15 Key Help Desk Benefits for Fast & Superior Customer Service

Enhance customer satisfaction with these 15 essential help desk benefits that drive faster resolutions and elevate service quality.

Nov 3, 2024

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15 Key Help Desk Benefits for Fast & Superior Customer Service

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Imagine this: You open your email to find dozens of customer inquiries waiting for you. You can quickly respond to these messages, but you don’t have the help desk software to streamline your processes. Instead, you start from scratch with each ticket. As you read the messages, you notice many customers have the same question. But without a knowledge base to guide you, it will take a long time to figure out the best solution to help your customers. This scenario is a common challenge for businesses not utilizing help desk software. The help desk benefits can help you avoid stressful situations by organizing customer inquiries, 24/7 Customer Support, automating repetitive tasks, and providing your team with the tools they need to solve issues quickly. In this blog, we’ll unpack the top help desk benefits to show you how they can help you create a seamless, efficient help desk that elevates customer satisfaction, resolves issues swiftly, and enhances team productivity.

One valuable tool for unlocking these advantages is ChatBee's AI customer support software. With our help desk solution, you can create a help desk that runs like a well-oiled machine.

What is a Help Desk and Why it is Important in Customer Support

A help desk is a customer support service business that assists customers and employees with product-related issues. When someone has a problem or question, they contact the help desk for answers.

The core function of a help desk is to centralize support inquiries so businesses can efficiently manage and resolve issues. Help desks improve customer satisfaction by:

Streamlining communication

Boosting team efficiency

Helping teams solve problems faster

Here’s a closer look at help desks, their functions, and how help desk software can improve the customer experience:

Internal vs. External Help Desks

Help desks come in two types:

Internal Help Desks: Support employees within an organization. Their primary focus is:

Resolving technical issues
Providing IT support
Answering questions related to internal tools, software, and infrastructure.

External Help Desks: Assist customers or clients using the organization’s products or services. When external users encounter problems, they contact the external help desk for:

Troubleshooting assistance
Guidance
Problem-solving services

Help Desk vs. Service Desk: What’s the Difference?

Help desks and service desks have different, though related, purposes. A help desk focuses on fixing issues, while a service desk focuses on delivering services to customers or users. Service desks emphasize service delivery and customer-centricity and are 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.

Help Desk Functions

A help desk should perform several functions:

Provide a Single Point of Contact: Customers (internal or external) should always know where to go when they need help.

Answer Questions: Customers should be able to use self-service or contact a help desk agent when they need answers or step-by-step instructions.

Free Up Time: A well-run help desk centralizes knowledge and provides workflow guidance, making solving customer problems quicker and easier.

Measure Customer Satisfaction: Customers should always have a way of rating the help desk and giving feedback to improve:

Processes
Knowledge bases
Solutions

What Is Help Desk Software?

So, how do most companies run their help desks? The answer is help desk software. When businesses start, they often rely on email for support. But as companies grow, moving beyond email as the primary support channel becomes critical. Support needs to scale with a business. If agents struggle to keep up with requests and inboxes are stacked with unanswered emails, it’s time for help desk software.

Help desk software allows companies to accept, track, and respond to support requests organizationally. Many help desk programs also provide the following:

Knowledge bases

Self-service portals

SLO management

Reporting

Choosing the right help desk software depends on your company’s specific needs.

4 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 need help prioritizing and responding to each request. Move the conversation away from inboxes to organize your help desk queues better.

2. Customers Want to Help Themselves

For many companies, help desk software offers a simple way to organize an FAQ or knowledge base that lets customers self-serve common questions.

3. Prioritize Essential Tickets

Forget calendar reminders, sticky notes, and email. Help desk software lets you define:

Ticket orders

Priority levels

Resolution time requirements

4. Monitor Support's Health

Help desk software can track:

Ticket volume

Resolution time

Customer satisfaction

Individual engineer performance

Popular Help Desk Software Features

Email Support

Send support emails to a designated address, such as support@domain.com. Those emails will then be automatically converted into tickets so agents can benefit from a structured ticketing workflow.

Knowledge base

A knowledge base stores standard answers and valuable articles such as how-tos or best practices. It provides a self-service experience that can improve customer satisfaction and reduce support requests.

Self-Service Portal

The self-service portal is an intuitive place to submit questions through help desk tickets or get immediate answers via the knowledge base.

Community Forums

Forums are a place for users to ask questions and have them answered by the community.

Reporting and Analytics

Help desk software reporting features allow companies to track key metrics such as:

Agent productivity

Customer satisfaction

Support costs

Detailed analytics allow for continuous improvement of service quality and efficiency.

Help Desk Automation

Help desk software can automate common tasks to free up agent time while keeping actions consistent. Automation can close an inactive ticket or alert a manager when creating a new priority-one issue.

