Importance of Help Desk Research Paper

Introduction

In this modern era no one is ready for waiting. Time is very important. It increases the necessity of help desk. As the word indicates, help desk is for helping the public for the smooth running of their activities. Almost all sectors, such as, business, education, medical field, etc. have help desk. Because of its importance its inefficiency will affect the related sectors very badly. In many situations help desk raise many problems.

IT support problems are not diminishing

As a result of fast growth, IT sector gives support for customer service. So customer satisfaction in service level must increase. But according to Customer Strategies Survey conducted in 2006 November “Customer satisfaction is taking a hit as problems with billing, e-mail response time, service quality and other nagging issues drag on.” (Alter, 2006). Customer satisfaction has decreased in 2006 compared to 2005. The report says that help voice-routing and accounting sector faced more service problems in 2006. Other help desk areas which deteriorated their performance in 2006 compared to 2005 are e-mail responding, call centers, inventory management, returning merchandise, difficulty in real time discussion, difficulty in website usage, inability to identify frauds and attack against privacy. (Alter, 2006). In some areas IT support for customer service has improved its performance. But it did not outperform the other areas.

According to this report major reasons for this diminishing performance are:

1. companies try to catch new clients even if they cannot handle their existing clients very well
2. many companies cannot use the Internet at optimum level for their customer service
3. many companies are not able to manage their collected data properly
4. almost all companies have sales and marketing methods, but they do not have proper customer service strategies.

In the last year I purchased flash software from the Internet. Then I tried to install that software into my laptop. But installation failed due to some reason. I sent an e-mail to the helpdesk. But they did not give any reply to me. Then again I sent another mail. This time also they did not attend to my complaint. The third time when I sent them a mail using harsh words they reacted. They called me and informed the methods for the installation of flash.

Major reasons for this type of problem are:

1. unawareness of helpdesk staff in the working field; in some situations management is forced to employ staffs with lesser efficiency;
2. technology and techniques have very much developed.

Its complexity has also increased. Sometimes customer had more knowledge than the helpdesk staff and customer may use most modern technology and techniques. Customer’s questions are very sophisticated and the helpdesk staff cannot give necessary answer to the customer’s questions. (Setting up efficient help desk, 2001).

For avoiding this kind of diminishing performance helpdesk needs to increase its performance in various sectors. For that, helpdesk must be user-friendly, efficient in performance and error-free.

Some important pieces of advice for setting up and managing user support helpdesks

1. Set client expectations: Firstly identify the aim of the helpdesk. It means what type of support the helpdesk will give to the customers. Then make sure that the customers have awareness about the helpdesk’s working areas.
2. Tier the support system: Give a clear structure to the help desk with experienced, efficient and skilled staff.
3. Remove roadblock: Always check functioning of the supporting system. If any mistakes are found, try to make up those mistakes as early as possible.
4. Document technical procedures: Make an online forum like wikipedia where staff can give suggestions and opinions and clear doubts. (NSRC help desk: Setting up a functional support organization, 2008).
5. Automated Asset Tracking: According to Network Magazine report “critical need of every help desk is the ability to track users’ assets [e.g., PCs, peripherals and software] and their problem history.” (Setting up efficient help desk: Automated asset tracking, 2001). By this method helpdesk can understand the user’s problem easily.

Conclusion

Helpdesk plays a very important role in this era. IT gives a valuable support for the helpdesk. But helpdesk faces a lot of problems too. To manage and set a helpdesk without problems, some suggestions are listed in this report.

References

ALTER, Alan. (2006). Despite IT support, customer service is getting worse. CIO Insight. Web.

NSRC help desk: Setting up a functional support organization. (2008). Network Start Up Resource Center. Web.

Setting up efficient help desk. (2001). Network Magazine: Solutions for the Competitive Edge. Web.

Setting up efficient help desk: Automated asset tracking. (2001). Network Magazine: Solutions for the Competitive Edge. Web.