Top 5 IT Help Desk Best Practices
Your IT help desk exists to help those who are struggling with an IT issue. As such, it is important that you implement IT help desk best practices to ensure that this important division within your company does not become a loss leader and create more problems than it was designed to solve. Here, you’ll find the top 5 IT help desk best practices that are sure to deliver measurable results.
IT Help Desk Best Practices: The Knowledge Base
One of the biggest cost drivers within your help desk is the ringing phone or the incoming emails requesting help or information. While your help desk was designed to handle such interactions, standard requests may be addressed through a knowledge base. Believe it or not, your users want access to self-service tools. Take advantage of this desire and develop a simple, easy-to-use online knowledge base that is searchable and that is constantly updated so users can find answers to commonly asked questions or issues.
IT Help Desk Best Practices: Guidelines
No effective process goes off without a hitch when it lacks proper guidelines. The same is true within your help desk. The second of the top five IT help desk practices is to develop guidelines on how your technicians will handle tickets and the necessary metrics for average response time. This will require that you associate a cost per minute within your help desk so you can assign an acceptable cost to ticket handling and average response times. If your technicians can stay within those guidelines, you can effectively control the costs and performance of your IT help desk.
IT Help Desk Best Practices: Software
IT help desk best practices always involve a robust software solution. Companies like BMC Software and Numara offer solutions that are designed specifically for the IT help desk. Depending upon the size of your company and your specific needs, these providers offer a full range of IT help desk software to help you reduce your handle time, properly manage your customer support processes, and meet your Service Level Agreements. You can also leverage customized reporting to measure performance and identify areas for improvement.
IT Help Desk Best Practices: Train and Motivate
Companies leveraging IT help desk best practices have found that simply paying a technician to answer the phone and handle customer issues is not enough to ensure efficient handling and optimized performance. Your technicians must be trained according to the specifics of IT help desk best practices if you expect them to perform according to your guidelines. Once they have been adequately trained, develop motivation programs that also reward for performance.
IT Help Desk Best Practices: Consistent Communication
Transparency is important in IT help desk best practices and the best way to be transparent is to push out information. Communicate with your customers on a consistent basis so they know what is going on and what to expect from you. This allows you to easily deliver on your promises, ensuring a quality experience for all customers.
The top five IT help desk best practices are not difficult to achieve, but you do have to make them a priority. Once you determine a roadmap for implementation, you will be able to measure marked performance improvement.