SLA/SLO Management

Service Level Agreements (SLAs) are contracts between the business and the customer. Service Level Objectives (SLOs) are the objectives or goals outlined in the SLA. These SLOs define expected service levels, such as time to first response or time to resolution, that agents need to 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 to carry the company colors and logo. You can also build custom integrations on the help desk to extend the software’s functionality.

AI Customer Experience

Omni Channel Customer Support

Help Desk Ticket Workflow

How to Scale Customer Support

What is a Support Ticket

What is a Help Desk

Help Desk Software Requirements

Helpdesk Best Practices

15 Key Help Desk Benefits for Fast and Superior Customer Service

1. Improved Ticket Management

A help desk ticketing system is usually the main component of these tools. Ticket management features usually cover collecting, sorting, prioritizing, routing tickets automatically, and sending notifications to agents when a new ticket comes through. This leads to faster response times from your team and better resource management since tickets can be assigned based on an agent’s:

Skills

Capacity

Specialized knowledge

With ticketing software, your team can handle more tickets in less time, reducing downtime and increasing productivity. Faster issue resolution also leads to happier end-users and improved customer satisfaction.

Streamline Customer Support and Boost Team Productivity

This is really the core benefit of implementing help desk software, and it’s worth investing in early. Small businesses might feel like they’re managing their tickets just fine, but just imagine what your team could accomplish if you offloaded fielding incoming customer queries to tech!

2. Centralized Communication

IT help desk software brings your team's communication into the same place where they resolve issues and provide customer support. This is a huge benefit because it means less app switching and more teamwork. Your help desk team can work together to solve user issues and exchange information without jumping over to Slack or Microsoft Teams.

In addition to your team’s internal communication, you’re pulling customer requests together in a shared space. Omnichannel functionality allows service requests from various channels to be managed in a single inbox, including:

Forms

Social media

Phone

Plus, if you integrate your help desk with your CRM platform, customer histories and data can be available right there in the platform.

The High Cost of Context Switching

This might seem like scrounging for crumbs of productivity, but they add up. A 2022 study from HBR found that workers spent close to four hours a week reorienting themselves after toggling to a new application. Over a year, that adds up to five working weeks, or 9% of their annual time at work.

3. Avoid Duplicate Replies

When managing your customer requests and issues using email, there are always instances when a customer receives 2-3 different responses from your team. Not only can that be embarrassing for your brand, but it can also raise questions about your team’s reliability.

With features such as agent collision detection, your agents can be alerted when someone else is responding to a ticket. This prevents duplicate replies and ensures your team members are always on the same page.

Improve Team Collaboration and Transparency

Without a centralized solution, your organization can lose track of customer messages and their respective responses. Nevertheless, with the right help desk tool, work is entirely transparent. Your agents can easily see who is working on what and adjust their daily tasks accordingly.

4. Resolve Tickets Faster With Internal Collaboration

Delightful customer service requires a team effort. Tony Hsieh, the former CEO of Zappos said, “Customer service shouldn’t be a department; it should be the entire company.” But how do you create a system where different departments can work together?

With a help desk system's internal collaboration features, customer service agents can communicate with each other from their dashboards. They can even tag members of other departments and seek their expertise.

Whenever an agent needs help to resolve a complex ticket, he can discuss it with other agents using internal notes. These notes are only visible to your internal team members, not the customer.

You can even assign tickets to other departments whenever their involvement is required. For instance, if a customer inquires about upcoming product updates, the ticket can be assigned to the product team to share relevant information.

5. Offer Self-Service and Knowledge Resources

A help desk knowledge portal lets customers fix simple issues independently. They can browse through various resources to find solutions to their problems, including:

Self-help articles

FAQs

User manuals

Setup guides

Videos

Self-service increases brand loyalty while enabling your support team to focus on more complex issues.

Facebook’s approach to self-service makes an interesting case. The social media giant encourages its users to become problem-solvers. On Facebook’s help center, people can get answers to:

Common questions

App documentation

Website walk-throughs (if you’re new to the platform)

Leverage Self-Service to Reduce Support Load

This way, it waters two plants with one hose, empowering customers and lowering pressure on its support team (a big deal when considering those 3 billion active monthly users). Facebook is just one example proving that users are willing to help themselves and avoid interacting with live customer support if possible.

6. Keep Agents & Customers Updated

Your customer service reps need regular updates during different stages of the ticket lifecycle.

If reps and customers do not receive timely updates, they can bombard your support team with endless calls or emails.

One of the most important benefits of a customer help desk is that you can keep your agents on their toes. They can receive regular alerts and notifications from when a ticket is received to when it gets closed.

But what exactly are notifications in a help desk?

The Power of Notifications

Notifications or alerts are automated messages sent to customers and agents when a predefined condition is met. For example, agents can receive a ‘New Ticket Notification’ whenever a new customer requests. Similarly, customers can receive a notification when their ticket is resolved or when additional information is required.

