Help desk intelligence and customer delight

Modern trends in management:

Dr. K. Kuhathasan CEO: Cenlead

With the advent of the IT industry and IT related services, there emerged a new unit in several organisations - “Help Desk”.

The Help Desk is the nerve centre in IT related institutions.

What is Help Desk? CEO, Streamline International Dinesh Kumar defines help desk as “a unit established in institutions to respond positively with questions and issues raised, especially by institutional customers, in respect of products, services or software installations”.

“People at the help desk have to act with a great deal of care, caution, technical skills and help the customers with practical solutions in a diplomatic and emotionally intelligent manner, enabling them to run the installations in a good working order”, Kumar said.

The help desk is the nerve centre in IT related institutions. The success of IT companies lies not on sale of products or services, but how we handle customer’s technical and operational problems to run the installation in good operational condition.

In fact, people at the help desk are technical and operational ambassadors of our company. They are the image creators and business builders of IT related companies,” he said.

Marketing Manager of ACC Soft Solutions Azher Kamil said “My institution has a team of twenty technically qualified professionals managing our help desk. Our help desk people are technically skilled, creative in their approach and are very innovative in providing solutions”.

According to him, the main functions of the help desk staff of his organisation are:

*Answering the telephone

*Logging customer problems and enquiries

*Attempting to resolve problems

*Passing problems to specialist areas for resolution

*Advising customers of other services

*Tracking problems logged with the help desk

*Keeping customers informed of progress

*Arranging training

*Sending information out to customers

*Reporting to management in respect of the number and types of problems that are occurring.

CEO of ABC Trade and investments A. Jayaseelan said, “We have about ten personnel manning the help desk functions.

Our business depends largely on the efficient way in which the help desk operates.

People at my help desk always create a better business image for my company. They are the livewire and nerve centre of my company.”

From these responses it may be concluded that help desk units in organisation are established to:

-Provide customers with an excellent service.

-Quality goal of such centres is “First Time Right” and “Zero Defects”.

What skills are needed?

It is important to select technically competent people with the essential help desk skills, including:

*Customer services skills

*A good telephone manner

*Keyboard skills

*Technical or other skills relevant to the type of help desk you run.

Objective setting

In a help desk, the objectives are usually more performance related than project-based, but it is important to include both. Performance-based objectives include setting targets for the number of calls to be taken and the length of time to be spent on each call.

The quality measurements include assessing the number of re-opened calls and customer satisfaction data.

The objectives must have the following characteristics:

-They must be challenging.

-They should have a clear purpose either through improvement to the individual or the department

-They should be measurable

-They should have timescales attached

-They should be attainable - it is pointless setting something that will never be achieved.

What is good help

desk service?

Help desk service is the perceived element that gives some organisations the edge over their competitors.

It needs to be quick and efficient to satisfy the consumer. A customer expects the following from the help desk.

It must be quick - if possible they want the answer or problem solved now!

People who know what they are doing and give the caller confidence.

People who are patient, polite and friendly

Someone to chase progress for them

Treat every complaint as high priority

Make sure you understand what the complaint is. Act on the complaint - some problems will require you to chase other people. Make sure everyone who handles complaints knows what they are empowered to do.

If you are not prepared to empower your help desk staff to resolve complaints, make sure only senior staff or yourself handles them.

Don’t keep making the same mistake over and over again. Review the complaints that have been made and act to stop them recurring.

Difficult customers

Every help desk may come across a few difficult customers. There is no simple routine to placate them but there are a few basic rules.

* Stay polite and calm.

* Listen to what they have to say and try to resolve the problem. If you have authority and resources to achieve what they ask, do it - but not at the expense of their more important customers.

* Never promise anything you cannot deliver - they will be even more unhappy later.

Your Responsibilities

* Ensuring that the help desk is manned during the defined opening hours.

* Ensuring that all calls are answered in accordance with the standard operating procedures and within the defined service level.

* Ensuring that all service tasks scheduled or unscheduled are performed in accordance with the standard operating procedures defined for the help desk and within the defined service levels.

* Reporting on performance on a monthly basis in respect of agreed service metrics.