Shared Service Desk Agent Assignment & Training

Team of Shared Service Desk Agents

A shared staffing model combines primary agents and pooled resources to achieve consistency, increase the number of agents with in-depth knowledge of the account, and leverage these shared resources for handling call spikes and peak periods.

This service desk model offers flexibility and scalability yet still engages agents who know the client’s culture and environment. In addition, a pool of secondary agents is trained to handle the client contacts for 24x7x365 support, absences, and/or unexpected peaks in volume due to outages or rollouts.

For long-term or permanent call volume increases brought on by mergers, acquisitions, or service expansion to separate business units, additional agents are prepped for assignment to the new account.

Shared Model vs Dedicated

There are clients, however, who prefer the dedicated model which assigns agents solely to one account and no others. This option is selected for various reasons and the understanding that there is less flexibility when monthly call volumes fluctuate significantly during unanticipated peak periods.

Clients electing the per-incident/shared agent model occasionally make the false assumption that, by contrast, shared agents support every client outside of the dedicated model. This is not the case. In fact, agent assignments are typically segmented based on relevant technical expertise, peak coverage hours, and process versus resolution-driven support models.

Although each client is unique, aligning the proper agents with like disciplines both procedurally and technically shortens the learning curve when transitioning assignments.

Agent Assignments & Training

That being said, assigning additional agents to a shared model client is not as simple as flipping a switch. Even assuming they are familiar with the client’s ITSM platform, supported O/S and applications, and are proficient in resolving their most common issues experienced at Level 1, additional training is a must.

Although the tools and technology could conceivably be identical from client to client, processes, workflows, and tool customizations are unique to each IT environment. So before agents are transitioned into a new account they undergo several training sessions conducted alongside the Team Lead or Subject Matter Expert.

Agents practice with hypothetical incident walkthroughs, participate in self-study, and review captured video sessions as well as a plethora of procedural documents. For the healthcare and financial industries, clients’ secure data (PHI and PII) awareness training adds another aspect to the technical training.

Part of the client-specific training process involves getting to know their end-user demographic or profession as that often indicates the equipment, applications, and systems accessed. The needs of medical insurance and hospital personnel can vary greatly from those in the manufacturing, financial, and education industries.

For example, nurses or other perpetually mobile healthcare professionals frequently experience access and connectivity issues. Still, since they use a combination of laptops or access a virtual machine from a workstation, agents learn to ask about their current location. In turn, they can identify the correct device assigned to the caller in their ITSM profile and, after authenticating ID and passcode, reset the virtual machine or restore VPN connectivity for the laptop.

If the caller is not sure which machine they’re trying to remote to, agents are also trained to sort hardware by the latest accessed date and confirm the equipment ID number. But many of these troubleshooting techniques hinge on the ITSM capabilities specific to each client.

For all industries where data security is paramount, agents must learn client-dictated security parameters.

For enterprise clients, how many days can an end-user go without access before they’re removed? Can end-users submit an access request web form for reinstatement or is the issue escalated to the client’s network support team? What are the steps to reinstate a suspended user’s account? What procedures must the agent follow for mapping a drive to re-enable Host on Demand access?

Understandably, there is a significant amount of client-specific information for each agent to digest before handling contacts over the phone, via email, or by text message.

But since the client’s ROI increases as the agents supporting them become more proficient, keeping them permanently assigned to that account is a managed service partner’s best practice. As the cumulative proficiency of the shared team that’s assigned to the account increases so does the client’s contracted resolution rate.

Building on that familiarity with the client’s people, processes, and technology translates to shared success across the partnership.

Evaluating a Shared Service Desk partner? Contact us today.


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