Carpenters Group

A quest for service excellence

In a quest for service excellence, Carpenters Group turned to TOPdesk to help improve processes and transform the user experience of their help desk.

We spoke to David Kirkman, IT Help desk Manager, and Alex Nolan, Technical Services Manager, who shared their success story.

Why TOPdesk ticks every box

With the Carpenters Group’s steady growth, the organization realized they needed a new helpdesk system to improve the customer’s interaction with the tool.

“TOPdesk was one of few tools that ticked every box of our requirements analysis,” explains David. “Our decision was made on what I wanted our end-user experience to be. The Self-Service Portal was one of the main selling points of TOPdesk thanks to its familiarity, friendliness, and ease of use.”

Alongside prioritizing user experience, Alex noted managing workflows and improved categorization as requirements for their new help desk solution: “Originally, all changes had to go through our CIO but as workload increased, we needed the ability for multiple authorization.”

The on-site demonstration of TOPdesk highlighted how easy the tool is to tailor, a feature which would help Carpenters Group to deliver service excellence.

David added: “For me, the decision to choose TOPdesk was made instantly. It’s easy to use, flows really well, and does everything we need it to do.”

Positive reactions to a new tool

Following the implementation at Carpenters Group the user feedback was universally positive. “Compared to setting up other systems, the process was close to seamless,” says David. “The teams that were using TOPdesk daily found it so much quicker.”

Before long, David had approached the Facilities department to open their eyes to the versatility of TOPdesk. “Facilities came on board two months after IT went live in April 2018. We identified certain tasks that could be done using the system and were able to provide solutions to their problems.”

Discovering the scope of TOPdesk

TOPdesk’s Change Management feature allowed the teams to streamline their change processes.

Initially, the extensive change process used by Carpenters Group featured around 50 steps, including all necessary stakeholders and authorizations. However, Alex noted that this approach was too time-consuming, which inhibited their ability to complete tasks.

Having discovered the scope of the Change Management feature, this process was easily improved, as David explains: “We used a simple change request as the backbone for the rest of the changes, including those that are more extensive. Now our most complex changes only include 10-15 steps.”

Utilizing TOPdesk’s features also allowed for improvements to the Self-Service Portal, enabling Carpenters Group to create an interface in which the furthest item is just three clicks away from the home screen, another step towards service excellence.

Alex adds: “I think a lot of people like the visibility of what tickets they have open and the ease of communication.”

Supported every step of the way

In the service management industry, it’s uncommon to offer UK-based support to customers. Having a support team in Manchester, UK, makes TOPdesk stand out in the market.

This aspect was a factor in Carpenters Group’s decision to choose a new help desk solution, David explains: “The UK support team are phenomenal, I can’t bestow their virtues enough. The response time is fantastic and no ticket is closed until we are fully satisfied.”

The purpose of TOPdesk Support isn’t just to solve problems but to share knowledge and improve customers’ understanding of the product, which helps customers achieve excellent service delivery. “Support doesn’t just fix the problem, they show us how to and I can’t fault the service we get from them.”

“My overall experience and every interaction with TOPdesk has been fabulous,” David concluded.