In today’s workplace, businesses optimise the effectiveness and efficiency of their operations to remain afloat and competitive. Investing in partnerships like an IT help desk makes processes more seamless and boosts employee productivity.
Consequently, integrating an IT help desk in an organisation results in improved communication, work flexibility and satisfaction, and employee retention. HubSpot found that around 42% of service-oriented businesses utilise help desk systems, and 86% reported improved team productivity.
Businesses that adopted this technology also noted increased profits of up to 11% linked to an improvement in customer support and the termination of costly and unnecessary expenses that are now efficiently covered by help desk systems.
These outsourced business services are becoming more competitive through the years, resulting in more cutting-edge features and packages following outsourcing trends on management systems.
Here’s a comprehensive guide for you to learn more about IT help desks, what benefits they can drive into your business, and what you can do to optimise the system to its full potential for your business.
What is an IT Help Desk and What Does It Do?
An IT help desk is an individual or group, in-house or outsourced, with a comprehensive network of tools and features dedicated to optimising employees’ tasks and providing excellent customer service. This organisational function serves online or in-person support requests, bridging tech gaps between employees and customers.
Common IT help desk services include:
- Assisting employees in business operations
- An IT help desk supports employees and their functions in creating seamless and error-free processes.
- Providing solutions to customers
- This type of customer support allows businesses to create their ideal customer experience, generating customer satisfaction, boosting brand loyalty, and enabling cost-efficient spending.
- Monitoring customer issues and data
- Help desks can integrate customer relationship management (CRM) tools for employees to help analyse the pool of customer data and tickets that the team receives regularly.
IT Help Desks vs. Other Solutions: What’s the Difference?
Businesses may use various IT management systems depending on specific business needs and preferences. In some cases, functions may even intertwine since there are no strict guidelines for usage as long as the systems ultimately serve their purpose.
The most common IT management solutions are help desks, service desks, and technical support systems. Below is an elaboration of each for you to understand the solutions’ functions further and help you differentiate one from the other.
An IT help desk originated from the framework of computer troubleshooting, which eventually evolved to incident management and solving minor issues. Some consider it as an additional feature of IT tasks or a subset of the service desk. When talking about its primary difference from other IT systems, an IT help desk’s focus on essential but fast provision of solutions is a key indicator.
Meanwhile, service desks are service-centred communication channels that manage incidents and service requests. They focus on delivering services like customer service for broader coverage and handle performance metrics, self-service options, service request management and reporting, and internal database management.
On the other hand, technical support is geared toward solving more complicated technical concerns, such as product or service installation and troubleshooting, which are beyond the coverage of the help and service desks. There are multiple benefits to outsourcing tech support, including round-the-clock support and access to cutting-edge technology.
6 Benefits of Working with an IT Help Desk
From 2016 to 2022, the number of businesses adopting help desk systems ballooned to 103%, and these enterprises reported an improved customer experience and journey upon the implementation of such systems.
If you want to know more about the pros of having an IT help desk, here are six more benefits you can take note of for your business.
- More streamlined operations
An IT help desk provides a comprehensive system that holds the majority of your business operations and tools. With the help of this reliable system, your team members can more efficiently manage your customers’ queries, complaints, needs, requests, and support.
An IT help desk is a communication channel between you and your end user, enabling you to see and resolve issues promptly and effectively.
- Improved employee and customer satisfaction
Integrating an effective IT help desk in your organisation increases employee satisfaction, which is crucial to creating an excellent customer experience.
When your team has all their IT functions sorted out and can work productively, they can be sure to provide swift and effective solutions to clients in need at all times. Consistent excellent customer service can yield higher customer satisfaction and may result in higher profit.
- Centralised support
Often, an IT help desk collates all customer inquiries and concerns in one vast network. This centralised gateway allows your team to easily access requests that need addressing, thus creating quicker customer response.
- Organised records for business improvement
Another primary function of an IT help desk is to track and identify issues among customers as they come. It can provide an organised database where client concerns are recorded and eventually analysed for their types and recurrence.
With data analysis, you can get notes for modifications. Key decision-makers in your company can then use this information to improve your products or services.
- Cost-efficient investment
Although IT help desks require human resources, software, and hardware to function fully, the return on investment surpasses the costs of adopting such a system.
At the onset, the integration of help desks and other technological investments reduce the cost of services by 15-20%. On top of this, improved employee productivity and satisfaction, customer experience, and product quality may drive higher profits.
- Improved business scaling
When your IT help desk partnership produces satisfied employees and customers, your organisation can expect effective operations and increased profit. Consequently, this can lead your business to scale better.
IT Help Desk Best Practices to Keep in Mind
Now that you know the benefits you can reap from working with an IT help desk, it’s time to take note of techniques to help you maximise their functions. Below are seven best practices you can consider.
- Integrate a robust help desk solution
One of the first and most significant requirements of integrating an effective IT help desk solution into your business is choosing one that captures your business’s concerns and needs. It should allow comprehensive and seamless operations, so you get the worth of what you’re paying for and the desired results you target to generate.
- Utilise automation
Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning are revolutionary innovations in business operations that can help automate basic and repetitive tasks. By utilising automation in your processes, you can improve employee productivity by 14.5% and assign your team more important responsibilities to scale your operations.
An effective IT help desk partner also ensures that these tasks are accomplished accurately and promptly, promising service quality assistance around the clock for your in-house team or customers.
- Set and measure metrics and KPIs
Like any new addition to your organisation, IT help desk services often need further modifications and improvements in their functions and features.
Using metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) is the best way to identify which areas of your IT help desk need development. You can measure the effectiveness of the resolution provided to the customer, and the response time, among many others, which make for an objective way of deciding for your business.
- Capture employee and customer feedback
Besides monitoring performance metrics for your continuous improvement, gather your employees’ and customers’ feedback. These insights are a more detailed account of what might need addressing beyond the results of your KPIs.
Create a system that generates comments, such as a survey when a ticket is addressed and closed, and take action on the identified persistent concerns. Your surveys can ask about the level of satisfaction with the system’s usefulness in providing support, the amount of effort the users put in when working with the system, and the areas that they feel need improvement.
- Build an internal knowledge base
Your employees may not always be knowledgeable about your IT help desk and system. It must be easily accessible at any time to your employees. It helps to create and maintain an internal knowledge base where all operational instructions, troubleshooting manuals, and navigational guides are stored.
This knowledge base aims to create independence among your employees, enabling them to solve issues on their own. You should also check this when exploring your IT system service provider options.
- Provide seamless internal support
Effective support and ticket solutions must include a report of the issue’s status. It should show a detailed account of the ticket’s journey from its creation to the moment an employee receives it.
Ticket tracking enables your employees to rule out possible solutions and arrive at the best one, avoid redundant customer responses, and promptly solve customer concerns.
- Partner with the experts
The best way to ensure that you get the best IT help desk services for your business is to work with experts in the field.
Inviting help desk agents aboard your customer support operations grants your organisation access to their knowledge and experience, which can be crucial when making operational decisions, especially ones that concern your customer help desk system.
IT Help Desks: Bridging You and Your Customers
IT help desks from the outsourcing industry work to manage your internal operations so you can bring an excellent customer experience to your market.
There are many layers to the benefits of an IT help desk, such as saving costs, improving employee and customer satisfaction, and increasing profit. But its primary function is to work from the inside out, making it a worthy long-term investment you may want to consider.
If you’re looking to partner with professionals in the IT help desk realm, Select VoiceCom’s experts are ready to guide you through this journey with the knowledge, tools, equipment, and support you need.
Build that seamless bridge between your business and your customers, and contact Select VoiceCom today!