For 12 years, the Service Desk Institute (SDI) has certified numerous organisations across the globe using their industry best practice standard – Service Desk Institute Certification (SDC), writes Daniel Wood, SDI’s head of research, for www.governmenttechnology.co.uk
SDC offers a comprehensive assessment of an organisation’s current service desk operations and covers nine key concept areas, based on the EFQM® (European Foundation for Quality Management) model. The nine concept areas (listed here) cover the diverse aspects of a service desk’s operation. In addition to these nine concepts, the auditors also conduct observations of the service desk and its personnel, and interview key stakeholders and customers. This structure allows a full picture of the service desk operation to be created.
Driving Improvements
So just how has SDC helped to improve service desk standards in the public sector? Progress in the public sector has been achieved through SDI’s inherent understanding that the public sector faces massive and unprecedented pressure to change and adapt, all at a time of widespread austerity. Working with the public sector using SDC has enabled local councils, authorities and public services to fully understand and appreciate the whole picture of their service delivery – this ranges from aspects of the cost of running the service desk to the quality of customer service that service desks provide to their customers.
SDC looks at both the quantifiable and qualitative aspects of a service desk operation to truly understand and deliver a crystal clear picture of the current state of the service desk. Our involvement in the process does not end there. Indeed one of the most fundamental aspects of SDC is the report that is produced at the end of an audit. This report clearly identifies the current state of the service desk and offers clear guidance and instruction on the steps needed to improve the service desk, and by extension, its maturity rating. We advocate an approach to service improvement that is intelligent and pragmatic. We understand that Rome was not built in a day, and guide service desks away from implementing mass change in a small space of time. Our approach is to advocate gradual improvements to allow the steps of success to be built methodically, ensuring that each new improvement has time to bed in. Embedding improvement and change is, ultimately, how you change culture and perspective. Too much too soon creates a wave of change that can quickly engulf your service desk and may lead to loss of focus and appetite.
Our Experiences
Audits are confidential, and thus I cannot share specific examples of what participation in the SDC programme has accomplished. However, in general service desks have realised benefits in three key areas:
Customer satisfaction: The customer satisfaction concept of SDC has the highest weighting (20 per cent) of all of the criteria; and with good reason. Customer satisfaction is one of the key areas for service desks because they are so passionate about delivering the very best service that they can for their customers. Service desks that deliver excellent customer service are fulfilling the criteria of what a service desk should do: if customers are happy then we know that the service desk is delivering a great service. Typically, SDC customers make great strides in this concept because SDC requires both event (ongoing) and periodic (annual) surveys; asks for these surveys to be trended for at least twelve months; and show that customer satisfaction is trending towards the goal. We also examine the feedback mechanism (complaints and compliments) and ensure that there is a correct process that follows up on unsatisfied responses. By delving in to this level of detail, SDC exposes and highlights areas for improvement in this critical concept.
Efficiency savings: By going through the SDC process, service desks can recognise areas for improvement. In addition, the report produced at the end of the audit and the ongoing advice and assistance provided by SDI show how these areas can be improved through practical advice based on international best practice standards. Areas where improvements are quickly realised include: processes, metrics and reporting, policy and strategy (particularly mission and vision statements), and employee and customer satisfaction. Improvements in these areas not only improve service delivery, but also help the service desk to realise efficiency savings by streamlining their processes and ensuring that resources are used effectively and rationally.
Resources: Resources encompasses everything that the service desk requires in order for it to deliver an exceptional service to its customers. The SDC programme devotes a whole concept to this critical area to make sure that the service desk is properly resourced and has identified areas for improvement and efficiency savings. We also devote attention to human resources and test whether the service desk has appropriate and comprehensive staffing models in place. In this area in particular, SDC really drives home the importance of a staffing model that can be flexed to meet peaks and troughs in the workload, and also plans for a forward schedule of work. Ensuring that the service desk is adequately resourced is absolutely critical if you want to create consistency for your customers.
Challenging Times
These are challenging times in the public sector, where everyone is asked to do more with less and less resource. At some point something has to give. I meet so many great service desk people who are passionate about what they do and wake up every day with a burning desire to improve.
Daniel Wood, Head of Research, SDI
Download the free SDC Pocket Guide here>>
