What is Help Desk software? Four key benefits- Introduction
Investing in help desk software can help transform your client relationship management. The purpose of helpdesk software is to make customer service more efficient and reliable. This is characterised by automated processes, multiple contact channels and reporting suites. In this article we will focus upon help desks where the end-users are external clients, rather than internal service desks for internal company service requests. There will be a follow up article soon that defines and explains the use of service desk software as an internal tool.
What is help desk software?
Customers contact the help desk when they have a question or a problem. If you are running a micro business operation, you might be able to get on by working out of your email inbox. However, once you begin to grow and scale, you’ll find that support queries can quickly overwhelm your inbox and can cause you to lose track of priority issues. This is where help desk software steps in. Help desk software allows you to manage your incoming queries separately from your email inbox. This is done through an intuitive user interface(UI) by categorising, prioritising and reporting on your customers questions and problems. Core functionality of help desk software solutions usually involve ticket management workflows, reporting suites and end-user portals
Four Key Benefits
We have highlighted below four key benefits of help desk software.
Knowledge Base
Help desk software applications typically include Knowledge Base functionality. Knowledge base articles are simply text articles that can be used an information reference point. These can either be used internally by support agents to help them diagnose and solve queries, or be publicly facing for end-users to assist them in solving the issue themselves. Knowledge base articles are crucial for storing expertise that otherwise might be lost, for example when an experienced employee leaves a company or organisation. This functionality is sometime considered a part of first line support, as end-users can sometimes solve their queries without having to engage a business cost centre such as support agent.
Prioritisation of tickets
Assigning priorities to support tickets is a key advantage help desk software has over working out your email inbox. Most help desk solutions allow you to assign importance to certain clients and assign levels of urgency to incoming support tickets. The benefits of this is to allow you team to concentrate on the most critical issues and time sensitive support cases. You can even integrate this functionality into your Service Level Agreements (SLAs) by assign in client tickets labels that reflect their SLA.
Reporting
Analysing your help desk data is fundamental in understanding where your teams inefficiencies might lie. Reporting tools that are included as a part of a help desk software package will include bespoke custom made reports, that can include fundamental data and metrics of your teams operation. See our article on key help desk metrics for more details.
Accessibility
Web based help desk solutions allow teams to access their support tools and client database remotely. As long as an internet connection is available, support can be performed anywhere in the world, whether that be on-site, in the office or on the road. Platforms has be available on PCs and laptops, but also increasingly on mobile/tablet application on IOS and Android. Many help desk solutions are increasingly ‘on the cloud’, see our previous article on this topic here.
Summary
Help desk software use has expanded greatly over the past decade or so, as businesses around the world see the value in automating and analysing their support process as a part of a drive to greater efficiency. Investing in a help desk software solution is the logical step for those looking to move away from their email inbox and grow with a scaleable platform that is proven to improve efficiency and reduce costs across a business enterprise.