My name is David Sharpe and I am the Head of Helpdesk. I joined Metricell just over 11 years ago back in April 2014.
What does a typical day look like for you?
This can vary daily depending on what issues customers are experiencing. My day usually starts with a morning standup session with the Project Management team where we discuss what we are working on and any barriers/issues we are encountering. After this I review the open support tickets we have received since the previous workday ensuring they are responded to and those which are quick to action are dealt with. Then it is quite open depending on what issues are being raised, the progress on resolutions for other issues still open and what comes up during the day.
The Helpdesk team are also responsible for handling our test and mesurement devices, Beacon and AutoMobile, so this may involve configuring devices to be sent out to customers or remotely assisting customers using the devices.
What are some of the key responsibilities in your role, and what skills or qualities do you think are most important in your job?
Managing the Helpdesk involves ensuring any raised support tickets are responded to and resolved in a timely manner meeting agreed customer SLAs. I’m responsible for monitoring the performance of the Helpdesk team which includes producing reports on response and resolution times for customers.
Strong analytical/problem solving skills are needed with troubleshooting user issues and checking collected data. You also need to be organised and able to adapt to handle multiple issues with different priorities.
Is there a part of your role that people might be surprised to learn about?
There’s a lot more to it than handling support emails. It can range from database investigations to find specific data to remoting onto devices being used by customers.
Can you give an example of a project where you felt your work made a real difference?
Working in the helpdesk you get to see and experience the issues being faced by our users. I spent 4 years working in a product management role helping define the functionality of our products and I was able to use feedback from customers to improve certain aspects of the products.
What do you enjoy most about your role, and what motivates you on a day-to-day basis?
Every day can be different as working in Helpdesk is reactive and depends on what issues our users are experiencing and reporting to us.
Helping our users is a large part of the role and at the same time it is helping to continuously improve the user experience of our products. At the end of the day, our users have a job to do, and we want to help make this is simple as possible for them.
Have you had any memorable moments during your time here?
Working in Helpdesk requires you to be familiar with the products to assist users. Occasionally this then results in providing training sessions to users.
Whilst I have done many of these remotely, one memorable moment is spending 2 days in a hotel conference room providing end user training prior to the launch of our products going live for a new customer. The experience and interaction in these sessions improved my presenting skills and enabled in depth training which ultimately reduced the need for users to raise support tickets.
What’s the team dynamic like where you work? How do you collaborate with others across the business?
It’s a small team but closely knit together playing on our strengths and weaknesses which helps make those busy days more manageable.
As we deal with customers experiencing issues, we collaborate with multiple departments in multiple ways as and when users contact us. This can include raising development items to resolve issues or asking for additional information to give to the user such as a deeper understanding of data calculations or product functionality.
What do you enjoy doing outside of work?
Having a dog keeps me occupied by going on scenic walks taking in the sights of the countryside. I’m a fan of musical theatre so you will regularly find me seeing a show (and then having the songs in my head for the following weeks).
How do you balance work and personal life?
It’s important to keep the two separated and unless I am on the out of hours support duty, I leave what I can at the door come the end of the working day. I once heard the phrase of making sure I work to live and don’t live to work. This is something that has stuck with me for years and whilst my career and work life is important, it is not as important as my health and personal life.
What are you most looking forward to in your role this year?
I’m hoping more automated processes can be implemented removing the need for manually actioning the more mundane support tickets allowing more complex issues to be the focus.
If you could share one key point about your job, what would it be?
There’s a lot more to it than most assume as it is more than just raising issues to be fixed by development teams. There’s a lot more engaging with people to help them perform their job and includes a lot of multi-tasking and analysis which can be mentally exhausting at times!
