What is IT support?
Choose the right help desk solution for your business needs
No matter how hard you try to prevent IT-related issues, they are inevitable. One of the best ways to minimize the impact of these issues is to streamline the support and resolution process.
But what is a help desk, and how can building a service desk benefit your business? This article will cover what a help desk is, key features to look for, and benefits of using one. Discover how you can streamline IT support for your business with a help desk.
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What is a help desk?
A help desk is the first point of contact for both customers and employees. Customers need answers, and the help desk is where they turn for assistance.
When employees need someone to troubleshoot a printer, upgrade security on a laptop, or give them access to a new system, it’s the help desk that comes to the rescue. When customers can’t access their systems, need help with setup, or encounter a bug, it’s the help desk that typically receives a call.
Help desk vs. service desk: what’s the difference?
Often, people use the terms "help desk" and "service desk" interchangeably, but they serve different yet equally important purposes.
A help desk originated from IT-centricity (mainframe computing), whereas a service desk emerged from IT service-centricity. The main focus of a help desk is resolving issues, whereas a service desk’s primary focus is delivering service to its customers or users. There’s a certain emphasis on service delivery and customer-centricity in service desks that’s less of a focal point in help desks.
A help desk can be a good starting point for organizations looking to organize their approach to addressing customer problems.
What does a help desk do?
Help desks are designed to make IT support tickets easy to log, track, and resolve. For instance, when a user submits a ticket to the Jira Service Desk, that ticket is logged in the system. IT team members can view a list of tickets and track their progress within the service desk to make sure each ticket is resolved in a timely manner.
A help desk is responsible for managing issues submitted by users. These users aren’t just limited to the team members within your organization—it also includes end users who use your products or services. When anyone encounters an IT-related issue, they can submit a ticket to the IT support team to have it resolved as quickly as possible.
Key features to look for in a help desk
When looking for help desk software, it’s important to find software solutions that offer the right features. From SLA management to automation, here are some of the best features to look for.
Email support
Send support emails to a designated address such as support@domain.com. Those emails will then be automatically converted into tickets, giving agents the advantage of a structured ticketing workflow.
Knowledge base
A knowledge base is a repository of frequently asked questions and useful articles, such as how-to guides or best practices. It offers a self-service experience that can enhance customer satisfaction and decrease support requests.
Self-service portal
The self-service portal is an intuitive platform for submitting questions in the form of help desk tickets or accessing immediate answers via the knowledge base.
Community forums
Forums are a place where users can ask questions and have them answered by the community.
Reporting and analytics
Help desk software reporting features enable companies to track key metrics, including agent productivity, customer satisfaction, and support costs. Detailed analytics allow for continuous improvement of service quality and efficiency.
Help desk automation
Help desk software can automate common tasks, freeing up agent time while maintaining consistent actions. Automation can close an inactive ticket or alert a manager when a new priority-one issue is created.
SLA/SLO management
Service Level Agreements (SLAs) are a contract between the business and the customer. Service Level Objectives (SLOs) are the specific objectives or goals outlined in the SLA. These SLOs define the expected service levels, such as time to first response or time to resolution, that agents must work within.
SLOs can also be quality-based, such as ensuring customer satisfaction stays above 90%.
Customization
Most help desk software allows companies to customize their help desk so that it carries the company colors and logo. You can also build custom integrations on top of the help desk to extend the software’s functionality.
Integration with existing tools
Integrating your help desk with the tools you’re already using can help you streamline IT service management (ITSM). These integrations help you get more out of your existing tools and your help desk.
For example, you might connect your help desk to Slack, allowing users to submit support tickets directly through the platform. You can also integrate with Confluence to visualize help desk tickets and see how they fit into the larger projects you’re working on.
Integration makes it easier to maximize the benefits of your help desk software. When you’re looking for IT help desk software, look for software that can integrate with the solutions you’re currently using.
Benefits of using a help desk
Whether you’re automating with a virtual agent or using an IT help desk to log and track tickets manually to speed up resolution times, there are several benefits of using a help desk.
Faster issue resolution
Faster issue resolution is one of the main benefits of using a help desk. When there’s an IT-related issue, it impacts team members’ ability to work. Using a help desk allows you to resolve issues more quickly, so everyone within your organization can focus on completing their tasks. Faster issue resolution also means fewer resources spent on IT support.
