Help Desk Software

What is Help Desk Software?

Just as the name states, help desk software aids in simplifying and automating business management services. Your employees may apply this management tool in accessing assistance or by clients who have purchased items or services from you. Handling user problems has been made easier with help desk software by giving you a better grip on customer issues and reducing the period taken from complaint to resolution. Help desk software is a strong base for a well-organized help desk. It should be one of the top priorities whether the institution is small or gigantic. Help desk software comes along with user benefits such as improved teamwork and effortless ticketing (A ticketing system aids team members in handling critical tasks, with much less supervision and in managing their own time with a more efficient approach), multitasking at smarter levels even when not in your office and helps prioritize essential tasks. A good 34 percent used help desk software across non-IT related departments such as HR. Some software was also recorded to be favored for their added security measures. All this goes to length to conclude that the benefits of a help desk software are limitless and knowing which software applies to your business is vital.

Comparing Help Desk Software

Help desk software differs significantly regarding function capabilities and areas/modes of application. This then translates that choosing the right one is not such an easy task. These Helpdesk software offer solutions by being centrally managed sites where customers or employees can report problems through the various forms of media in existence such as smartphones, email or social media. When these issues are recorded, a notification is sent to both customers and administrators, and this saves much needed time. Today, in the IT world, there are numerous products and vendors with great offers, promising good performance and low-cost software features. Knowing the correct software features you require could be the defining difference between your business and your competitors. Some important functionality features to take into consideration when comparing help desk software:

• Ticket, Service, and Complication Management - This is where collaborative settings employ the use of HDS to manage all issues from sales and services.

• Live Chat Features - A feature that allows customers and employees to communicate by the second. It provides a platform for instant customer help and communication.

• Phone Support capabilities

• Automatic notifications - Real-time notifications are essential especially in disaster handling.

• Community Forums - Building a community under your service/items is an excellent way to maintain, communicate and solve customer concerns.

• Logs - This feature takes record of both customers, employer and goods metrics which is necessary to track productivity and also the prediction of future actions.

• Customizable SLAs (service level agreements) - These are contracts that can be customized to define how much service the client will receive purposefully. They include a description of the service being provided, reliability, responsiveness, problem reporting procedures, repercussions for not meeting service obligations and escape clauses.

• Reports and analytic features - This entails an exploration of collected data and stories with the sole purpose of extracting deep insights which can be employed to understand further and raise performance. Reporting gives you the information and analytics gives you ideas. Analytics answers questions raised through reporting

Some software may stand out for the following features:

1. Auto Attendant - Commonly known as digital receptionist feature, this is a voice menu system whose purpose is to transfer callers to an extension without necessarily going through a telephone operator.

2. Automatic Call Distributor (ACD) - Whereby the telephone answers and distributes incoming calls to a specific group of terminals or care agents within a company.

3. Budget / Expense Tracking 

4. Call Center Software - It is a system that enables businesses to manage and control communication channels like phone, email, live chat, instant messaging, SMS text, and social media. It helps to respond to customer queries and issues.

5. Call Management This optimizes managing telephone traffic in sales and customer satisfaction.

6. Collaboration Tools - The purpose of this feature is to assist people in achieving a common goal or task.

7. Custom Fields / Forms 

8. Customer Portal - This is a personal customer area where customers see and track their actions.

9. Dashboards

10. Instant Message

11. Interactive Voice Response (IVR)

12. Language Support 

13. Quality Assurance 

14. Real-time Analysis and reporting

15. Regulatory Compliance Management

16. SLA Management

17. Surveys and questionnaires

Common Help Desk Software Applications

The applications of help desk software are numerous. This is due to their many features and capabilities. With the most common added advantage of well-organized systems and cost-effective services, they automatically become a top priority for companies seeking growth. Many organizations (if not all) can use this software.

1. HR teams

HR departments can use this software to organize data efficiently by collecting and storing it for future reference or action. Help desk survey and live chat feature to aid in feedback collection and also live communication between HR and employees or HR teams. It is an excellent tool for routing incoming communication messages to the specific HR team members. It is also good to track HR history and milestones while providing analytics for future improvements or commendation.

