May 2019

Form 10 Group missed a SLA this month for mailing out a replacement part to a customer.  It was a simple mistake that occurred when a request arrived late on a Friday after the office was closed. There were a series of blunders and the ticket was missed on Monday due to other priorities. In my contract oversight role, it was a minor issue since it was the first missed ticket for that customer this month and the ticket was already resolved.  Additionally, the team was already addressing how to better triage Friday evening tickets.

The story would end there if it was not for the reaction I saw from the service team.  Each member was visibly upset that they let their fellow team members and the customer down.  I had seen this reaction before on other tickets.  However, I never really grasped that each member of the help desk, warehouse, and management team really cared this deeply about their role in supporting the customer.

I started to think about how this culture was created.  I quickly realized that our managers care about the customer, Service Team, and company.  The team members all see the management’s concern about service and they have embraced that.  Caring is contagious.  The team is excited when we have a flawless month with no tickets missing their SLA.  A big joke is that the reward for a perfect service month is a Blizzard from Dairy Queen.  The customer has even gotten in on the reward and wanting the team to get their Blizzard.  Yes, there are financial bonuses attached to goals for each team member, but that Blizzard is the visible reward they all share as team.  I am very proud of our Service Team and how much they care!

Managed Help Desk services have been around for a long time to help companies large and small with some of the simplest tasks to the most technical. But over the years many have chosen to outsource this service overseas. This has led to lengthy calls with sometime spotty connections and disruptions. You may even be transferred a half dozen times before you speak to someone that can actually help you. This is often frustrating and time consuming and customers take this into consideration when buying the supported product or service in the future.

So, in 2016 we had the “chatbot” phenomenon and it was a way for the industry to counter act the lengthy calls and spotty connections. This was truly the introduction of AI to help desk and we are not sure that it went well. Yes, many questions can be answered but does the customer truly feel supported by an automated system? Recent studies have shown that if customers reach someone on their first call and the issue is resolved they will be a repeat customer.

Form 10 Group has a team of driving customer service agents that can support your program. Many companies have their own internal IT staff that can use outsourced help desk services to support end user issues, these are typically repetitive with a limited need for advanced support. With the strategic advantage of operations on the east and west coasts of the United States we can support programs almost anywhere. We use ticket tracking software to make sure we are resolving the issues in the required SLA’s of your contract to ensure that both your company and the customer is receiving an excellent level of support.