When running a company, it is known that resources can’t be wasted or spent badly, which is why every department should be conformed to the right amount of people and equipment.
Right-sizing everything will allow you to eliminate wasted resources that could later on become liabilities and end up draining funds that could be and should be used elsewhere, like in sales, for example.
When done correctly, having the right-size support team could lead to lower costs, improved ticket management, and quick response which also leads to quick solutions and increased competitiveness.
However, it is very important to highlight the expression right-sizing, because that doesn’t mean to cut short your support team, but to choose it right according to your company necessities.
You Need To Be Aware That Every Company Is Different
You need to be aware of this fact since using an industry average to choose the quantity of your support team may not work for you.
It actually may not even work for most of the companies, these averages are just guidelines so you can know some of the aspects to consider in these situations.
Now, when planning your team and its size, there are some questions that you should ask yourself:
-What is my support team trying to accomplish?
-What would the best structure for my team be?
-How many roles are necessary to achieve my support team goals?
-How many hours should my support team be available for the clients?
Not having enough support team members could hurt your company a lot, since it may cut productivity and efficiency dramatically. This can make an impact on your company’s production rates.
So when answering these questions, you can start to build a strategy for improvement to get the right size for your team.
When Building a Strategy for Improvement
One challenge you might face when developing a help desk strategy for improvement is to determine where you are standing. The key to doing this is to leverage help desk data to make informed decisions about resource levels.
This means that you will need to find the right amount of data flow that works for your company.
Some factors that could help you know where you stand are:
Managed Help Desk Call Volume
As stated in an article by Convirza tracking this call flow helps you be aware of what amount of workload is your company handling at the moment.
Time Spent on Calls
When tracking this time spent on handling clients you will know just how much support is really needed inside your company.
User Downtime
This will help you get an insight into the overall performance of your system.
Historical Information
Tracking this kind of data will help you know which trend is in at the moment, giving you the chance to quantify a number to use when you need to determine the size of your support team.
All this information helps you determine your current situation. That’s something you need to be fully aware of before deciding on the size of your support team, leading you to make the right choice when right-sizing your team.
Steps You Can Follow
Plan For the Rushes You Might Receive on Help Desk Support
It can be common for your team to receive a spike in inbound calls and support tickets. For these scenarios, it would be ideal to hire people specialized to handle call centers that will manage the calls the others are unable to.
Restricting a Little the Administration Control
Restricting control can help you reduce the number of help desk people you will need at the moment to address the issue. It also helps to boost security which reduces the number of malware that can get into your PCs.
Also, it can produce a more controlled and stable environment, since it will also reduce the number of people getting access to functions from the OS.
Try to Attend to the Top Issues First
Don’t leave important matters hanging while you attend to less important issues. The point is to get them all solved in the most efficient way possible but keep in mind that there should always be priorities in the way things are handled at the support department.
The way you get things done will depend on how well the roles are distributed between team members, and this comes back to right-sizing once again.
Distributed Support Made Right
Having a centralized help desk will make things way easier for you, this will speed up the process of solving oncoming issues, monitor existing ones, and coordinate activities effectively.
Having a distributed workload in the right way will bring advantages to your company in many ways, also it will help you realize just how many people you need to be involved with your working help desk support team.
The right implementation of these tips can help you right-size your help desk support team in the best possible way. Just develop a complete strategy and then put it into action!
You can always contact us to learn more about our IT Tech Support Teams and how to hire the best options for your company’s workflow!
See more articles by Paola Rodríguez
