Attn all IT Helpdesk workers

Shikkaka

Shikkaka

Shikkaka

Soldato
Joined
10 Jun 2003
Posts
2,916
Location
Nottingham
Morning all,

I work on a helpdesk that takes calls via phone and email. I've been tasked with finding a better way of dealing with the ridiculous amount of emails we receive.

Currently we assign a couple of people to emails whilst being on the phone as well. This isn't working at all.

I've suggested having one dedicated person to take over on emails but come off the phones completely but my team leader disagreed.

I'm gonna have another think over the weekend but would like OcUKs suggestions or methods of dealing with incoming calls and emails.

Thanks
 
Last edited:
Steameh said:
I work on a helpdesk that takes calls via phone and email. I've been tasked with finding a better way of dealing with the ridiculous amount of emails we receive.
Click to expand...

How many emails do you receive each day?
How many IT people on the team?
How many users emailing/phoning?
Do you already use call logging software for emails or is it done purely through email client?
 
molinari said:
How many emails do you receive each day?
How many IT people on the team?
How many users emailing/phoning?
Do you already use call logging software for emails or is it done purely through email client?
Click to expand...

Between 150-180.

5 people plus team leader but staggered shifts so some days only 2 people in at 8am next person in at 12.

Difficult to tell that one. We probably receive 100+ calls a day.

We log the emails and calls on the same crappy system.
 
Get yourself a copy of OTRS and configure that to queery the mailbox that the emails come in on.
It will auto create the helpdesk ticket based on the call and email the user back with a call reference, this will enable you to prioritise calls correctly and remove the need for someone to be sat on emails all day.
Worked a treat at my last place and its free. Give me a shout if you want any more info.
 
Rangler said:
Get yourself a copy of OTRS and configure that to queery the mailbox that the emails come in on.
It will auto create the helpdesk ticket based on the call and email the user back with a call reference, this will enable you to prioritise calls correctly and remove the need for someone to be sat on emails all day.
Worked a treat at my last place and its free. Give me a shout if you want any more info.
Click to expand...

That software is very interesting, I'd point it out to my managers but we are in the middle of changing our call logging system anyway, not sure what to but we have been using ServiceCentre for the last 6 years and it's gash !!

Our email system is pretty much the same. 6 analysts taking 100 - 150 emails a day + average 200 phonecalls a day. At least 3 of the 6 analysts log about 5 - 10 emails a day, sometimes not doing any, leaving some of us like me to pretty much do them all. Very frustrating when we're supposed to be a 'team'
 
We've got a rotation at work which decides which of us on the helpdesk are "admin" for the day, job being to avoid doing actual troubleshooting and just handle ticket creation, chasing customers, handling on hold tickets and triage.
 
Rangler said:
Get yourself a copy of OTRS and configure that to queery the mailbox that the emails come in on.
It will auto create the helpdesk ticket based on the call and email the user back with a call reference, this will enable you to prioritise calls correctly and remove the need for someone to be sat on emails all day.
Worked a treat at my last place and its free. Give me a shout if you want any more info.
Click to expand...

Thanks, I'll look into that.
 
Doesn't your current system allow you to run reports off so you can see who logs the most calls, who closes the most, average time to fix, SLA missed etc etc.

Most basic and even free ticketing systems will do this.
As a service provider its in your companies nest interest to do these kind of reports not just for internal use but also for account management reports for your clients so they can see the level of service theyre paying for.
 
Yes of course it does but isn't that wandering off topic? Its not a case of people slacking, we just have too much going on.
 
We all monitor help desk inbox/phones, currently use an outlook inbox and each of us has a colour flag they use to assign a job to them, this might not be viable in your situation though I suppose. Problem is people start to think a certain type of job isn't for them and begin ignoring them even if the person who usually does them isn't around.
 
We had it say on a small Centos vm with about 256MB ram and it flew along.
Theres nothing worse when logging updating calls than a dog slow helpdesk system, only adds to the stress.

OTRS has a customer accessible web as well so they can see the progress of the ticket, update etc etc.

If you point critical service emails to the same mailbox (E.g. backup reports, UPS power notifications) OTRS will log the call for these as well and you can define priority levels for the services. Say for example backup failure should be logged as a P2 allowing you to prioritise easier.
 
Steameh said:
Yes of course it does but isn't that wandering off topic? Its not a case of people slacking, we just have too much going on.
Click to expand...

In that case then it give you ammunition to go to management and ask for more resources (staff).

Your in the job of providing a good level of service, if your clients aren't getting that service then they're going to walk, in which case inevitably people will start loosing jobs.

A good helpdesk system is paramount and can make your job soo much easier, trust me i went from a crappy in house developed system that was supposedly tailored to the company needs which constantly crashed, was slow and dificult to navigate. On to OTRS which looked after around 3500 users on one client, and the weight it lifted of our shoulders was immense.
 
Rangler said:
Doesn't your current system allow you to run reports off so you can see who logs the most calls, who closes the most, average time to fix, SLA missed etc etc.

Most basic and even free ticketing systems will do this.
As a service provider its in your companies nest interest to do these kind of reports not just for internal use but also for account management reports for your clients so they can see the level of service theyre paying for.
Click to expand...

Reports are generated in ServiceCentre to see how calls are logged: email/phone/desk visit but that won't count how many emails I deal with in Outlook.

Outlook mail coming in to a central inbox. Our initials are all that get put on the call, the boss would have to sit and count every one as you can't total them up in Outlook. Nobody would want to do that.

Other problem is, 2 of us run Outlook 2010 and the others run Outlook 2003 so the whole flag thing messes up too.

At the end of the day, it's just people slacking on the team, rather than too much work for us.

I logged over 7000 calls last year but took 11000 calls about 2000 more than any other on the team and I always do the most emails. Usually because I can log an email call while doing first time fixes on the phone to another customer.

Members of my team are just slackers
 
So your fixing problems without logging them on the HD.?

Your making a rod for your own back doing this as you have no way of proving that you've done the work you've done.
When it comes to your PDR and you want a pay rise how are you going to prove to them that your one of the top call closers.?
 
Rangler said:
So your fixing problems without logging them on the HD.?

Your making a rod for your own back doing this as you have no way of proving that you've done the work you've done.
When it comes to your PDR and you want a pay rise how are you going to prove to them that your one of the top call closers.?
Click to expand...

No, I'm just taking a lot more calls on the phone that don't require a call log. If I logged every single one of them too I'd never get to answer the genuine callers with proper issues.

Email is logged under email category in ServiceCenter so stats are generated. Like phone calls though, some emails don't warrant a call log, but I still have to answer them.
 
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