7. Operate From Any Part of the World

COVID-19 has impacted how modern businesses and teams operate worldwide. In fact, according to the 2021 State of Remote Work by Buffer, forty-five percent of the respondents worked remotely due to COVID-19. So, how can customer service teams adapt to this new normal?

Cloud-based help desk software can be accessed from any part of the world using multiple devices such as:

Laptops

Mobile phones

So, whether your customer service team works remotely or from the office, they can resolve issues quickly.

Supporting Customers Anytime, Anywhere

Remote access to the ticketing system can be a great feature, especially when an agent needs immediate input from a teammate or manager away from the office. Even when your agents are not at their desks, they can view and respond to customers using their help desk mobile applications.

8. Reduce Tickets With a Knowledge Base

Many issues do not require an agent’s intervention. For instance, if customers need to understand the return terms and conditions, they can simply visit your knowledge base instead of calling your support team.

According to a Microsoft study, 77% of customers reported using a self-service support portal. With the right help desk software, you can create a dedicated knowledge base and reduce ticket volume by up to 80%.

Now, You can make your knowledge base as rich as possible. It can include resources on the most searched help topics, such as:

How-to articles

Video tutorials

Case studies

FAQs

And more

You can even grant your agents permission to edit, publish, and share support content. For instance, they can convert a ticket response into a help center article.

9. Automate Manual Tasks

Managing most of your customer service tasks can lead to a smooth process and divert your agents from focusing on more pressing tasks.

Automation is one of the best advantages of the help desk. You can streamline workflows and avoid human errors that are a byproduct of manual work.

An automated help desk system can speed up your work in the following ways:

You can create canned responses and saved templates for email or chat replies.

Whenever customers share their everyday problems, there is no need to reinvent the wheel.

Agents can simply modify the text in the template and reply to customers in seconds.

Add a Canned Response in Help Desk Software

Many tools even offer customizable chatbots that are powerful enough to understand customer sentiments and assist them with their basic queries or requests. Chatbots can even route chats to relevant human agents and help your business generate reliable leads.

Surveys are a great way to gauge customers' opinions of your support operations. Regular surveys can capture valuable customer suggestions and make customers realize that your business values their opinions.

With a help desk ticketing system, you can create insightful surveys and share them with your audience. You can even generate email surveys that are automatically shared with customers once their ticket has been resolved.

Gather Feedback to Drive Continuous Improvement

To improve the customer experience, you can share Customer Satisfaction (CSAT), Net Promoter Score (NPS), Customer Effort Score (CES), and other types of surveys. Sharing regular surveys with employees is also a great way to gauge their happiness and understand any challenges they might face.

11. Measure Agent Performance & Reward Top Performers

How would you know if your team is moving in the right direction if you don’t measure your team’s performance? With a help desk, you can share surveys that allow customers to rate the quality of their support interaction.

Another significant benefit of the help desk tool is that it gives you a clear picture of your agent’s performance. You can easily see how customers rated them and rewarded your top performers.

Nurturing Top Performers and Improving Underperformers

Simply measuring performance is not enough unless you take the necessary measures. While it is essential to identify and reward your top performers, you must encourage your bottom performers to improve their skills and work on improvement areas.

Positive Customer Service Culture

Employee recognition can be vital in creating the right customer service culture. Showing your agents that you appreciate their efforts is a great way to enhance motivation, productivity, and employee happiness.

12. Track Key Help Desk Metrics

The right help desk software will give you all the data you need. You can generate insightful reports and track metrics important to your business objectives. For instance, if your goal is to respond to customers quickly, you can focus on your first response time.

Let’s look at more such important help desk metrics:

Average First Response Time

Average first response time is the median time it takes your agents to share the first response with a customer. This metric can differ from one channel to the other. For instance, the average first response time in live chat will be just a few minutes compared to email, which can range from a couple of hours to even one day.

Ticket Backlog

Ticket backlog is another important metric highlighting the number of tickets that have yet to be resolved. For superior help desk performance, you must keep your ticket backlog as low as possible. A high ticket backlog can mean unproductive employees or a manpower shortage compared to customer queries/issues.

Ticket Resolution Time

Ticket resolution time refers to the average time it takes your agents to resolve a support ticket completely. Simply sharing the first response or acknowledging the customer's issue is different. Ticket resolution happens when a customer’s queries are resolved and the ticket is marked as closed.

13. Compliance and Security Management

IT support teams take data integrity and security, and compliance with privacy protocols seriously. Features like role-based access controls, audit trails, and data encryption in a help desk or IT service management (ITSM) system help unload the burden. These tools ensure you’re meeting all the regulatory requirements of your SLAs and the location and types of business you work for.

