Depending on the volume of services your company provides, the variety of channels available, the complexity it can assume and, above all, the importance it has for the business, the help desk is essential!
But before you implement one and for those who already have one, but want to improve, our chat today is aimed at dealing with everything that is important to keep in mind when it comes to help desk.
What is a help desk?
This foreignness arose in the IT teams of companies, which created systems to meet internal requests from other departments, such as the installation of certain software on the employees’ machines, the creation of users for the intranet or for the internal systems, changing passwords, that is, any demand related to the computer systems existing in the company.
As an equivalent term in Portuguese, is the designation of the famous and so common in the past, service desk, or doubt desk, to which customers of an establishment would go to get information, ask questions or enjoy a specific service.
Although less common nowadays, some types of business, such as supermarkets, still maintain a physical space type, with employees trained to attend customers face-to-face, such as in the exchange or return of goods, for example.
Over time, the concept of help desk was applied in other areas of the company beyond IT, whenever there was an internal customer relationship between different departments.
Next, it was seen that expanding to external customers or end customers would also be beneficial.
Therefore, today it is more common when we talk about help desk, as being three different situations:
- Service – is seen as a service, from the customer’s perspective, intended to meet the various needs that he may have;
- Department – rep represents the area or department, from the point of view of the company, responsible for providing services related to customer problems, support and doubts. In other words, it is a department that provides customer service;
- Software – it is the system or a set of them , which both customers and employees use as a tool for the provision of service to happen and through which the service is provided.
For those who are here trying to understand what a help desk is, it may seem a bit confusing, especially since companies that create and sell help desk systems give priority to dealing with software – the third situation.
But if we focus on its physical counterpart and that still exists in some scenarios, as in the example quoted from the supermarket, it becomes easier to understand.
Imagine that you have to go to the supermarket to return goods for any reason.
Go to the “service desk”, explain what you want and the employee will guide you and start the return procedure , which may vary according to with the company, but which usually requires filling out some form, presenting the purchase receipt, taking a copy of it and attaching it to the return form, the refund of the amount paid, etc.
In the example in question, you received a service (first situation), from a market employee whose work is in that department / area (second situation) and who carried out some procedures, which in many other cases are computerized (third situation ) and eliminated paperwork and reduced bureaucracy, thanks to digital transformation.
Therefore, nowadays, most of the time, this face-to-face routine is replaced by a few taps or clicks, in an app or an area of the companies’ website and the provision of some data and information, to result in exactly the same thing, except of course, in situations like the supermarket.
At this point, you must be wondering: “ But then why not call customer service instead of hel p desk?”.
Contain your possible anxiety, the answer will become clearer as we go along and by the end you will be able to answer for yourself.
What is the difference between help desk and service desk?
Whoever went after knowing more about help desk, must have bumped into another term that is often associated, which is service desk and that’s why , please understand the difference between both.
There are indeed those who make a distinction between them and it is customary to say that the help desk is reserved for simpler, more common issues and the service desk, for less common or technically more complex.
Strictly speaking, as a service and especially from the customer’s point of view, which is what matters most, they are the same thing.
In practice and for many companies, the help desk has gained a broader role and when this is the case, the company internally differentiates as to the level of technical support that must act and which team will be in charge
For the customer, it is absolutely indifferent and may even cause unnecessary confusion to adopt different terminologies that he is not obliged to know nor is he interested in doing so. What matters only is the solution through quality service and, if possible, personalized, empathetic, effective and fast.
What are the functions of the help desk?
In general and playing the role of a tool (software), the help desk must function as an integrator of service channels, centralizing the data and information that the company gathers about the customer.
Regardless whatever name you choose (tool, system or software), the solutions vary in terms of characteristics and resources, but they all aim to make the service (first situation) to the customer, more agile, simpler, more intuitive and efficient.
Also for the professionals of the service department (second situation), the tool acts as a facilitator, in that instead of having to access an email client, the chat, a system of registration, another financial and whatever else there is and that in the best solutions, everything is centralized in a single software.
In addition, when a great customization is achieved for the routines and standard operating procedures of the area, it is unnecessary for the attendant to have to switch between windows of different applications.