Improved customer satisfaction
End users who use your products or services won’t be happy if an IT-related issue affects their experience. A help desk enables you to effectively log, track, and resolve customer issues, ultimately creating a better customer experience. When everything works the way it should, customers view your company in a positive light.
Better team productivity
Productivity is one of the most important metrics for saving time and money. Help desk software can lead to improved employee experience management, fostering a more positive environment where employees can thrive.
IT help desks also boost productivity by ensuring all relevant tools and systems are up to date and functioning properly. If there’s an issue with software or systems, your IT support team can resolve that issue to maintain productivity.
Scalable support operations
As your business grows, your IT needs will become more complex, and you’ll have more users submitting support requests. Fortunately, IT help desk software is designed to scale with your business as it grows.
You can customize your service desk experience with Jira Service Management, adding new users, channels, and workflows to maximize efficiency.
Types of help desks
There are various types of help desks, including IT support help desks, customer service help desks, and business help desks. Each help desk has a distinct user base, enabling IT and customer service teams to manage and resolve issues effectively. Learn more about the different types of help desks below.
IT support help desk
An IT help desk supports internal staff, resolving problems that range from simple password resets to network outages.
Customer service help desk
A customer service help desk focuses on the external customer, answering questions and helping troubleshoot issues with products and services they’ve purchased.
Business help desk
Teams outside IT (such as HR, finance, and legal) can and sometimes do create and run a business help desk. HR can assist employees with tasks such as modifying payroll elections or obtaining employment verification letters. Legal can respond to contract review requests, and finance can field accounts payable and expense questions.
4 reasons your company needs help desk software
Help desk software plays a crucial role in maximizing productivity and reducing response times. But in case you weren’t already convinced, here are four more reasons your company needs help desk software.
1. Email is a lousy tracking tool
If every help request becomes a string of emails, agents may struggle to prioritize and respond to each request. Move the conversation away from inboxes to better organize your help desk queues.
2. Customers want to help themselves.
For many companies, help desk software also offers a simple way to organize an FAQ or knowledge base that lets customers self-serve common questions.
3. Prioritize important tickets
Forget calendar reminders, sticky notes, and email. Help desk software lets you define not only ticket order, but also priority levels and resolution time requirements.
4. Monitor the health of support
Help desk software can track metrics like ticket volume, resolution time, customer satisfaction, and even individual engineer performance.
How to choose the best help desk software
The help desk software you choose depends greatly on your needs, the number of agents, and your budget. When shopping for a solution, our experts recommend asking yourself:
- Which channels do we need to offer support on (web, email, social, mobile, etc.)?
- How many agents will use the software?
- Does our company need a self-service solution or a knowledge base?
- Does our company need automation for repetitive help desk tasks?
- What kind of reporting do we need?
- What is our timeline?
- What is our budget? Do we have any wiggle room?
- How many resources can we invest in the software setup?
Answering these questions should help you choose the best help desk software for your organization.
How to implement help desk software
Implementing help desk software can be a lengthy process, but understanding the process is helpful. Here’s how you can implement help desk software to streamline incident response.
Step one: Research and get management buy-in
Define your help desk goals and needs. Research the benefits and understand what you want to achieve with your help desk. Then, present your plans to management and obtain their buy-in.
Step two: Plan before you implement
Plan your help desk processes with the IT staff’s roles and capabilities in mind. Build workflows to drive those processes. And identify the metrics you’ll use to track success.
Step three: Install and set up your solution
Install your help desk software. Import contacts, user information, and other assets as needed. Add your IT users and admins. Define ticket categories and issue types. Set up queues and automation rules. And edit email templates and define filters.
Step four: Add advanced configurations as needed
Integrate help desk software with other applications, import your documentation into the knowledge base, define your SLOs, set up reports and notifications, and configure approval workflows—all to create a more efficient support system.
Transform your support with Jira Service Management
Creating a centralized help desk where customers and team members can submit tickets for resolution makes your business more efficient and enhances the overall user experience. With Jira Service Management, building a help desk has never been easier.
Jira Service Management is a modern, scalable help desk solution that allows you to customize your help desk to fit your specific needs. Jira Service Management’s HRSM even allows HR, IT, and customer service teams to collaborate to resolve issues faster.
Whether you’re a small business or a large enterprise, Jira Service Management can scale with your company to fit your changing needs. Get Jira Service Management free and see the difference a good help desk can make.
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