Session 7 - Prioritising the service desk requests

An average service desk can get many calls/requests coming in. How do you determine which ones need immediate action and/or which ones are more important?

Service Desk request life-cycle

Ideally, a job or request coming into the service desk should follow these steps:

1. Request/job comes in
2. Request/job is assigned a ticket or job number
3. Request/job is resolved or escalated and then resolved
4. Request/Job is closed

 

Step 1 is receiving the call and getting all of the information about the caller, the equipment details, and the problem or issue that they are having.

Step 2 is allocating the job a "ticket". A ticket is a unique reference number for a particula call or job. It allows the job to be tracked from start to finish. A ticketing system can be automated or it can be a manual system.

Step 3 is the resolution stage. If the issue can be resolved on the spot, then you should do so and close the ticket. Unfortunately, not all requests can be resolved on the spot, but there does need to be some system or process that will allow the job to be prioritised.

Step 4 is closing the job. Once the issue has been resolved, the ticket can be closed.

It is STEP 3 that we will focus on in today's lesson.

Prioritising/Escalating the request/job

What criteria do we use to decide which request is more important?

Read the following articles:

http://www.techrepublic.com/article/how-to-systematically-prioritize-your-support-calls/

http://www.superoffice.com/blog/how-to-handle-an-increasing-amount-of-support-requests/

http://www.cse.dmu.ac.uk/cism/Call%20Prioritisation.htm

https://www.lynda.com/Network-Administration-tutorials/Prioritization/184459/188292-4.html?org=chisholm.edu.au

Class Activity - individual or small groups of 2 or 3

1. You are IT Support for the Mysty River Regional Library Service. The following Tickets are in the system:

• One of the computers in the main library area is unable to connect to the Internet.

• The computer that is usually used for people to search the catalogue has an error and will not start properly.

• Printing within the library is not working - jobs are sent to the printer, but the print queue does not acknowledge them

• The Library Management System is down 

• The Library's Main webpage is down

• The CEO has placed a call indicating that her computer "freezes" when she tries to access her emails

How would you prioritise these tickets? What Criteria would you use? Using your responses to those questions, prioritise the above tickets.


2. You are IT Support for South East TAFE. What criteria would you use for prioritising jobs that come in to the service desk? Who would get priority from the following:

• The CEO unable to upload their weekly newsletter to staff

• A potential (new) student unable to complete their online enquiry/enrolment

• A current student who can not access moodle for an assessment due today

• A member of the teaching staff who is having a problem with the projector/datashow

• Student support services staff who can not access the student management system to update disability support information

• Customer Engagement team member who can not access our student management system to complete an enrolment

• Academic Administration team leader unable to start his computer