As part of our programme of director visits, Shauna McMahon, one of our non executive directors recently spent time with the Digital Service Desk team to see first-hand what it takes to keep colleagues up and running every day. The service desk is the front door for digital support, and the team’s focus is simple: fix issues quickly where they can, and make sure anything more complex reaches the right specialist team.
The team shared the scale and pace of their work. The service desk is open Monday to Friday from 8am to 5pm. They explained that while there is some in-house on-call cover, most out-of-hours calls are answered by Northumbria Healthcare Trust, with a small number of overnight calls, mainly linked to passwords. At the time of the visit, the service desk had already received 18,197 calls so far this year.
The team talked through how requests come in, and why they encourage colleagues to use the portal wherever possible. While they do take direct calls, the portal helps capture the details first time and allows the team to assign and prioritise work properly. They also spoke about how password-related demand has shifted over time. Non-expiring network passwords have helped reduce calls in one area, but RiO password issues are now a major driver of contact and take up a significant amount of time.
A strong theme of the visit was service quality and pride in doing a good job. The team has a 100% customer satisfaction score, gathered through an automated survey sent after a call is closed. They also receive regular thank you messages and shout outs, with a bit of friendly competition over who can collect the most. To stay on top of demand the team holds a weekly review meeting to check progress and make sure older tickets are dealt with.
Shauna also heard about the learning culture that runs through the service desk. The team always tries to resolve issues themselves where they can, but if something needs specialist input it is passed on to the systems team, technicians, or the infrastructure team. Even then, learning continues and service desk colleagues can shadow technicians so they can build their problem-solving skills, understand what sits behind the fix, and be better placed to handle similar issues next time. Day to day, the team also supports each other closely, sharing knowledge and learning from one another.
That focus on development starts early through the apprenticeship scheme. The service desk currently has three apprentices and the team spoke proudly about how well the programme works. Apprentices have a day a week for study, tend to achieve strong results, and many stay with the department after the 18-month programme, progressing into different teams.
Alongside newer colleagues, the team also benefits from long service and deep experience, including people who remember the work they did to tackle the Millennium Bug! Shauna heard that people stay because it’s a great team, with good work-life balance and the satisfaction of helping others.
Shauna then sat with the team and heard about the calls taken that morning: 159 calls so far that day, with an average waiting time of 27 seconds. She heard what makes the role interesting: the variety and the “detective work” involved in problem solving. Some calls are straightforward, while others are unexpected and require the team to work out where to begin.
Overall, the visit was a strong reminder that the service desk is much more than a call queue. It is a skilled, fast-paced team that plays a vital role in keeping services running, supporting colleagues when they need help, and building knowledge over time so more issues can be resolved quickly at first contact.
