-technical customer service (only) call centers that charge for every contact made in-bound and outbound.

    Fixed pricing is usually associated with government-type help desk contracts or some large, fixed scoped, corporate help desk contracts.

What makes GHDSi different from its competitors? back

    Relationship. That is the key to our success at GHDSi. We work with you and your teams to develop daily working relationships in order to better understand and service your callers. Every environment has special needs - from special handling of executives to accommodating surgical teams and complete sales forces. By performing effective due diligence we can tailor service levels to maintain high productivity.

Does GHDSi support hospitals? back

    Yes, we support hospitals as well as companies from many other industries. Specific to hospitals, we understand:

    • Urgency - the urgency associated with certain types of calls coming to the help desk and the need for critical communication between the help desk and other support groups.

    • Proprietary Hardware - We know that many departments have their own proprietary hardware and software.

    • Clinical Hardware - We know that clinical hardware used for patient care is different than general hardware supported by IT.

    • Medical Terms - There are a variety of medical terms in the industry.

    • Electronic Medical Records (EMR) - We understand that EMR is a critical component within a hospital. In fact, we have built a bridge between our call ticketing system and the support ticketing system used by Cerner, in order to provide a seamless way to manage real-time support and updates to tickets submitted to Cerner.

    • HIPAA Compliance - We understand the lastest restrictions associated with providing service in a HIPAA compliant environment and have safeguards in place to make sure our agents follow strict guidelines to protect patient information.

Where or who do I call when there is an issue or change with the daily working relationship? back

    We will provide you with an assigned Relationship Advocate who will be your "Single Point of Contact" for any changes, additions or deletions of the agreed upon Scope of Work. This individual is your single point of contact (SPOC) on a daily, weekly or monthly basis.

    Any issues, or concerns regarding our service can be addressed immediately with this individual. The Relationship Advocate sets the operational meeting frequency with your team and reviews reports generated for the service provided. The relationship advocate engages in a proactive effort to improve your customer service environment

How do I contact Global Help Desk Services? back

    Please contact us at 1.800.770.1075 and one of our associates will be glad to assist you.

Where is Global Help Desk Services located? back

    We are headquartered in Rocky Hill, Connecticut. We service customers throughout the world. Geography is not a deterrent for us to provide quality, efficient technical support to your office, mobile or manufacturing environments.

Common Hurdles of Internal Help Desks

Lack of buy-in or commitment to an internal Help Desk from upper management

    Many companies do not make a serious commitment to the help desk. Due to a lack of understanding and communication, the help desk is the one entity that is lost in the shuffle. A typical response may be:

      “How much is needed for a group that answers questions about Microsoft Office and basic PC questions. Just give them 5 cubicles on the 4th floor and let them exist…”

    These are the attitudes that exist in most companies until a real crisis arises. Oftentimes the need for the help desk rears its ugly head when a VIP is down, or some business-critical function is lost. Then managers begin to write repeatable processes designed to fix issues and serve the enterprise instead of being reactive in a crisis.

Help Desk is not aligned with the mission of the company as a whole

    In most of the current service industry models, the help desk should be the core of the business function, not only performing problem management, but also handling the flow of information to all entities of IT.

    If the purpose and mission of the help desk has not been communicated to upper management, then the help desk will never fully serve the corporate environment. The help desk must be aligned with the mission of the company as a whole.

    One question most help desk consultants and sales personnel ask during due diligence is, “Does the Help Desk meet the need of the business requirement?”

Help desk becomes a priority and the help desk staff doesn’t have the expertise or training

    Many times, personnel are placed at the help desk because it sounded like an interesting job, or the company ran out of other departmental opportunities due to layoffs, restructuring etc. Because these personnel had served in other areas of the company, management believed these people could handle a help desk position - until the phones started ringing and the quality fell. It then becomes a chore for the IT group to ask for funding for training, skilled personnel and trained customer service managers.

The cost of support is too high to have an internal help desk

    The costs of telephony, PCs and staffing is more than most companies are willing to spend each year and as a result will sometimes streamline their IT operations, focusing on their core competencies. Staffing is typically the largest percentage of an IT manager’s budget.

The internal help desks cannot handle high call volumes and provide 80% same call/day resolutions

    The help desk function has not been taken seriously and the internal Service Level Agreements (SLAs) for resolution are non-existent. Staffing ratios vs. call volume, training and hiring the proper skill sets contribute to this issue