How IT Help Desk Service Can Make Happy Customers

Editor’s Note: This article was originally published on January 17th, 2017, and has been completely revamped and updated for accuracy and comprehensiveness.

An IT Help Desk is essential to keep your customer’s expectations in mind as you consider the effectiveness of your IT help desk service.

Customer experience is more important than any point in history.

Up to the point where it is the difference between a dying and thriving business. Giving a better experience through customer service can generate a revenue increase of $823 million over three years for a company with $1 billion in annual revenues. Customer experience, or CX, should be a top priority for all businesses for several reasons. 

According to research done on the value of customer experience, 90% of Americans decide whether to do business with a company or not based on their customer service experience.

That same research stated that customer experience also has a high impact on the decision of purchasing since consumers spend up to 17% more if they received excellent customer service. 

Not only does CX affect clients, but it also influences the possibility of getting new clients and consumers. If the client had a positive experience, they would recommend the brand to a friend, at least 77% of consumers will react as so.

No matter the size of the company, both big and small businesses have a certainty that customers will have questions and those questions need to be answered in the most efficient way to give the best customer support.

One of the many channels to deliver an efficient and positive customer experience is an IT Help Desk.

What is an IT Help Desk?

A help desk is a multi-dimensional resource. Its primary function is to provide the customer or an internal user with information and support for the company’s processes, products, and service. In other words, a large group of specialized individuals who resolve issues. The job of the help desk is to solve all of the possible problems a client may have and answer all questions needed immediately. 

Small businesses may be able to handle the questions of their clients themselves. Still, as their client base grows, it becomes impossible to do it without any help from professionals, customer service representatives, who know how to handle significant call volume and amounts of questions. 

What customers expect from your help desk?

The consumer-company relationship has been shifting through the years, mostly because of how technology has evolved, and the access people have to it. Customers expect each time more from companies, as they want everything to be answered and solved immediately.

Almost 70% of customers stated that when they have called a help desk, they have been left on hold for too long. One of the expectations customers have is to be heard; 60% of the customers abandon a company and go to the competitor when they feel they have not been heard. 

Second, customers require companies to be online as well. Since everything is online nowadays, customers wait for the company to have an online site, and social media, where they can access and interact with them through it. 

Last but not least, to have a high help desk service level and desk support. They want to feel relevant and to have a voice, to be helped and get offered a solution in the fastest way possible, and they want clear communication. 

To summarize what customers expect from your help desk:

• Quick response time
• Customers want to be heard
• Not to be on hold for too long
• Have an online presence
• Clear communication

How to improve your IT help desk services?

Service agents need to provide more than technical support, so they need to receive the necessary training.

IT help desk agents must:

• have excellent interpersonal skills
• know how to handle different call situations
• have knowledge in problem management
• be efficient
• be able to diagnose and dispatch issues to the right person in case it is needed

Some improvement ideas that will help your business are:

• Handle the requests promptly.
• Keep your caller informed. Have agents explain what they are doing and why.
• Agents should talk as if they were in a conversation and not reading a script.
• Write detailed support tickets with information useful in case there is a second call.
• Use the whole team to speed up the resolution. 
• Define the goals for the help desk.
• Use metrics to boost service agents.
• Have agents take ownership of each case, that way it assures the customer a quicker solution
• Train all service agents consistently, and keep them updated with the latest technologies.

Should you outsource your help desk team?

Hiring an experienced help desk call center service is a reliable and proven option to handle the day to day inbound support calls. Nonetheless, the service is expected to bring all the technical support the clients may need and offer great customer service.   

An effective help desk must meet a series of features: 

• The capability to track all incoming incidents.
• Functions as Single Point of Contact (SPOC) for IT support. 
• Its focus is on the issues of end-users.
• It is easy to use and is collaborative. 
• Keeps a database with all the incidents that have been reported and the procedure taken.
• Creates reports, including the number of incidents and time taken to fix the issue.
• It is supported by outside specialty groups, in cases for higher degree issues.

How much does it cost for outsourcing support services? 

The pricing for live answering service varies between companies and the needs of your business. Typically, a live answering service offers four types of pricing models. Each one includes different charges, depending on the provider. 

The four types of pricing are: 

Pay by the minute 

This model works by paying only for what the company uses. Get the details about how your provider calculates the call time. 

Pay per call

This model works by paying a flat rate for each call received. Using this plan, you can forget about the minutes of each call.

Monthly fees

The plan works by getting charged a monthly fee or having a subscription. Usually, this plan sets some calling minutes per billing cycle.   

Tiered pricing 

With this plan, providers offer tiered pricing for different levels of service. The higher the level, the higher the cost. 

After determining which pricing model fits best to your business goals, you should make sure you understand your call center cost metrics. You must discuss up to every detail with the call center company no matter which plans you decide to choose. 

Conclusion

By improving your customers’ experience, the benefits it will bring to your business will be enormous. Not only will your customers feel more comfortable and have a sense of being heard, but they will be more confident to buy your services and products. Giving a more effective customer service will positively impact your customers, and they will spread the word of their experience, bringing more consumers to your business. 

Having an efficient help desk brings many benefits to the company, turning indispensable to provide first contact resolution. Not only it improves customer satisfaction, but also the quality of your service and products. Due to the knowledge of complaints it has access to, it can be the main source of feedback to the development team, letting them upgrade the services and products of the company. 

Request a quote with Unicom, and let’s work together for your company to have the best and most efficient IT Help Desk service.