Creating A Customer-Focused Help Desk

Book excerpt: This volume came about as a result of the authors’ own practical experience in Help Desk operation and management and of hundreds of workshops the authors have conducted world-wide over the last fifteen years. It is intended to be a practical reference guide, but the suggestions, checklists and templates all need to be interpreted and amended in the light of the culture, technology, service maturity and constraints of each individual organization. Delegates frequently ask us: “What is the best Help Desk software package?” or “What is the best way to set up a Help Desk?” Our only response has to be “Best for whom? It all depends.” A key objective of this book is to show how and why “It all depends” and to provide readers with the best possible information on which to understand and evaluate options and to select the best - for them. If there is one thing we have learned over the last years, it is this: Good service has no history. Bad service has infinite history. Based on extensive feedback from delegates from most of the Fortune 1,000 companies who have attended courses presented through Frost & Sullivan (Europe), AIC (South Africa), Monadnock (UK), The Infomatics Resource Centre (UK), IIR (UK), Digital Equipment (UK), Logtel (South America), CEL (Asia Pacific), UPMOCL (Middle East), Finborough Seminars, as well as delegates of in-company training for organizations like Dow Europe (Switzerland), The Intervention Board, BP, Shell International Petroleum, Logica (UK), Arthur Andersen (UK), Rolls Royce (UK), Global One (Germany and USA), Caterpillar (Switzerland), GAK (Netherlands), European Commission (Belgium), Transnet (South Africa), Sun Valley (UK), Nikon Precision (UK).