Introduction
Help Desk is a system that helps an organization to clear customer queries related to a specific product that they had bought or wished to buy. Whether it is a simple household item or a supercomputer, customers will have several queries or doubts regarding the product they intend to purchase. Customers may be skeptical not only about a company’s products but its services as well. Help Desk is an organized system where customers can put forward their queries regarding products or services offered by a company.
Customer Care has become an indispensable part of the modern corporate scenario and an efficient Help Desk is regarded as the minimum criteria of a good customer care system. The success of a business is closely related to its customer care system. If the query of a customer is not answered properly, it could result in a major dip in one’s business. An effective customer care system should incorporate an organized Help Desk that works around the clock.
Besides customer service, a Help Desk offers a whole horde of advantages or benefits such as offering assistance to employees in a firm/organization, answering queries of students and teachers in a university, helping delegates in a seminar, guiding visitors to an exhibition, travelers in railway stations, airports and so on. The function of help Desks varies in different firms. However, the most common kind of help desk is the first level Help Desk agents who attend to customer queries, find a plausible solution for such issues or otherwise classify it and pass it on to its respective second-level agents and so on.
Help Lines are generally provided to a customer through various easy and convenient communication methods such as telephone, number email ID, etc.
Help Desks and Softwares
Cutting-edge developments in the field of Information technology have triggered a revolution in the corporate world. Entrepreneurs, investors, and businessmen are constantly devising new strategies and methodologies by which they can incorporate Information technology in business so that they can reap maximum profit. Undoubtedly, technological advancement has become an integral part of the business sector. Customer support is not an exception. Using software in the Help Desk system can be beneficial in numerous ways. Quite often, it has been found that customers post the same type of queries. Such Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) can be efficiently dealt with by using advanced software. While software generally deals with recurrent problems, technical persons can deal effectively with sophisticated problems, thus saving time and money. Technology offers myriad options to choose from. But making the right choice is a truly challenging job.
Nowadays, several easy-to-use and navigable Help Desk software are available, which an organization can use for its business purposes. The customer must choose the help desk software depending on its functionalities and his/her requirements. “Help Desk Software packages include features to log and track incidents. They include applications to store, edit and recall content and known information about internal clients, external clients, information system staff, information resources and vendors. A Helpdesk package that contains links to detailed information about hardware, software, networks and services enables support staff to respond to many common questions regarding product features, limitations, new versions, configuration constraints, known bugs, product unavailability and related information. A knowledge base used as a support tool contains information about common problems and their solutions. The smart part of a knowledge base is a set of search tools to help locate past problem situations that are similar to a current problem. Expert systems(sequences of IF-THEN Rules),neural networks(automated learning system),case-based reasoning(pattern-matching strategies) and natural language processing(the ability to formulate questions in English) may be incorporated to help support staff quickly locate the specific information in a knowledge base that they need to solve a problem.” (Help desk technology and tools, 2009, p.214).
Characteristics of an effective and ineffective Help Desk
Help Desk is the first place a customer may approach to resolve his queries regarding a product/service. Therefore, it would be right to say that it is the Help Desk Agents who leave the first impression about the organization for the customers. Help Desk Agents must be well-behaved, disciplined, and should take extremely good care of the customers. Patience is, perhaps, the prime virtue expected from a help desk agent. An impatient agent could be considered as a misfit for the job. The help desk agent may come across different kinds of queries regarding a product/service and even certain clarifications from the customer’s part which he/she may occasionally find trivial. But as always, the customer is the king. The most important goal to be achieved in any successful business is the satisfaction and appreciation of customers.
Customers approach the Help Desk only when they have a critical problem with the product they have purchased or the service they have acquired. Help desk agents should be knowledgeable and well-aware of the products of the company, the probable problems that can arise in a product/service, and the solutions to resolve it. If he is not well versed with the product line of the company, he will not be able to serve the customer promptly. Customers should not be forced to wait too long to get answers to their queries. If the Help Desk Software is being used for business purposes, agents should know all the details regarding its various functionalities and use it appropriately to solve customer problems. Adequate training should be given to help desk agents from time to time to update their knowledge and skills.
Pros and Cons of outsourcing Help Desk Operations
Outsourcing Help Desk Operations generally means that you are saving money on setting up a Help desk of your own and you are free from the hassles of attending to customer queries. However, one of the biggest disadvantages of outsourcing help desk operations is that you are passing your highly confidential and discreet product-related information to an outsider, thus leading to a critical security problem.
“There are some potential benefits of outsourcing:
- Near-term cost reduction
- Long-term cost reduction
- Better IS expertise
- Improved business focus
- Improved flexibility
There are some potential risks of outsourcing:
- Loss of management control
- Cost escalation
- Reduced responsiveness
- Reduced flexibility
- Loss of in-house expertise” (Lenz, 1996, p.34).
Personal experience
I had to ring up my bank’s Help Desk to intimate the loss of my Credit Card. The loss intimation was recorded and my Credit Card was blocked immediately. However, unfortunately, the help desk agent was eager to educate me on the bank’s new auto-debit facility of telephone bills. Enough I was not in a position to enjoy such a marketing proposition. This gave me a bad impression of the bank and therefore, I procured a Credit Card from another bank. Thus, an untimely attitude from one of their help desk agents made them lose a client.
Conclusion
Customer care and the Help Desk have become an inevitable part of the modern business scenario. High-end software can be used to develop an efficient Help Desk management system. If technology is used productively, it can help in the smoother and better functioning of the Help Desk. This would, in turn, help the business organization to optimally utilize its various resources i.e. employees, time, and money very effectively, thus resulting in a profitable equation.
Reference List
Help desk technology and tools. (2009). Cengage Learning, p.214. Web.
Lenz, M. (1996). The complete help desk guide. A Flatiron Publishing, p.34. Web.