Leveraging the Service Desk Assessment, and the role of data in understanding and enhancing CX
In 2024 the Housemark Service Desk Team completed SDI’s Service Desk Assessment the two day preliminary evaluation to the full global accreditation ‘Service Desk Certification (SDC)’ programme.
Rob Cross, Customer Support Manager at Housemark explains their experience and journey to measure and enhance service delivery so far.
“I’ve worked with SDI in previous organisations, attended their in-person conference, and participated in many online events, which I’ve found incredibly useful. While I hadn’t explored Certification (SDC) before, I see the value in setting clear benchmarks and driving continuous improvement.”
About Housemark
Housemark is the leading data and insight company for the UK housing sector and is jointly owned by the National Housing Federation and the Chartered Institute of Housing. It was established in 1999 and has around 350 member organisations across housing associations, local authorities and ALMOs in the UK. Proceeds from its work are all used to support the UK social and affordable housing sector through the NHF and the CIH.
The Assessment
In the summer of 2024 SDI created a competition for the SDI Community, the grand prize was a free Two Day Service Desk Assessment.
“Winning the Summer Sizzler competition gave us a unique opportunity to use the two day Assessment to benchmark our service against industry best practice. As Housemark prepares to launch a new platform in 2025, ensuring our customer support evolves alongside our growth is a top priority.”
How did you find the experience working with SDI during the Assessment?
“It was two jam-packed days, but John and Mike the SDI experts made it both enjoyable and informative. The experience felt more like a consultancy exercise than a formal audit—we were given valuable insights into how we could improve while also recognising our successes along the way. We’re always keen to learn and enhance the service we provide.”
How did the Assessment benefit your team?
“My team valued the opportunity to reflect on our work and articulate how we support customers. It reinforced the impact of our efforts and sparked discussions about future improvements. Those discussions now play a central role in shaping and delivering our customer support strategy.”
How will the findings benefit your customers?
“While our ticket surveys confirm that customers are happy, the report highlighted areas where we can improve further. We’re particularly focused on enhancing self-service options and reducing the need for customers to log tickets in the first place. By addressing these gaps, we can offer a more seamless experience.”
“A key priority will be refining our knowledge management processes so customers can find solutions independently, reducing the need for ticket submissions. Additionally, we’ll proactively engage with customers to ensure they fully leverage the benefits of Housemark membership and enhance the customer experience.”
How will you plan and implement the improvements that the auditor has proposed?
“We’ve already begun implementing changes. The report provided a clear roadmap of our strengths and areas for development, allowing us to prioritise key initiatives. Our new customer support strategy – currently in draft – ensures that customer experience is at the core of everything we do.”
What would you say to anyone who is thinking of starting an SDC journey?
“Go for it – but recognise that it’s a business-wide initiative, not just a service desk exercise. The process will uncover strengths and weaknesses across the organisation, so securing leadership buy-in and ensuring teams are on board is crucial for success.”
How does the Service Desk Assessment or full SDC Programme help to improve CX?
“The assessment confirmed that both customers and our team are happy with Housemark – but also highlighted that we operate reactively rather than proactively. While we track ticketing performance well, the audit revealed gaps that we will focus on addressing moving forward.”
“Collecting feedback is essential and it empowers organisations to improve satisfaction, service quality, and performance. It helps us continually improve our service, increase customer satisfaction, and drive better outcomes.”
How does data analytics transform this feedback into actionable insights?
“We track customer ratings after each resolved ticket to gather valuable feedback on our service performance. By analysing these insights, we can celebrate team successes and recognise outstanding contributions. Additionally, this feedback helps us identify areas for improvement, allowing us to address any issues and enhance our service quality.”
What specific strategies do you use to enhance customer experience through data?
“We analyse ticket trends to identify recurring issues and take proactive steps to reduce future queries. We also have our ticketing system, Freshdesk, configured to alert us if a customer leaves negative feedback, enabling us to respond quickly, understand the issue, and prevent recurrence.
What other SDI products and services are you planning to utilise this year? (Spark, Awards, Consultancy, etc) and why?
“I attended the Spark Conference in March 25, which was a great opportunity to hear from influential speakers across the Service Management industry as well as meeting up with suppliers. The SDI webinars are always insightful, and I’m booked onto the Managing the Customer Experience Workshop in June to learn more about how we can drive improvement.”
With special thanks to Rob Cross, IT Support Manager at Housemark.
Visit the Service Desk Certification page to find out more and to get in touch to see if your team is ready for their transformation!
