Help desk commonly refers to a individual sitting at a desk with a telephone in hand, explaining an answer to the person on the other end. Most of the time the help desk applies to technical issues with computers and networks. How can a person have this much knowledge that would satisfy the question from a customer. Let us take a look at some of the ways we can a help desk can operate.
The help desk process would depend on how many people would take part in the job or organization. A small help desk with one or two people would function differently than one where you have many people who could answer the inquiries. In a two person shop, both help desk professionals would have the same or nearly the same expertise in the matters people would call about. In a bigger organization the professionals would be grouped as to their skill levels and would be part of an expertise level.
How would be want our help desk to be? Software is the real key because without it, there would be no connection that would be fast enough to manage the requests that filter in. With the internet being so evolved, the help desk software can come in many varieties. You have software that has a chat client for your web site so that you can interact instantly with the customer and a ticket system where the customer fills out a form and e-mails you the question.
No matter which help desk software you have, you have a single point of contact for the customer. If you have a very large company, imagine the type of help desk would provide entry for tickets that staff would explore on and send an e-mail giving the answer to the question. A smaller company may have web chat feature where there is a person on the other end of the chat to help solve the problem by typing questions and answers.
Another part of the help desk is a database full of knowledge. They call this the Knowledge base. The format is similar to the FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions). Here the customer types in what they want to know and the knowledge base will give an answer. Another use of the knowledge base is for the help desk professional. If the professional doesn’t know the answer, they can search for it through the knowledge base. Help desk can be combined with on-site support. If the client can not find a solution using the knowledge base or with the professional, on-site support can be scheduled. This would call for complex issues that the web help desk can not solve.
How can we make customer happy? The help desk professional needs to know what products you sell and what type of questions are asked about the product. Trust is a key factor because the client must know that they can depend on a good answer from you. Being knowledgeable about the product is what the client is looking for. As you may have guessed, excellent customer service is the greatest key in the internet environment.
Since excellent customer service is a critical key, where does the help desk professional get the necessary training so provide such a service? Besides the organizations that you can enroll in, there is the world of hard knocks. Imagine working for different department stores where their goal is customer service. Their training is next to nothing, so you have to learn by yourself. It all boils down to common sense. You learn about what you are selling to the point where you can explain to the customer how it works without looking at the box and always be nice to the customer even though they may not respect your position as the salesperson.
The help desk can be manned by many people who have a computer, internet connection and be able to work different hours of the day and night. By running the help desk 24/7 you guarantee the customer that problems with their product can be solved, no matter what time of day or night it is. You can also create groups of people with expertise that fit the group. So, if the 1st group cant solve the problem, the professional can refer the caller up the group line with hopes their expertise will come up with the needed answer.
The internet help desk is a pretty neat system when you can get all the components together to function as one. There are many possibilities that can happen with the help desk. This is something worth exploring.
