Since the age of the internet began a few decades ago, businesses of all sizes and in all industries continue to look for ways to leverage digital operations for increased efficiencies. Interdepartmental memos gave way to email, then instant messaging, and now a combination of both with the added options of live conferencing and document sharing. The face of the company changes with each new tech inclusion, potentially impacting the customer experience. For the company that wants a customer-centric culture (an organizational mission to keep the customer at the center of all decision making), efficiency in problem-solving is a crucial step in the strategy. Acknowledging what that customer needs and having a staff that is ready and able to go beyond in their service delivery sets the tone. You can do this by moving away from an email-based IT management system and move toward a help ticket system.
The Role in IT Support
Help desk functions go by many names, sometimes shorted to a help desk or customer support, but the basic tasks are the same. The help desk system is supposed to resolve all customer issues that fall somewhere under the umbrella of IT services. Though the overall purpose of the help desk is to assist in the external needs of consumers, a well-rounded IT service management strategy also looks after the needs of those who work within the company as well. Rather than exchanging emails or phone calls to resolve an issue, the system (or an app) creates a “ticket” that keeps a log of customer requests and interactions over a long period of time. Customers usually receive a ticket number that they can use to reference during future contact with a customer service employee. There are several advantages that using a help desk management system brings to your business, which affects customers, the employees, and the business itself.
Improved Customer Satisfaction
The customer doesn’t really care what is going on inside the company. They simply want their problem handled as quickly as possible. An HMS does this by allowing the agent to resolve open tickets faster. With a ticket, any agent is able to pull up a history of the facts and steps taken in order to more quickly address the customer inquiry. However, most help desk software programs are able to send out regular status updates for the customer’s request, proactively addressing the customer’s need to know and reducing phone call backlog. Tickets also give everyone on the support team the information needed to handle customer inquiries, whether the customer connects through social media channels, a phone call, or emails. An omnichannel ticket management system gives customers that opportunity to connect with support in a way that they are comfortable with.
Increased Agent Productivity
An agent’s job becomes quite tedious when a ticket has to be manually created for each customer contact. A system does this automatically, improving response speed and productivity in the area of mundane queries. A system will generate a ticket that is already categorized based on the information provided by the customer. When an agent pulls a ticket, there is an overview of the customer’s account and the details needed to address the situation. This keeps agents from having to put customers on hold while they hunt down information or find out what someone else has already tried to do for the customer. This streamlined approach has everything an agent will need to work quickly and accurately on the customer’s behalf.
The company benefits from using help desk software through improved customer satisfaction and a more effective customer support team. The entire process of customer service becomes more efficient, as both supervisors and agents can see the real-time data on consumer inquiries and successful resolution. In the end, a help desk software is another competitive advantage brought to your business by technology.
