Three Bonuses for ordering between September 8th and Midnight Friday, September 16th, 2005:

• An online copy of Ivy's Favorites (bookmarks) from years of research (value $179) www.hthts.com  This isn't your typical list of vendors and easily found websites.  These links touch every aspect of service and support from the questions to ask in interviews to motivational and behavioral considerations, technology solutions, industry best practices, workforce management and much much more. Loads of ITIL information as well.  There are over 500+ links included.

• 15% discount off HDP's 2006 Conference and Expo (worth up to $240)

• Coupon to attend one half-day pre-con at HDP 2006 (worth up to $350)

With these bonuses your investment in the conference is only $826.00.

Don’t miss a single copy of the weekly “HDP Previews”:  In each Preview we will feature a speaker and a vendor who will share valuable content to whet your appetite to attend one of the most significant Help Desk & Service Desks event ever.  Please pass these on to a friend.

Stay in touch by joining our mailing list. 

If you missed any previous issues, visit our website at http://www.hthts.com/hdppreviews2005.htm

TIPS FROM THIS WEEK’S FEATURED SPEAKER:
Dru Phelps, VP of Certification, Benchmarkportal.com, http://www.benchmarkportal.com

Meet the Speaker:

Dru Phelps, Vice President of Consultant Relations, shares 21 years experience delivering pragmatic initiatives to Contact Center operations. Just released, Dru co-authored a book with Dr. Jon Anton, “How to Conduct a Performance Audit of your Contact Center: A to Z”.

Her lively presentations demonstrate a variety of assessment models including benchmarks in customer and support services across multiple industries. As a Distinguished Alumni at Purdue, an Industrial/Quality Engineer, senior research consultant, Dru has been actively engaged in projects with over 200 centers worldwide.

Dru Shares with the Industry:

Help! I need somebody.  You need to meet Dru Phelps on Tuesday Oct. 25 at HDP for a half day pre-conference seminar.

• “Dru was great! Knowledgeable, experienced, clear, through”
• “She was very attentive to the attendees in answering questions and explanation”
• “Dru presents real examples for us to become self-sufficient in analytics – using measures that matter”

Hello. This is Dru, and as a graduate of Purdue University and USC (i.e. a football fan), I have been schooled to not only seek education and training, but to use applied knowledge to achieve measurable success (i.e. win the game). If you are the one responsible for setting and achieving business goals within your call center/help desk operations, then you will need a set of solid, reliable metrics and goals.

Join me for the HDP workshop on ‘Best Measures of Performance’ to quantify the question “Is your help desk concentrating more on the internal cost efficiencies or effective quality results? We look at a balanced scorecard of key performance indicators to drive initiatives, brand the center, reduce cost, and my personal favorite, expand knowledge to allow for self-service capabilities. Let’s take a sample exhibit from our latest Help Desk Industry Report.

Figure 14 from the Help Desk Industry Report @ BenchmarkPortal.com: The effort to communicate solutions and knowledge on a daily basis is twice as prevalent for the best help desk centers (36.4%) as for the industry as a whole (18.8%). Roughly 25% never do so. We submit that a significant degree of the credit for the relative success or lack of credible and current knowledge management tools rests within the Help Desk.

Interpretation: Given that the Best Practice of the Help Desk Industry recognize that every contact is a request for information, they make an effort 55% of the time on a daily/weekly basis not only in responding to calls, but noting the solution into a knowledge-based reference tool. These organizations deploy knowledge-based management solutions based on most frequently asked questions, to proactively provide the most current and critical resolutions.

Performance Result: Based on measurable results, it is an effective ’best practice’ to investigate solutions, then by publishing replies in self-help solutions, the center becomes more efficient. These best practice centers have benchmarked the volume before and after featuring knowledge tools, measuring live calls handled vs. self-service on repetitive incidents. These Centers of Excellence have been able to brand themselves as a multi-channel resource center of information.

As VP of Certification at BenchmarkPortal, led by Dr. Jon Anton, we have thousands of performance metrics to share and compare! There are two actionable steps you can take as a FREE resource of best practice from our educational website. Join our community as a Help Desk/Technical Support professional and take your RealityCheckÔ to receive your performance matrix on efficient and effective results – then go on win the game!

Here is a gift from our sponsor, BenchmarkPortal but you must ACT NOW

Take a FREE RealityCheckÔ at BenchmarkPortal.com Don’t guess at the effectiveness of your Tech Support Center performance. Want a fast start to assess your center’s metrics to a ‘benchmark’ of best practice? Here is a way to see results in real-time! Complete an online RealityCheckÔ with 12 data-points BY SEPTEMBER 20th and see how YOU compare at the People’s HDP Conference. *Use Promotion Code DRU when submitting your contact info and get a FREE Quality White Paper from Dr. Jon Anton. Questions? DruPhelps@BenchmarkPortal.com

RealityCheck data-points:

• Volume of Incidents by channel

• Number of contact it takes to close the ticket

• Number of Support Reps (FTE)

• Annual Compensation of TSR (level 1, 2)

• Time metrics: Speed to answer, to talk, on hold, wrap up

• Percentage: Of transfers, of abandon calls, Occupancy in chair

• Time to respond to emails

• Volume of contacts per hour

• Annual turnover

• Caller satisfaction ratings (hi/lo)

Key Points:

• Audit, assess, and analyze critical key performance measures

• Benchmark to a balanced scorecard on efficiency and effectiveness

• Compare to YOUR Industry and convert gaps to dollars with cost justification

• Discover the core initiative for change that will optimize your performance goals