What made you join SDI?
When we joined SDI, we were transitioning from an IT Help Desk to an IT Service Desk and found that the resources and community available were invaluable. Soon after, we also decided that we would embark upon SDI certification. Certification was a truly enlightening journey and provided us with the framework to not only benchmark our service but to also kick off a programme of Continual Service Improvement. Since certification we have made over 300 service improvements and have raised the Service Desk’s profile within the University and the wider HE Sector.
What membership resources do you use?
We regularly use the resources available on the SDI website such as the benchmarking tool and reports, the blog, the Service Desk Standard, and the resource library (just to name a few). We try to attend as many of the events as possible and ensure that all Service Desk staff have the opportunity to attend. We always ask our staff to bring back their top 3 lessons learnt that will make them change the way they work and ask them to feed this back to the team. As part of our training plan all staff attend Service Desk analyst training, and Senior staff have also attended call coaching training.
What do you like the most about your membership?
Our favourite aspect of SDI membership is the collaboration it brings across the Service Desk community. It has allowed us to learn new skills, techniques, see real-life examples of service improvement and connect to other institutions to work collaboratively and share ideas.
What difference has being a member made to your service desk and customers?
Being a member of SDI has provided us the tools to improve our service, raise our profile, demonstrate our value and connect the IT Service Desk to work closer to the rest of IT and the University. The difference this has made for our customers has been improved response times, communications, customer engagement and, ultimately, improved customer satisfaction.
Why is it important to be part of a network/community?
Being part of a community is vital, especially in our sector. It inspires us to do better and motivates us to keep on improving. We can learn from our own, and others mistakes and successes, we can network and collaborate, find opportunities we didn’t know existed and most importantly meet people along the way and have fun in the process! As Bill Nye The Science Guy says ‘Everyone you will ever meet knows something you don’t. We should never stop learning from our peers, our community and their experiences.’
