Since 1940, Dairy Queen® has been one of the world’s best known and loved brands. Based in Minneapolis, MN, International Dairy Queen Inc., (IDQ), is the parent company of American Dairy Queen Corporation. As a leading franchisor, there are more than 7,000 independently owned and operated restaurants in the U.S., Canada and 20 countries around the world. IDQ is a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (Berkshire) which is led by Warren Buffett, the legendary investor and CEO of Berkshire.

Here at IDQ, we create extraordinary Fan experiences every day and we do this through our commitment to hiring and retaining only the best in class talent. We firmly believe that our employees are the catalyst to the success of the company where their initiative, strategic thinking, and entrepreneurial spirit are recognized and rewarded. We're looking for motivated, passionate and dedicated individuals with an inherent need and ambition to go after bigger challenges. 

We have an exciting opportunity for a Lead Service Desk Specialist located at our corporate headquarters in Bloomington, MN.  The Lead Service Desk Specialist is responsible for providing expert technical support and coordination for the day-to-day operation of the IT Retail focused team.  Ensure customer requirements are met in terms of communication, prioritizing, assigning, escalating, and resolving incidents and requests for International Dairy Queen (IDQ) franchisees and internal stakeholders.  This includes, IDQ's Retail Technology platform, Partner Systems, and Internal Systems.  A strong technical and customer service mindset is the key to succeeding in this role.  The Lead Service Desk Specialist will drive a culture of continuous process improvement within the Service Desk and the wider IT Team.  Assist with internal corporate support and other Service Desk related administration and improvement initiatives as needed.

Key Accountabilities Include:

Support

• Monitor ServiceNow and other communication mediums that our franchisees and internal stakeholders use to submit cases, incidents, and requests.
• Respond to questions and issues, triage/resolve and escalate as needed.
• Create and assign support tickets to Support Specialists or other team members best suited to resolve. Own/monitor assigned tickets and follow up with Franchisees and team members through resolution of the ticket. Provide SLA reports from vendors and internal ticketing system to internal stakeholders.
• Software Provisioning: Assist in the provisioning of software licenses and installations.
• Account Access Provisioning: Grant access to drives, proprietary software, and various Microsoft Applications.
• Continuous Refinement: Continuously look for opportunities to improve project related work such as support, distribution of tickets and project requests, franchisee communication, vendor communication, SLA standards and similar elements that will serve to improve the overall franchisee customer service experience and corporate team efficiency measures, over time.
• Vendor Engagement: Participate in vendor conference calls to maintain ongoing project awareness and share insights and perspective as needed.
• Oversee ITSM/CSM Service Delivery protocols within the IT Department and Reports Service Level Objective adherence for support teams within IT
• Assign and manage customer cases, incidents and requests with the Service Desk team and act as the Incident Manager for Severity 1 events
• Develop and maintain effective working relationships with the users and process owners, outside partners and vendors and key business stakeholders
• Act as a service desk subject matter expert (SME), provide status updates and support escalations
• Provide training, coaching, and mentoring to team members to ensure that all objectives and commitments are fulfilled in line with expectations, agreements, and standards

Administration

• Manage all related user lifecycle management tasks, including the onboarding/offboarding and training of new employees
• Maintain, improve, and regularly report on IT Service Desk support methods, standards, and KPIs & SLAs
• Communicate outages and outage status with internal employees in the appropriate manner, ServiceNow, Email, etc.
• Formulate policies and standards for the IT Service Desk and Desktop Support activities.
• Review and evaluate the work of the team members

Service Development

• Good understanding of the current state of the managed services portfolio, as well as operational and service management practices and processes
• In conjunction with business services and other IT staff, focus on ways to improve the IT services and processes
• Anticipate customer needs and proactively identifies solutions
• Maintain knowledge of emerging technology
• Maintain and track changes to the Asset and Knowledge Databases; publish updates in ServiceNow
• Contribute to the Change Management Process

Communication & Collaboration

• Communicate with franchisees and vendor partners as needed to ensure that support tickets are being addressed in a timely manner.
• Communicate effectively, verbally and in writing with people at all levels of the organization
• Effectively translate complex, technical concepts into easy-to-understand language to assist non-technically oriented customers
• Maintain strong relationships with managers, IT support staff, department staff, franchisees, and vendors
• Work in a team environment making positive contributions to the organization.
• Strong telephone, oral and written communication skills required
• Coordinate and collaborate with the Retail Technology engineers, developers and technologies to drive knowledge and process development and management.
• Collaborate with the Infrastructure Engineers on the evaluation of technologies and software applications for potential use / acquisition.

Education/Experience:

• A.A. or A.S. Degree in IS, IT or related field, or equivalent combination of education and work experience
• 1-2 years of experience in a team lead role or similar
• 3+ years of Experience in a Technology Department collaboratively working with business partners, technical teams and vendors is desired
• ·Experience using Microsoft Office products: Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint
• ServiceNow ITSM Experience, including ITILv3(4) principles and certification
• Broad technical support knowledge and experience, especially related to End User Support, Retail Technology, e.g., POS, Mobile,

Skills:

• Strong leadership, organizational skills, problem-solving skills, and work ethic
• Motivated, self-starting mindset and ability to take initiative and responsibility
• Strong interpersonal skills with a Passion for creating and delivering an exceptional customer service experience
•  Ability to work under pressure, prioritize multiple requests, meet deadlines, and achieve goals
• Excellent attention to detail and organizational skills in a fast-paced environment 
• Proven ability to communicate SLA standards and response expectations to customer 
• Excellent time management, communication, and follow-through skills

All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.  

Benefits

Benefit package includes medical, dental and vision insurance coverage, employer paid basic life insurance, short and long-term disability, paid sick and vacation, 401(k) match, tuition reimbursement, wellness challenges and more!

Covid-19 Requirements

International Dairy Queen (IDQ) requests and strongly encourages all U.S. employees to submit their vaccination status and documentation.

IDQ is an Equal Opportunity Employer that values the strength diversity brings to the workplace. IDQ participates in the US E-Verify program.  You must be work authorized in the United States without the need for employer sponsorship.