Service Desk Team Lead - 1st Line (CPT Onsite) - Datafin IT Recruitment

ENVIRONMENT:

YOUR strong leadership and technical ability are sought to fill the role of a Service Desk Team Lead for a dynamic provider of innovative Software & Systems. You will manage a team of Line 1 Service Desk personnel, efficiently allocating incoming requests to the team, prioritising actions and monitoring team resources so that customer deadlines are met. The Team Leader plays a crucial role in ensuring the efficient and effective functioning of the team and the delivery of high-quality technical support. The successful candidate will need a Degree/ Diploma in Management or equivalent and preferably Certifications such as CompTIA A+ N+ with 5 years of experience as a Help Desk Technician or related positions in call centres, customer service, or IT & at least 2-3 years' experience as a Supervisor/Team Leader. You will also require proficiency in troubleshooting techniques and familiarity with operating systems and software management.

DUTIES:

Team leadership, policies and procedures (20%) -

• Lead, mentor, and motivate a team of Systems Technicians and Systems Engineers.
• Set clear goals and objectives for the team and individual team members.
• Ensure adequate staffing levels and manage scheduling to meet service level agreements.
• Implement, maintain and manage the cascading of and adhere to all relevant Stowe policies & procedures to team members.
• Report all Health & Safety incidents to the Occupational Health and Safety Officer on site.
• You may be required to conform the legitimate instruction of any employee in authority over yourself, which is not stipulated in your job description.

Technical Support and Customer Service (20%) -

• Provide hands-on technical support for complex requests.
• Act as an escalation point for challenging technical problems.
• Ensure timely and efficient resolution of service requests and incidents.
• Ensure an elevated level of customer satisfaction by delivering excellent service.
• Monitor service desk queues and prioritize work to meet service level targets.
• Proactively encourage a customer service focus in the department.
• Be alerted to deteriorating customer-service within the environment and intervene directly or by escalation. 
• Regularly update all customers with progress-information and estimated times to completion on all escalations.
• Manage customer perceptions.
• Professionally respond to and assist with all customer queries.
• Handle customer complaints and escalations with professionalism and empathy.
• Develop and implement customer service standards and best practices.

Operation Management and Process Improvement (20%) -

• Identify opportunities to streamline service desk processes and improve efficiency.
• Work with cross-functional teams to implement process improvements.
• Stay up-to-date with industry best practices and emerging technologies.
• Ensure processes and procedures are followed according to agreed service times.
• Troubleshoot areas of poor performance and identify effective solutions to resolve issues both in the immediate future and for the longer term.
• Assign calls to appropriate team member according to skills level – Call Allocation.
• Provide single point of contact for technical escalations and take ownership.
• Act as information and skills broker between agents and higher qualified and/or experienced resources.
• Escalation of problems or breaches of all calls to your manager.
• Ability to creatively address problems and follow proposed solutions through to completion. 
• Identify and highlight best practices in support management through continuous assessment.
• Communicate and be the focal point for the dissemination of information from management to the team and vice versa.

Analysis and Reporting (20%) -

• Analyse and summarize reports on SLA targets.
• Trend analysis on root causes and ticket categories, incident rates and similar.
• Compile and publish daily, weekly and monthly reports as required.
• Collate and Publish Weekly incident analysis and escalate where applicable.
• Critical calls root-cause analysis weekly.
• Provide pending List feedback daily.
• Publish Repeat Call Analysis weekly.
• Review and record Ticket Scoring conformance weekly.
• Collate Onsite verification weekly.
• Compile monitoring of Repeat call journal.
• Complete monitoring of Onsite Template.

Performance Management (15%) -

• Ensure team performance is in line with client KPI’s.
• Conduct regular performance evaluations and provide constructive feedback.
• Foster a collaborative and inclusive team culture.
• Will ensure team perform in line with quality monitoring standards, achieving internal Quality benchmark and Customer metrics. 
• Conduct performance appraisals for the team, identifying weaknesses and offering coaching and mentoring in areas that require it.
• Ensure that excellent performance is acknowledged and reasons for success are shared amongst the team to the benefit of all.
• Provide quality conformance feedback weekly (but daily monitoring and policing).
• Missed SLA processing daily.
• Respond or manage response to challenges regarding agent performance.

Training and Development (5%) -

• Identify training requirements for team members and escalate to manager.
• Provide guidance and coaching to team members.
• Updating team members with any changes taking place in the Service Desk standards and procedures (new versions, changes, upgrades)
• Ensure all technical tips & tricks, 3rd level diagnostics are documented and available. 
• Team-specific training weekly and as required.

REQUIREMENTS:

Qualifications –

• Degree/ Diploma in Management or equivalent.
• Relevant Certifications such as CompTIA A+ N+ advantageous.

Experience/Skills -

• Minimum of 5 years of experience as a Help Desk Technician or related positions in call centres, customer service, or IT.
• Minimum of 2-3 years' experience as a Supervisor/Team Leader.
• Knowledge of ITIL or other IT service management frameworks is a plus.
• Familiarity with operating systems and software management.
• Proficiency in troubleshooting techniques.
• Valid South Africa ID.

ATTRIBUTES:

• Attention to detail.
• Mentoring and coaching.
• Report writing.
• Remote diagnostics.
• Remote support.
• Prioritising.
• Initiatives and Self-motivation.
• Interpersonal relationships.
• Professionalism.
• Good written and verbal Communication skills.
• Good time-management.
• Technical skills.