Habits of Highly Effective Service Desk Managers 5By Phil Gerbyshak

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1 1 Habits of Highly Effective Service Desk Managers By Phil Gerbyshak

2 1 Habits of Highly Effective Service Desk Managers For new service desk managers, use this book to quickly get yourself and your service desk up to speed. I don t want to overwhelm you, but you ll be able to put into action the following thoughts for years to come. For the experienced manager, you ll find years of practice and up-to-the-moment trends in a nice, neat package, offering a practical take on what s received, during the years, the best results. I hope you, whether you re a new or experienced manager, learn something from your investment (in reading this ebook) that pays big dividends professionally. Here are the five habits of highly effective service desk managers.

3 Hire the Right People The best advice ever: hire people smarter than you. 1. Know what you are looking for to round out your team. Understand the hole(s) you need to fill. Is it a technical leader, a report writer, someone ITIL certified? Understand exactly what you need, or you ll never find it.. Understand your company s, department s and team s culture and the support culture you project to your clients. Attitude is non-negotiable. Candidates don t have to be an exact match, but their attitudes need to synergise with the team and the support culture. Communication skills are non-negotiable. Support team professionals must be great communicators with especially strong inter-personal communication skills. 1

4 Why Share does expectations customer experience with your staff matter? Customers Everyone needs who have a little a direction. bad experience will quickly take their business elsewhere. People According dread to the the appraisal 011 RightNow process. Customer Managers Experience don t like to Impact give appraisals, Report, and workers don t enjoy receiving 89% of them. consumers But, it began doesn t doing have to business be that way. with a competitor following a Appraisals poor customer are geared experience. to help people improve. They are not a witch-hunt or a means to get rid of someone. 8% of They consumers are about say the number individual, one how factor he or that she leads can to improve a great and customer add more value to himself/ herself, service the experience team and is the having company. their issues resolved quickly, according to research For done each by team LivePerson.com. member, you need to score, set objectives, review skills and put an action plan into place. Only Step 6% 1: Plan of companies have a well-developed strategy in place for improving the Simple customer enough. experience, Let everyone according know to when the Econsultancy you are planning MultiChannel to conduct Customer appraisals. Experience Report. In addition, research conducted by Cherwell Software reveals that Step : Do the Appraisal % of the IT sector is unsure of the benefits improved customer experience brings. It is frustrating to be in a job for several years and not be reviewed by your manager no objectives, no direction, no knowledge of how well you are doing. Or the opposite, where your yearly review was completed on time, signed off and filed away in your permanent record with no objectives, direction or knowledge of how well you were doing. You have a choice. You can utilise the appraisal process to truly build competent team members. Step : DO THE APPRAISAL If for no other reason, you may have a stake in the results and the outcome of the process (keep in mind that your own review and compensation may depend on your team s performance).

5 Always be communicating One of the best ways to communicate with your team is through recognition and rewards. But, this must be done correctly or there s no point in doing it at all. If you remember only one thing from reading this ebook, remember the word must. Meaningful (and full of meaning) Unique (to the individual) Specific Reason (random high fives don t work) Timely (Don t wait until the end of the year or the person s appraisal) A big failure I had as a service desk manager, was deciding to recognize and reward my team by giving out coupons to a local coffee shop. I thought, I love coffee! so, I gave everyone coffee. But, I soon came to find out that no-one on my team liked coffee. This was a harsh reality for me. I didn t ask. I didn t find out. I soon rectified this by asking each member for their top three coupon choices. I now had the information I needed to recognise and reward each person in a unique way to them.

6 Market your team Marketing your team is serious business. You should do it at every opportunity. Market your team as a group of professionals who excel at what they do and want to help. 1. Get out from behind your desk. Make time every week to spend with managers in other areas. Ask questions, take notes, and learn.. Invite managers from other areas to visit and observe what your team does day-to-day. Doing this has two benefits: It gives them a greater appreciation for what your team does; and It gives your team a better appreciation for the person on the other end of the phone/ .. Get involved outside of your department and find ways to relate it back to your team. Serve on committees, speak at events, write articles for other departments, help set-up and use various Web.0 efforts (such as wikis, blogs, etc.). This kind of interaction, gives you a better understanding of your company s business and that, in turn, gives you more ammunition to show how your team can contribute to the bottom line.

7 Focus on metrics that matter Metrics are one of the rare items we deal with that are absolute and incurable. Statistics don t lie, but how one interprets the data is another story altogether. The most important metric isn t a metric, it s a shape. I proudly present the one and only thing you ll ever need to know when it comes to metrics a metrics triangle. A metrics triangle forces you to take a balanced approach and to not focus on one area to the detriment of others. Productivity Ultimately, metrics are just numbers. 10 pages of daily metrics do not add value just because you have them. Part of your job, and your value, is identifying which metrics work, which to dump and how to use them to build a stronger team and achieve happier customers. Often a simple one-page report consisting of four or five charts and some explanations is your most powerful tool when explaining to management or your team what/how you are doing. Customer Satisfaction Employee Satisfaction Effectiveness

8 A few words from Marc Alexander, Cherwell Software EMEA Service Desk Manager: What makes an effective service desk manager? For me, a solid focus on developing your employees will separate you from the rest. It s more than just developing an IT skill set; it s about developing strengths and matching those strengths to boost the output of a particular project or task. All too often, service desk managers focus on weakness or the what can t we do rather than nurturing the awesome. Recognise what your team members are fantastic at, and you ll see the rewards immediately! To stand out as an effective manager, you must be able to communicate effectively and provide meaningful feedback (both positive and negative) when required. Be there for your team and the individuals that make that team. This will help you to develop strong relationships with your team and will empower the team to reach its goals, which will lead to increased employee engagement, which will benefit the organisation as a whole. 1

9 About Phil Gerbyshak While in corporate America, Phil Gerbyshak worked as a vice president of information technology at a regional financial services company, as well as on the national member advisory board for four years. He stays connected to the IT service management industry as a board member of Brew City HDI, where he previously served as president, vice president of finance, and vice president of marketing. Phil Gerbyshak works with organisations to increase engagement by leveraging social media to create and deepen relationships. It s not about the tools; it s about the conversations. Phil has been featured multiple times on WTMJ TV in Milwaukee and profiled in USA Today, the Financial Times, and The Wall Street Journal. Visit to sign up for Phil s newsletter and to get his free ebook, 10 Secrets of Leveraging LinkedIn. 1

10 About Cherwell SoftwareTM Cherwell Software is the developer of Cherwell Service Management (CSM), an award-winning business technology and IT service management (ITSM) platform recognized by leading industry analysts worldwide. Cherwell customers are part of a fast-growing, caring community using Cherwell Service Management to implement both ITSM solutions and business technology that goes beyond ITSM. Cherwell Software has the deepest expertise in the service management industry, including a global network of expert partners currently serving customers in more than 0 countries. Corporate headquarters are in Colorado, U.S.A., with EMEA headquarters in the U.K. Learn More 1 Copyright 01 Cherwell Software Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Cherwell Service Management and the Cherwell logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Cherwell Software, LLC., in the U.S. and may be registered or pending registration in other countries. All other marks are the property of their respective owners.