MYPOST 3: The toughest part of being a Service Desk Analyst

Service desk analysts can be classified as an Information Technology professional that focuses on resolving users' issues about computer hardware or software.  My current job role title is Service Desk Analyst. When mentions about this job title, I believe most of you will aware that this kind of job needs to pick up calls daily, handle client's issues, have tight schedules and assure every issue can be resolved within a short duration of time. Although this is not the toughest job in the world, but I would like to share my working experiences here about the toughest part of being this role.

Firstly, you have to stay alert for every call. This is because you have to identify the root cause of the problem and then find the right solution to solve the problem within the fixed duration. To me, if the volume of calls is high, it will cause us no small gap to break and we need to reframe our mind to settle another issue after the previous issue is solved. As a result, careless mistake, overlook, or confusion may occur especially the user's issue is unclear, complicated or more than one issue. In short, staying alert to handle the huge amounts of calls is challenging for analysts if no proper rest at the previous day, multitasking or the amount of calls is huge continuously.

Secondly, you have to find a solution without any guidelines provided. This is because you are the first contact point to solve every IT issues no matter you understand the functionality of the software. One of my experiences is the user mentions one of his PC software cannot open and the problem is I do not hear the software before. I seek help from my colleagues, find relevant resources via Internet, and manager but there is no relevant solution to solve the problem. Without any guidelines, I have to perform basic troubleshooting by reinstalling the software again. Luckily the problem can be solved by reinstallation but it will impact the handling time. Therefore, as a service desk analyst, we have to stay calm if there is no guideline to solve the problem especially you encounter the user is running out of patient and angry.

Next, you have to pacify your users. Sometimes you have to answer the call if the users call up to scold and complain about the issues is not solved after a few days. Although it is not your fault, but some of the users will put the blame on your team if their issue is not solved properly. Without any option, you have to calm down your user, provide reasons behind, and provide a solution until the problem is solved. This is because it is one of our due diligence. Therefore, you have to patient, endure, and maintain courtesy while users scold and complain about the issue in order to solve the problem properly rather than offend the users.

Subsequently, you have to maintain “No abandon call” every day. No abandon call means that we have to answer every call from users without any dropped calls. Otherwise, it will impact our team performance. To maintain this performance, we have to solve every issue within 10 minutes and answer another call within 10 seconds. Sometimes it is hard for us to maintain it if some of the members on leave, solving complicated issue, outrage due to server error, and so on. Hence, it is impossible to maintain “No abandon call” every day because of the uncertainty of call volume and category of the problems.

Last but not least, you have to multi-tasking. During handling call, you may need to check problems from another user, reply to emails, or perform troubleshooting for another user. This is because you cannot only perform one task at one time especially at peak call duration. Therefore, you have to perform several tasks at the same time to fulfill user requests. If you are a new joiner in the team, it is challenging for you because it will cause mistakes if you overlook the details provided by the users. Anyway, it is necessary for you to cultivate yourself to perform multitasking so that you can solve many issues at the same time.

In conclusion, every job role has its toughest part for certain people to face and manage it in order to deliver quality jobs in the workplace. Instead of complaining about the job, I think we should learn to adapt to the situation by reframing our mindset and attitude because the problem is temporary and it depends on us to solve the problem. If still not working, we can consider quit and find another better job role that can fit ourselves. This is because the toughest moment that we face can cultivate our maturity and look for another path that can truly refine our spirituality and personality.