Audience: Who is the course for?
- Service Desk Analysts
- Support Analysts
- 1st Line IT Support
Course Duration:
3-days. The exam is typically taken at the end of the course but can be taken later if required. Courses typically start at 9:30am on day 1, 9:00am on remaining days and finish at 5pm, however full joining instructions with confirmation of timings will be sent to each delegate prior to the course.
Homework:
Please ensure you keep your social diary free during the course so that you are able to to complete work during the evenings. Approximately 2-hours of study per evening is required.
Benefits to the Individual:
- Qualifications designed specifically for their roles.
- Three levels provide a structured career path and progression route.
- Ability to demonstrate understanding of service desk requirements, skills and best practices to an employer.
- Industry generic allowing skills to be applied outside of current organisation.
- Source of continued professional development for IT support profession.
Benefits to the Business:
- Staff equipped with skills and knowledge of best practices specific to roles.
- Positive impact on the efficient running of service desk & IT support functions.
- Increased productivity and customer satisfaction.
- Excellent for training new starters.
- Aids preparation for service desk audit if required/appropriate.
Pre-requisites:
Ideally delegates will have at least nine months of experience in an IT Service and Support Environment
Course Outline:
At the end of this course delegates will have:
- Essential skills and competencies to deliver efficient and effective support in the Service Desk environment
- Practical knowledge of how to use these skills to deal effectively with a variety of situations
- A clear understanding of how to identify customer needs and motivations, and how to handle difficult situations
- Understand the importance of teamwork in the support environment
- A thorough grounding in the skills, competencies, responsibilities and knowledge required of an effective Service Desk analyst
Course Topics:
Roles and Responsibilities
- To identify and understand the role and responsibilities of the professional Service Desk Analyst
- To identify and understand the role and responsibilities of Service Desk
- To determine the attributes, skills and knowledge of a successful Service Desk Analyst
- To develop an understanding of Relationship Management from the Service Desk perspective
- To identify and agree the key requirements for delivering customer satisfaction
Effective Communication
- To identify and understand the principles of effective communication in customer support
- To understand the differences between face to face, telephone and written communication
- To identify ways to enable us to communicate more effectively
- To understand how our attitude and approach can influence and affect others
Customer Service Skills and Competencies
- To understand how to ask questions skilfully
- To determine the importance of good listening skills
- Understand the importance of customer service skills in IT
Determine the importance of effective communication
- To understand that assertiveness and confidence are necessary
- To determine methods of dealing with conflict
- To determine the causes, symptoms and ways to manage stress
The Service Desk Environment
- Examine internal and external issues affecting our motivation
- Understand the importance and relevance of ethics
- Determine the importance and benefits of effective teamwork
Process Management
- Understand the ITSM processes closely linked to Service Desk
- Identify Service Desk responsibility within ITSM processes
- To understand the importance of effective incident, problem, change, escalation and asset management processes
Managing, Meeting and Maintaining Service Levels
- Determine the value and benefits of Service Level Agreements
- Determine the need for and benefits of metrics and objectives
- Understand the importance of Customer Satisfaction surveys
Problem Solving
- To determine the steps taken during the problem solving process
- To understand the benefits of using a creative problem solving
- To identify techniques for creative problem solving
- To practice some problem solving techniques
Tools and Technologies used in Customer Support
- Develop a clear understanding of the support tools
- To understand and use the terminology of the support industry
- Determine the benefits of the tools and technologies we use
- To determine methods for implementing Self-Help and Self Service for end-users
Exam details:
A closed book, multiple choice exam is taken at the end of the course. The exam lasts one hour and consists of 60 questions. 45 out of 60 marks are required to pass (75%).
Service Desk Analyst - course description