The right help desk will help with risk mitigation and offloading manual risk management work. This frees up your team’s time to focus on strategic work, like managing a complex IT infrastructure. End users will feel secure, your team will work more efficiently, and stakeholders will have peace of mind knowing that sensitive data is being handled carefully.

14. Increased Customer Satisfaction

This one is the crux because customer satisfaction is the primary goal of any support team. All the benefits we’ve gone over above culminate in this one:

Improved ticket management means customer requests aren’t left on read or tossed around like hot potatoes. End users receive timely, relevant, and personalized responses because systems are in place to enable that level of support.

Accelerate Issue Resolution and Empower End Users

Faster issue resolution means end users can return to work quickly and avoid waiting hours for answers. They’re empowered to find their solutions and will receive swift service from the team when needed.

Centralized communication means teams can collaborate for better problem-solving, and customers don’t need to waste time bringing agents up to speed on their situation. Plus, no one gets deprioritized because they chose to call in rather than email.

Uncover Hidden Opportunities Through Data-Driven Insights

Data-driven insights help you spot opportunities to improve the customer experience that you might not have seen before. If you send out user surveys, they can tell you what’s missing for them or how you could improve your services!

Compliance and security are in everyone’s best interest. Your end users will feel secure knowing that systems are in place to protect their sensitive data and ensure their privacy, which is an essential factor for building trust.

15. Cost Efficiency

A WordPress support ticket plugin lowers costs by eliminating resource duplication, reducing manual labor, and optimizing workflows. It also reduces operational expenses related to problem-solving and the requirement for substantial physical infrastructure.

Plus, it makes the best use of available resources, avoiding under or overstaffing. The system is affordable for companies looking for streamlined and efficient support operations because it increases overall efficiency and customer satisfaction while improving overall return on investment.

Help Desk Benefits

Customer Experience Automation

SaaS Help Desk

Ticket Escalation

Self Service Customer Support

Service Desk Automation Ideas

Common Help Desk Problems and Solutions

Best Help Desk Software for Small Business

Generative Ai for Customer Support

Best Incident Management Software

Best Open Source Ticketing System

How to Determine Your Help Desk Needs?

1. Assess Your Current Situation

Before investing in help desk software, you must assess your current situation. Start by examining your existing help desk processes. Outline any formal or informal procedures for handling support requests and determine if they adequately meet your organization’s needs. Next, evaluate the volume of requests your team receives over a specific period. This includes:

Support tickets

Phone calls

Emails

Any other form of queries

Also, measure how long it takes for your team to respond to and resolve these requests. Long wait times can lead to stakeholder dissatisfaction.

2. Identify Painpoints

Before implementing any new help desk software, you must identify your organization’s pain points. Start by gathering feedback from your team to determine what aspects of the help desk software or procedures are slowing them down. There are several ways to gather this feedback, including:

Surveys

Interviews

Informal discussions

Next, review the technology and tools currently in use. Assess whether they are fully suitable for your team's tasks. Consider whether the help desk software integrates well with other tools used by your company.

3. Evaluate Your Team’s Capabilities

Next, it’s time to evaluate your team’s capabilities to handle support requests. Start by assessing whether your team has the necessary customer service skills and knowledge to handle the types of issues being reported.

Next, determine if you have enough staff to manage the volume of requests without burnout. Identify any gaps in training that, if addressed, could improve efficiency and effectiveness.

4. Consider Technology Solutions

Several technology solutions are available to help reduce the volume of support requests and improve your existing help desk processes. A robust ticketing system can help organize, prioritize, and track the status of support requests.

Automation tools can free up your team’s time to focus on more complex issues by automating repetitive tasks. Providing customers with links to your knowledge base articles can help them find answers to common questions without contacting support.

5. Budget Considerations

Once you have thoroughly assessed your current help desk situation, it’s time to address any budget considerations. Start by quantifying all expenses associated with implementing a new help desk solution. This includes:

Software and hardware costs

Training expenses

Any ongoing maintenance or subscription fees

Next, calculate the expected return on investment by comparing the costs of the help desk solution over a set period (e.g., 1-3 years) against the financial benefits derived from its implementation.

6. Solicit Feedback

Once you’ve implemented a new help desk solution, don’t forget to solicit customer and support team feedback. Regularly ask customers for feedback on their support experience and what improvements they want. Your support team can offer valuable insights into the tools, resources, or changes that would help them perform their jobs better.

Use ChatBees’ AI Customer Support Software to 10x Customer Support Operations

Help desk tickets (or support tickets) offer an organized way to track and resolve user issues. When a user opens a ticket, the system, such as ChatBees’ AI customer support, logs the request and assigns it a unique identifier. This helps agents track their progress as they work to resolve the issue.

If you need to revisit the problem, you can open the ticket to view notes, communications, and the issue's history.