A day in the life of a Tier 3 Service Desk Analyst

A typical day in the life of a Service Desk Analyst at Acora can be very varied due to the nature of the role, and also the different types of environments and customers that are supported. The nature of a multi-customer support environment from a 24-hour service desk means that there isn’t always a set agenda for any given day, instead the structure of a typical day is defined by the number and nature of the support requests which come into the service desk. Whilst the daily schedule of all service desk analysts is very similar, my responsibilities as a Tier 3 can differ in a variety of ways, for example;

1. I’ll pick up priority P1 cases, ensuring our customers have little to no downtime.
2. I’ll work on and assist my colleagues with escalated tickets which can often be quite complex.
3. Importantly, I’ll provide guidance and assistance to other service desk team members, improving our overall performance as a team.

The quantity of cases worked on by a Tier 3 are typically fewer than other tiers due to complexity and nature of the cases we work on, we also spend time during the day on documentation and process improvement, ensuring our customers get the best service possible.

08:30am to 09:30am

During the first hour of my shift, I will typically start by catching up on email communication, from both colleagues and customers. If any received communication implies updates to active support cases, I will update the notes accordingly in our ITSM tool, ServiceNow. This would normally be followed by quick run though of my current case queue, where I can set out and prioritise my workload for the day.

This is also an important time to receive any current handovers from the night shift, or any escalations from Tier 2 or Tier 1 Analysts. During this period, I will also validate and sense check the outcome of morning check processes, by reading through the resulting emails and ensuring that any issues raised are being dealt with, and that the information supplied in the resulting checks are valid.

09:30am to 12pm

The time leading up to early afternoon would normally be spent on working through my active case queue, which I tend to organise in the morning. In the case of a Tier 3 Service Desk Analyst, this usually involves non-customer facing infrastructure work, which is carried out remotely. Sometimes but less often, I’m also required to provide remote support for customers, at which point I’ll reach out to them to arrange an appropriate time to connect to their systems and work on reported incidents/requests.

12pm to 16:30pm

The afternoon is typically a continuation of working on my active case queue, but I also use this time to assess cases for colleagues, to identify if I can help Tier 2 or Tier 1 Service Desk Analysts on their own cases ensuring Service Level Agreements are met. The afternoon period may also involve attending customer account briefings to represent any change requests of which I’m aligned to, these meetings are customer specific so attendance may be necessary on multiple days during the week.

16:30pm to 17:30pm

During the final hour of my shift, my first priority is to ensure that all of my active cases are updated to reflect the work that has been done during the day. For any cases that are still being worked on, I begin the process of handover to the night shift by first updating my case notes, identifying an appropriate resource who can continue working on the case and then completing a verbal handover. Before finishing my shift, I will ensure that any active cases have been handed over to an appropriate member of our team and also brief them with any information which may be of use to them.