Help Desk

Help desk functionality is the ability to receive a customer’s inquiry and provide a meaningful solution to their concern or question.  Most typically the transaction occurs over the telephone, but in today’s high-tech world, help desks are becoming remote, with help desks being made available 24/7 through internet chat and instant messenger (I/M) services which can be sent to your cell phone or PDA.

If you are looking for help desk software for the customer service department, you could check for the following functions:

• Ability to manually register a call including the date and time of the inquiry (I know this is obvious, but must be mentioned first)
• Automatically create a call on incoming mail
• Automatic or easy mail-out on the progress of the customer’s request
• Keeping track of call history (both internal and external messages)
• Automatic routing of calls internally, if needed
• Setting the service levels
• Maintenance of a solution database that can either be searched internally or by your customers
• Maintenance of Frequently Asked Question (FAQ) lists to be viewed by your customers
• Pre-defined answers to be personalized
• Reporting on various metrics to measure the service

Whether a company decides to keep the help desk in house or to outsource it to a company that specializes in providing such services depends entirely on the company’s resources and which method can provide the best return on investment. There is no doubt that a help desk can vastly improve customer relations by being responsive to customer needs and making certain they get the right information the first time. The image created by the help desk provides customers with a reflection of the entire company and how well its services and products are delivered. Therefore, efficiency and effectiveness should be primary considerations, rather than just the lowest cost.