Determine the Helpdesk staffing model & call flow designs - Make an Impact

Guess what, We've all been there !! Especially with the expectations and uncertainty built out during/post-Covid-19 era that made us even more worried about the staffing levels. There is a constant change in scope and direction, and the Helpdesk call volume keeps Increasing as well as more responsibilities are being added. We never feel that there are enough people to do the job that is asked. There are often scenarios where 2nd and 3rd level tasks are being pushed to the first level as the focus is to support the customer as much as possible at a faster rate.

As part of IT Support/Helpdesk Management/Leadership, there is a need for a methodology to determine staffing levels. ?It's important to know how to best take the Helpdesk from being a traditional reactionary role to the strategic role necessary to provide the appropriate support to be more competitive, and efficient in the most economical way.

Based on our experience, it is apparent that the majority of the employee budget within the Support area is allocated to the Helpdesk headcount. Hence, it's good for the Helpdesk Leaders to start their homework by optimizing the call flow. There are greater savings when the org structure is aligned and reduces the cost per call/contact. Multi-tiered support org where all the calls go through Helpdesk and are properly escalated within the tiers.

When the Level 1 staff is experienced and trained well, many calls will be resolved and hence avoiding expensive escalations to Level 2, 3. Upon optimizing the call flow, it's time to optimize the staff to handle the volume to avoid the Helpdesk being a bottleneck. There are mathematical formulas that come in handy to quantify the staffing you need and help your Leadership to focus on budget allocations.

Larger call centers/helpdesks can use formulas developed by A.K . Erlang, a danish mathematician. In general, Queuing theories can be used to determine the probability of delay in service and predict the length of delay based on the level of staffing. It is super valuable and may not go far enough for the complex helpdesk environment. Here are guidelines that can be followed to determine the optimal staffing levels, Of course, there will be a time when it is necessary to fit/adjust based on the situation.

Call flow designs,

Gatekeeper Model: This refers to the call routing through the central call group. The advantage is that the Internal customer does not need to remember multiple phone numbers based on the problem they are facing. There is only one phone number. The common theme is that the helpdesk group is not supposed to solve the customers' problems and serves only to link or direct the customer to the proper teams/groups.

This model has more problems than sometimes it solves. More importantly, it becomes a barrier between the customer and the team/group resolving the problem. It causes minor delays and may result in translation bottlenecks.

Call Sorting Model: Tts a second basic model to sort calls into special groups using technology rather than people. The sort can be based on the product, platform, and problem or can be combined with the dispatch strategy. You'll know how the drill works here " IF you are calling about an urgent issue, press one... ". This model is more likely used as a replacement for Gatekeeper and may not solve any first-call resolution.

There are pros and cons, Internal customers can now be very likely to reach someone that can solve the problem however it takes significant staff to provide the same service levels as each group must have staffing and be ready for a call to come in. There are often times when the customer is in a limbo state hopping between one group to another group.

Tiered Structure - Specialist Model: It is a strategy to filter calls based on the "Specialist" group. The job is to answer the phone when they ring, log the call and try to help the customer while on the phone. If the problem goes beyond the ability/responsibility, they dispatch the call to another second-level group.

The reason for this strategy is to solve more customer problems on the first call, it often caused reduced service levels and scheduling difficulties. This gives the Internal customer a "Live" helpdesk person to talk with, however not being manned 100% of the time defeats the purpose and may decrease the satisfaction level as the customer has to leave a message. Any outbound calls will Increase the cost per call/contact as the Helpdesk staff may not get hold of the Internal customer and/or the right person to explain the problem that they are facing.

Tiered Structure - Generalist Model: It is a variation of the tiered structure. Instead of a trained specialist answering the phone, there is a "Generalist" group that answers all call types [ Phone, Web, Email ], logs the call, resolves what they can, and transfer the balance to the second level. There can be several first-level tiers in this model. The routing and resolution priority is often set by a predefined Sev 8 escalation procedure. This is intended to ensure that the most important customers or serious Issues are processed first.

You can compare this model to be similar to the Hospital ER triage process, In fact, it's no different for people in an enterprise when you consider the financial impact that their problem has on the overall organization

I am pretty sure everyone will consider this triage call handling process the most effective for Helpdesk operations. It not only ensures that the customer receives service appropriately as well as it allows the helpdesk to utilize the resources in the best manner. Ideally, helpdesk analysts should be able to resolve 45-65% of call calls depending on the complexity, environment, and standards.

Customer Satisfaction in this model is often high when the agents own the problem even though they may not be the ones resolving it. A customer can talk to a real person with a degree of soft skills whenever they call.

We'll look into the financial Impact of the various models in my next article !! We'll also go through how many helpdesk staff is required for the call volume.