Read how the Pilgrim’s Europe team reflects on their Service Desk Certification journey, from overcoming challenges to achieving measurable improvements.
About Pilgrim’s Europe
We operate a service desk team of 15 colleagues, supporting approximately 5,500 connected users across 66 sites. These sites span a diverse range of environments, including feed mills, hatcheries, factories, data centres, and corporate offices.
On average, we manage around 5,000 incidents and service requests each month.
We provide 24x7x364 support across four territories and have successfully extended the use of our service management platform and practices beyond IT, supporting multiple departments across the wider organisation.
Why Pilgrim’s Europe decided to join the Service Desk Certification (SDC) programme
We chose to join the SDC programme to independently validate the strengths and maturity of our IT and Service Desk function, particularly our strong focus on customer-centricity.
Our team is highly engaged and takes pride in delivering a high-quality service. The SDC framework provided a recognised best practice benchmark to assess our capabilities, identify opportunities for continual improvement, and demonstrate our value more clearly to key business stakeholders.
In addition, the programme offered a platform to formally recognise and celebrate the team’s achievements. It supports our broader vision of becoming the most respected organisation in our industry and has been a key step in our journey towards achieving best-in-class service delivery.
Key challenges faced over the last few years
One of our key challenges in recent years has been shifting perception—moving from being seen purely as a functional support service to being recognised as a strategic business enabler with a strong customer-centric focus. We have successfully driven this cultural change alongside delivering major transformation programmes in complex and often challenging environments. These included operating across multiple domains, aligning differing processes, and integrating diverse teams and ways of working.
A significant achievement has been the integration of four separate businesses into a single, cohesive Pilgrim’s Europe organisation, fostering both operational alignment and a unified culture.
How the SDC Certification Audit Report drove change
As a result of our Certification report, we have focused on optimising both our processes and reporting capabilities, with particular emphasis on strengthening knowledge management and problem management disciplines.
We are enhancing our customer experience programme by introducing a further six distinct customer journeys, enabling a more structured and insights-driven approach to service improvement.
In parallel, we are further embedding problem management practices to proactively identify root causes and drive sustained incident reduction across the organisation, supporting improved service stability and overall colleague experience.
“Since engaging with the SDC programme, we have gained greater clarity and alignment around our service objectives, enabling more focused performance improvement.”
As part of this, we have strengthened our 2026 SLA targets by increasing four out of seven core metrics, including Critical System Availability, Customer Satisfaction, First Contact Resolution, and Resolution within SLA.
A key benefit has been improved focus on volume trends and proactive reduction of incidents. As a result, we have achieved an overall ticket volume reduction of 20.5% year-to-date, with incident volumes reducing by an average of 23.7%.
This reduction has created additional capacity within the team, enabling greater focus on delivering strategic business initiatives and supporting wider transformation programmes.
Turning recommendations into measurable results
We measure the value of our Certification journey not only through traditional ROI, but increasingly through Return on Employee (ROE), enabled by sustained incident reduction trends.
The reduction in BAU incident and request volumes has created additional capacity within the team, allowing us to invest more in colleague development, upskilling, and expanding capabilities to support broader business initiatives.
The SDC programme has also accelerated our organisational maturity by strengthening our use of automation, establishing more robust AI governance, and enhancing our internal operating model—enabling us to deliver more with the same level of resources.
From a measurable perspective, we have achieved a 0.02% improvement in service uptime, equating to an additional 30 minutes of availability across our 11 critical business applications.
Is the SDC programme worth the investment
The SDC programme has played a key role in helping us address some of our core challenges while providing a clear roadmap for ongoing improvement.
One of the primary challenges identified during our initial assessment was a gap in training and capability development. In response, we implemented an external learning platform to strengthen both technical and soft skills across the team.
This investment directly supports our customer experience programme, including the development of customer journey maps and user profiles. It has also enabled us to enhance our internal skills matrix, allowing training to be more targeted and aligned to individual development plans.
As a result, we are building a more capable, adaptable, and customer-focused team, better equipped to meet evolving business needs.
“We would strongly recommend the SDC programme to other organisations. While it is a demanding and rigorous journey, the benefits and outcomes significantly outweigh the investment required.”
The programme has given us the confidence to clearly articulate and demonstrate that we operate a high-performing service desk, both internally across the business and externally to our peers.
In addition, achieving 3-star accreditation has strengthened our employer brand. Since publicising this achievement, we have seen a 25% increase in IT Service Desk Analyst recruitment applications, highlighting that top talent is actively seeking to join a recognised, high-performing organisation.
Why this is more than a certification journey
What we are most proud of is the significant transformation our team has achieved over several years, resulting in our readiness to undertake the SDC programme. This has been a sustained journey of continual improvement rather than a short-term initiative.
The assessment process gave us greater clarity on areas for enhancement, particularly in strengthening our customer experience approach. While we have always had a highly customer-focused team, introducing a structured customer experience programme—including customer journey mapping and profiling—has enabled us to further elevate the service we provide.
This has had a positive impact not only on the team but also across the wider business, with improved awareness of how to engage with IT in a more supportive and collaborative way, rather than through purely transactional interactions.
From a performance perspective, we have seen tangible improvements, including a 2% increase in Customer Satisfaction (CSAT). We have also transitioned to Net Promoter Score (NPS), where we have achieved a year-to-date score of 87, which we are proud to recognise as world-class performance.
“This achievement has had a significant positive impact on both team morale and wider organisational alignment. It has further strengthened collaboration across our IT teams, bringing them closer together under a shared vision of service excellence.”
Importantly, it has also validated the credibility and capability of our IT function—not only across the business globally, but also with our third-party partners and vendors.
This recognition reinforces the strength of our service delivery and provides a powerful platform to showcase the value our teams bring to the organisation.
Discover what Service Desk Certification could do for your organisation.
The Pilgrims’ Europe results speak for themselves.
A 23.7% reduction in incidents, a 20.5% reduction in ticket volumes, an NPS score of 87, and Customer-Led 3-Star Certification were all achieved through a relentless focus on improvement and delivering exceptional service.
If your organisation shares that same commitment to service excellence, Service Desk Certification programme can provide the roadmap, benchmark, and support needed to help you achieve your goals and demonstrate your value.