2. IT

IT departments are a core for any company especially with today’s automation of technology. For many organizations, problems in the IT department could mean a disaster for the whole organization. This is where help desk software comes to play. It helps to take note and record user actions which are critical for monitoring and progress evaluation. When a problem arises, it would, therefore, be straightforward to track the source. Moreover, it aids in problem reporting and solution. Whenever a user is stranded or has IT related issues, he or she logs the subject and the software automatic features direct them to the relevant specialist without necessary physical interaction.

3. Bug tracking

Bug tracking is essential, especially for software development teams. When bugs occur, help desk software enables their reporting through instant notifications sent by users. Routing incoming bug data to relevant Software development teams is critical for most project management teams. This is where HDS comes to play. The software also has the added advantage of notifying the user of received bug reports and resolved issues.

4. Customer Service

Forbes states that about 75 billion is lost in businesses due to customer service failures. Help desk software is an excellent solution to customer services. They offer a good option and seek to solve common misconceptions such as big brands have poor customer service, or most customer services are not satisfactory. Once the software takes record of customer issues, it collects related concerns and organizes them regarding importance or frequency. This helps the agents prioritize and solve problems with such finesse not existent before. The data is a summation of information collected from integrated live chats, emails, customer conversations and social media data.

5. Free help desk software

Free help desk solutions are bundled with curtailed functionalities, with some working as good as the premium versions in circulation. For businesses with an appropriate number of users and administrators, free versions may come in handy especially when the budget is limited. Consider details of the software such as user and administrator function ability limits.

Dealing with executives

Moving to a free, new or different software version might not be as easy as it seems. For the success of help desk software implementation, it is necessary to gain administrative approval. To obtain regulatory approval, it is then vital to provide data to prove the software’s profitability. HDS helps collect and organize this data concerning research and statistical information. Below are a few sample points for approaching various executives.

CFO

Finance officers are mainly concerned with money data. To strategically maneuver your way around their perception of help desk software as an added cost, you need to portray the software service as more of a useful cost-saving option rather than a marketing or sales advantage. Their main aim is to improve the company/organization’s profit and would therefore not take notice of non-investment returning software. It might be worthwhile to mention that costs will be significantly reduced by minimizing infrastructure, managerial team streamlining, downtime reduction and IT costs predictability. State that the software might go a long way in increasing business productivity by maximizing use of resources in existence without generally purchasing more supplies and hence cutting costs. Data collected may also point out the advantages of constant departmental streamlining. A problem may be involving two or more departments and having them together on a similar platform is a profitable idea.

CEO

The overall head of your company is mainly focused on the general output. Does the software increase general business productivity? Is the software putting them at an advantageous position about their competitors? Pointing out that HDS comes with a better customer service experience which directly leads to more loyalty and by the long-term lifetime customers might convince CEOs of the importance of the software. Managers employing HDS have an added advantage of analytical data which can help management teams and employees and services for maximum output.

Marketing campaigns can be focused. Mention that the software can help move the organization to the next phase of operation.

CTO/CIO

With issue distribution, notification and organization, help desk software can be of great use to the tech department of any organization. CTO’s are mainly concerned with the tech aspects of a company. Show that the output and cohesiveness of the tech team and general time use of the IT team might be improved. CTO’s will be pleased with the amount of time the help desk software creates by performing various functions which would take teams days to organize.

Market-Leading Help Desk Solutions

1. Zendesk - Zendesk is a structured help desk software, which makes it applicable for small or huge businesses alike.

2. Outseta - Outseta is a software platform designed to provide the basic requirements of startups and subscriber businesses.

3. Groove - Groove builds simple help desk software for minute teams.

4. Intercom - Intercom concentrates on sale, marketing, and support teams’ communication betterment between prospects and clients.

Choosing the Best Help Desk Software

Choosing the best software is therefore at the end of the day left on you to decide according to your requirements.