Finally, but not least, a good help desk solution that is omnichannel, as long as it is through which channel the service takes place (telephone, chat, email, app, website form, etc.), everything ends up flowing into the help desk, avoiding having to navigate between applications and copying or importing data.
Why is the help desk important?
It is easy to understand from what we have seen so far, that the institution of powerful, versatile tools (software) that are able to integrate the different service channels, concentrating data and information in just one place, brings benefits to both sides – customers and attendants.
In practice this is reflected in:
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- Productivity – service times therefore tend to be smaller, due to standard operating processes and procedures that can be leaner and more optimized, contributing to productivity;
- Precision – the centralization of data and information, reduces the chances of obtaining inaccurate, dubious, absent, conflicting information, which in the end means accuracy or precision of the information necessary to provide support and better communication;
- Costs – lower costs with licensing software and tools that the help desk replaces, as well as the lower cost resulting from increased productivity ;
- Practicality – from the customer’s point of view, there is a more efficient, transparent and uncomplicated service, the that translates into practicality and that comes as a result of omnichannel;
- Measurement – for the area manager, the indicators and metrics available in good solutions, serve as an important subsidy for men the performance of the department;
- Quality – both due to the ease of having the outcomes of the services centralized in one place, as by indicators and metrics, having a precise overview of the service provided and which are the most frequent problems, favors the implementation of the necessary improvements to seek better quality indices;
- Relationship – a clearer view of service situations, knowledge of needs, desires and expectations regarding support, resulting from broader, more accurate and centralized information, favors the implementation of more targeted and therefore efficient Relationship Marketing policies;
- Traceability – finding information, identifying problems , resorting to customer service history is easier, safer and more accurate;
- Documentation – the documentation of information and backups, sane the easiest to do;
- 24/7 – the customer has a service channel that is available 24/7 hours a day, 7 days a week.
These are some of the most obvious benefits of a good implementation of help desk, but depending on the service operation, may have other developments and positive implications.
How does the help desk work?
Naturally the functioning of a solution can vary enormously, from simpler systems that contain more basic resources for smaller and simpler service operations, to ultra sophisticated and expensive ones.
Within this last group, the customer when resorting to the company’s telephone service, the URA (Audible Response Unit) integrated with an intelligent virtual assistant uses a caller identification system to retrieve the customer’s record and call history, if necessary. necessary
But even most intermediate and more affordable solutions tend to have the following features:
Tickets – an interface for opening tickets or tickets, through which the customer reports their problem or question and which will also be the means by which they will be answered;
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- History – both customers and attendants have a detailed history of attendance, such as ticket number, dates, times, subjects, answers, department (support, after-sales, commercial, financial, etc) and status (waiting, resolved, closed, tracking, alerts, etc);
- Level – the level refers to the level of technical complexity that has made it unnecessary to differentiate from the service desk, adopting the nomenclature of hekp desk level 1, level 2 and other levels if necessary;
- Time – it is possible to observe both the time required for a response to be prepared by the attendant, up to the total time elapsed since the call was opened, each interaction occurred and its closure;
- Subjects – classification according to the subject or area to which the demand refers, helps to know which are the most frequent questions or if there is a topic that is on the rise and that can mean a problem, such as, for example, a defect in a product;
- Registration – there is access by both the customer and the attendants, personal data, and registration may be updated, such as contact numbers, e-mail addresses and physical addresses, etc;
- )Orders / products / services – history of orders, products and services contracted;
- Financial – payment history, any pending issues, negotiations, payment methods/methods (deposit, pix, card, etc);
- Link s and menus – links for channel integration (phone, chat, email, application, etc.), options for attachments, documents, images, etc;
- Alerts – preventive and corrective maintenance a, unavailability and status of services and SLA (Service Level Agreement);
- Level of satisfaction – where the customer can evaluate the service received, contact the ombudsman or an ombudsman.
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Depending on the company’s operating segment and how customizable the system is, or even if something was custom developed, as we said, the options can vary a lot.
The important thing is to understand that in this case the concept of a help desk is to elevate the service to an optimal condition, either by using an adequate tool, but above all, because there is training, qualification and willingness to use it to the fullest in favor of solving problems and customer satisfaction.
Conclusion
More than a tool, help desk is a broad concept of centralized, integrated service that provides quick and efficient solutions to customers.
