Service Desk Case Study: Restaurant Signage Support

Client Profile

With more than 13,000 employees, our client is a top-tier Canadian brand that operates multiple businesses, including movie theaters, restaurants, amusement and leisure, film digital commerce, and media. Auxis was tapped to support its industry-leading digital media company, which has provided end-to-end digital signage solutions globally for some of the world’s biggest brands for more than 20 years. The client’s digital merchandising solutions are commonly found in retail, restaurants, bank branches, healthcare facilities, government agencies, and more. Their mission is to ensure that every screen becomes a powerful connection point between a business and its customers while improving consumer engagement.

The company’s signage solutions are powered by its own proprietary, cloud-based platform, creating a secure, scalable, and reliable foundation for its customers. These customized screens are installed at customer locations and can be fully integrated within the customer’s network.

As a result, the client must maintain a growing volume of digital content at various endpoints. Since these screens are essential to their customers’ operations, it’s critical that they remain up and running year-round with minimal interruptions.

To accomplish this, the client operates a two-tier model for technical customer support: an outsourced Level 1 help desk and a Level 2 internal team staffed by specialized engineering resources that can handle more complex issues. Support is divided into two main areas:

• Activations – Resources activate digital signage solutions for an entire store, including managing third-party vendors and troubleshooting faulty devices.
• Monitoring and support – Resources offer day-to-day remote support by phone and email to store owners, managers, and technicians onsite. They provide end-to-end support throughout a ticket lifecycle for customer locations.

Unfortunately, the company’s previous IT help desk outsourcing partner couldn’t keep up with its rapid growth, providing poor service from a low-tier location in Central America/the Caribbean. That created some significant challenges, including:

• A high volume of tickets requiring the involvement from Level 2 engineers and high-level resources in Canada
• High turnover and lack of available talent that met the expectations of the Level 1 role at the IT help desk outsourcing operation
• Inadequate documentation and lack of a proper structure to effectively train Level 1 staff
• All these limitations translated into long resolution times and poor service levels to the end customer

Staffing such a specialized skillset was a key concern; the previous outsourcer struggled to find employees who combined technical troubleshooting and network skills with the ability to successfully manage vendors and provide excellent customer service.

The previous provider also wasn’t equipped to meet the client’s need for 24×7 support to accommodate customer locations scattered worldwide. Instead, the organization was forced to utilize an answering service to handle after-hours calls or overflow during regular business hours.

Not surprisingly, the company’s in-house resources were bogged down with queries that should have been handled by Level 1 support. And unfortunately, that left internal IT staff with little time for higher-value projects, growth, and product development activities.

Auxis was engaged by the client as it searched for a new IT help desk outsourcing partner with the maturity, sophistication, and experience to support its accelerated global growth and high service quality expectations.

From the beginning, Auxis’ executive team brought its consultative approach to help the organization identify key gaps within existing systems and processes. These gaps needed to be addressed to build a best-in-class customer support platform. Some of Auxis’ early recommendations included:

Supported Products

Hardware

• Digital Menu Boards
• Video Walls
• Directories and Wayfinding
• Media Posters
• Led Installations
• Other Custom Solutions

Software

Proprietary software for customers to create and manage content no matter the number of locations or products

• The need to implement a more robust ticketing system and call center platform with the ability to track and monitor key operational metrics that were currently unavailable.
• Restructuring the support team. Under the old model, support calls could be answered by any help desk agent, whether they were new activations or ongoing maintenance inquiries. Auxis recommended dividing the support team by function. Creating teams with a specialized focus speeds resolution times by routing calls to staff with specific expertise while preventing day-to-day issues from clogging the activation pipeline. It also creates consistency among resources who work with field technicians.

With these recommendations in mind, Auxis worked hand-in-hand with the client to develop a dedicated resource model housed within Auxis’ Nearshore Delivery Center in Costa Rica. Under this customized model, Auxis maintains a 24x7x365 support team exclusively for the company, developing deep expertise in its systems and processes. This type of solution also allows the customer to play a more active role in key operational areas, such as getting involved in the hiring/interview process. The client wanted to lead management of the new system implementations internally as well.

Nearly two years later, the relationship continues to be a proven success – offering 24x7x365 support for 44,000+ devices located in more than 25 different countries throughout the U.S., Canada and Europe.

While the client initially focused its partnership with Auxis on supporting locations in North America, it soon tapped the multilingual capabilities of Costa Rica to support its expansion into other parts of the world that require Spanish, French and Portuguese.

• 24x7x364 Support
• 44,000 + Devices
• US, Canada & Europe

Auxis successfully implemented a world-class IT help desk outsourcing platform that continues to serve as a seamless extension of the client’s in-house team. With 24x7x365 access to skilled, multilingual help desk staff who can perform both remote diagnostics and proactive corrective actions, tickets are resolved quickly and efficiently – ensuring continuous operations for the client and its customers.

Some key benefits that have been achieved through the client’s partnership with Auxis include: