Case Study: Intranet reforms that result in fewer help desk tickets and service calls

Problem

The company employed 800 employees. The company practices Business Process Outsourcing, servicing dozens of companies. The help desk department received dozens of calls and emails daily. The request includes building new network systems to ordering more computers. The helpdesk also receives excessive calls from new employees requesting links to specific web pages from health insurance to request time off. Some requested web pages were buried deep within the company’s intranet site. The interruptions overloaded the help desk department, removing them from more critical tasks.

Process

We reviewed the entire help desk’s phone and email request records. Then, using a matrix chart, we weighted them by importance and frequency. Then, we decided to build a section on the homepage with links to the most requested items. Unfortunately, due to limited space on the homepage (fig. a), we could not add all the links, only the everyday things that new employees most often used.

Involvement

We notified the company employees of the updated homepage. We also encouraged hiring managers to tell future employees about using the intranet homepage.

Results

The section (fig. b) reduced help desk calls by 65%.

We review the web page click-through rate monthly and compare it to the incoming calls and emails. It’s working. New employees used the intranet homepage more often than contacting the help desk department.