New technologies bring new possibilities. You can do things more quickly, more efficiently, and to a higher level. It raises our standards.
It also raises customer expectations. When something causes our speedy workflow to screech to a halt, we want solutions immediately.
So Much Younger Than Today
Support desks used to be labor-intensive. Tickets came from various channels and were difficult to track and prioritize. Some might even get lost. Customers could get cut off after a lengthy stint on hold. Support teams would need to know how to record a phone call, how to prioritize tickets, and how to operate CRM (Customer Relationship Management) tools.
Now these days are gone, and tech giants have set new standards for customer support.
Process management software automates menial everyday tasks. It speeds up operations and eliminates human error. It can do the same for your help desk.
What Is a Help Desk?
Put simply, a help desk is an automated solution for ticket resolution. It consolidates all your inquiries into a centralized dashboard interface and prioritizes them.
It can integrate seamlessly with your CRM tools and can offer all the benefits of a virtual receptionist. It can do so much more.
Help For Your Customers
Let’s say your customer is using an illustration package. They’re trying to create a gradient texture, which they’ve done many times before. But the interface seems to have changed, and they just can’t figure it out. They’re opening panels, clicking every conceivable menu item, and all they draw is a blank.
They’re not in the mood for a polite chat, and they don’t want to wait. There’s a deadline looming and they need some support. But where’s the help button? More often than not, it’s less visible than the “subscribe” button that they clicked to pay for their membership. Go figure.
In such situations, a straightforward automated help feature and responsive searchable FAQ is the fastest solution. It resolves everyday issues quickly, relieving pressure on your support team. And it’s available globally, 24/7. It needs to be easy to use and intuitive. Instructions should be simple and clearly worded. Some of your users might not be tech-savvy, and some may not be speaking in their native language.
Help desks are often used when your customers are short on time and patience.
Putting the Customer in Control
When a customer needs help to resolve a more complex issue, they can do so via their preferred channel. This can be social media, email, phone call, chat, or an inquiry form on your website. Your help desk will log, sort, and prioritize all of these.
Another important consideration is providing support for prospects. They may have questions about subscription tier benefits, language support, features, and integration with existing systems. This is where your automated help desk can help boost your checkout page conversion rates. Your help desk shouldn’t just be for resolving customer problems, it can help you onboard prospects too.
Service Level Agreements
Some help desk packages offer SLAs, offering further reassurance to your customers. With confidence, you can:
- Guarantee quick response times
- Provide support for all features and tools
- Communicate via the customer’s preferred method
- Resolve issues to meet customer expectations
- Offer priority for premium subscribers
- Prioritize urgent issues
Help For Your Help Team
A help desk makes support accessible and simple. It can resolve many inquiries via its automated systems, freeing up your help team to deal with one-to-one tickets. This reduces waiting times and your customers are less irritated when they speak to your help team.
Help desks can integrate with your legacy marketing automation software, and where necessary, replace it.
You can sort tickets based on various user criteria such as:
- Language
- The app or feature they’re using
- What price tier they’re on
- The urgency of the issue
- How long the customer has been waiting
- How frustrated the customer is feeling
- Their browsing and buying history
This frees up your help team from a lot of routine administrative work. They also aren’t answering queries “cold”. All types of communications can be analyzed to detect angry or frustrated customers, meaning your support team is adequately prepared.
Helping Improve Your Service
As services expand; features are added and updated, and your customer base grows. Your customer support needs to grow alongside it and maintain step-for-step progress.
Your help desk can support you in this process by providing vital analytics.
These analytics will tell you exactly what your customers are having issues with. This includes support search terms, chatbot messages, FAQ searches, emails, and social media messages. This can help you fix bugs, improve old features or add new ones, and make your software as intuitive and user-friendly as possible. Help desk analytics can suggest updates and features that your DevOps team would never dream of.
Now you will know the most common issues your customers are having. But as with long tail keywords, sometimes the lesser searched terms are just as significant. They can point towards specific issues that can suggest fundamental improvements to your SaaS.
Responsive Functionality
It can also allow for improvements to your help desk itself. In the illustration app issue described above, there are numerous possibilities for search terms. Customers might enter “gradient tool”, “gradient panel”, “color blending”, “multi-color”, or “swatch blend”.
It is therefore necessary that your search results are responsive to whichever terms your customers use. Analytics will provide these answers and streamline your service.
It can also consolidate your surveys and feedback form submissions, chatbot communications, and CCaaS conversations. Much like white hat link building, it points to the myriad positive aspects of analytics and optimization.
Not Just Anybody
Help desks are deeply democratic. Your customers can give you all the information you need to improve your software, your support, and your service. The more your products are used, the better they will become.
Help your customers. Help your support team. Help improve your software. Help your business. Help yourself.