With the wide range of help desk features that are available for larger companies, it’s clear that this resource provides a wealth of opportunities to improve operations and keep both internal and customer-facing communication slick and effective. In this article, we look at just a few of the benefits that can be enjoyed by big business after implementing a help desk.
Improved Customer Service
Not only does it give customers a clear point of contact when reporting problems or asking questions, but the use of a help desk will enable members of staff to undertake fruitful exchanges with users of your company’s products or services without unnecessary confusion or delays. When a customer initially contacts the desk with an issue or query, a ticket is automatically created, containing notes detailing the interaction that was had, the subject of the correspondence and information about the course of action that was taken. It may be that the majority of your tickets will be resolved immediately after the initial reaction, in which case the case will simply be closed.
However, under other circumstances, the staff member handling the issue may need to ask the customer to try something and then call back – or they may decide to try a fix themselves and notify the customer with the results. Each time there is a new development in the handling of the issue in question, a new time stamped note will be added to the ticket, complete with the identity of the employee working on this issue. This makes customer queries much more straightforward – and often quicker – to solve.
Customer Response Management
Often, multiple employees will need to work on the same problem at different times. This can lead to confusion unless it is carefully managed. The ticketing tools described above will allow those handling customer enquiries to see relevant, up-to-date information regarding the case at hand – meaning that no potential resolutions will be mistakenly tried twice. What’s more, a ticket can be assigned to a single individual and then locked, helping to avoid staff members unnecessarily duplicating efforts or messages to customers.
Employee Assistance
You can also set up an internal help desk – which means it is provided for the benefit of your company’s staff – or one with both internal and external services to help both employees and customers. The internal side of your help desk can provide IT assistance, including troubleshooting and maintenance, remote access and help with software or hardware update and upgrades. Its staff may also give advice and help to company employees requesting the acquisition of new equipment or struggling to understand a tech-based process.
Streamlining and Time Management
With ticketing software, help desk software, and other workflow tools can help to manage the productivity of a company’s internal tech or IT specialists, by enabling them to prioritize jobs in terms of urgency as well as chronologically. A great time management resource of this kind can reduce the amount of downtime a company requires and may even help to save money by prompting specialists to undertake priority maintenance operations before a problem has time to worsen.
Client Feedback and Analytics
Polite requests for feedback can be built into customer portals or help desk resources to keep track of how well your company is building relationships with its audience. You can also use the help desk to collect data regarding time spent per ticket or most common customer queries in order to keep things moving smoothly and improve your services.