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How are calls registered atthe 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 satised if

the client is satised.

Who do I get on the linewhen I make a call?Jeroen: A call is rst received by

the front ofce. If they are all on

the telephone, then it is picked

up by someone in the back ofce.

These two teams are manned

by the same people: a support

specialist works one day in the

front ofce and the next day in

the back ofce. Every support

specialist can handle both rst 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 setup 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 ofce,

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 ofce.

How quickly will my call beprocessed?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.

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

difcult 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 callsprioritized?Jeroen: We make a distinction

between multiple sorts of

priorities. Disturbances with

a high priority are those thatcause 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

The Help Desk for your Service 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 rst line

incidents are processed by the local support specialists in London and Kaiserslautern,

while second line incidents are resolved by the head ofce 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

Behind the Scenes of the TOPdesk Help Desk

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disruptions, functional questions

and change requests are entered

into the normal process ow and

are addressed according to the

order in which they are received.

Are the help desk employeesable to resolve everythingthemselves?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 bedependant 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

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

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 conversationthey 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 mysuggestions for newfunctionalities?

Jeroen: If we receive an ideafor a new functionality in the

software, we rst 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 ofa 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 ooded

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

justied 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 xed 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 forwhich 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 ownprocesses. 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.