Why Your Help Desk Solution needs SMS Capabilities

Evolving from a primarily personal means of communication, SMS is now widely accepted in different business environments, being used for even sophisticated high end commercial messaging. A help desk SMS option can benefit both users and help desk operators in many ways. Listed below are the top  four reasons for integrating SMS into help desk operations:

1.) Cost Effectiveness

Help desk SMS services lower costs for both the user and help desk itself. For users at distant locations, the cost of long distance calls can be avoided. For the help desk, sending an SMS will also help to reduce communications costs. Sending, receiving and registering an SMS message is far quicker than communicating with a phone call, creating significant savings in terms of time.  SMS communications can also be integrated into automated help desk operations, and providing this additional service involves no costs or resources.

2.) Accessibility & Convenience

SMS is an anytime, anywhere means of communication since it is available on both mobile phones and laptops. Interconnectivity between GSM and CDMA systems is also well established. With an increasingly mobile market and workforce, businesses need to make communication as easy as possible. SMS provides a useful tool for a mobile help desk. For example, a user who needs to contact the help desk on the fly can send off an SMS in a few seconds, knowing that their message will be received and that a response will be sent shortly. The help desk, in turn, will receive a clear message of the problem with the user’s contact information automatically added. If there is any lack of clarity, a response quoting the unclear part of the message can be sent so that the user can follow up with more information or clarity. Compared to a phone call, this is a faster means of communicating a problem and creates less misunderstandings. Additionally, both the user and help desk will have a clear record of all communication exchanged.

3.) User Friendliness

A busy help desk will often require a caller to stay on hold for a long time before the service request is registered. However, with help desk SMS, the caller can send an SMS message, which will be automatically queued without the caller having to wait. Help desks often have to put one caller on hold while attending to another incoming call. This can be irritating for the caller and can lead to confusion and mistakes by the help desk if there is a large volume of calls received. SMS eliminates both the irritation factor as well as the possibilities of any confusion. For example, an automatically generated SMS of the service request offers the user a confirmation of his service request being recorded.

4.) Reliability

SMS is an extremely reliable means of communication. But if, for any reason, a message is not delivered, the sender will be sent a message so that action may be taken to either retry or communicate by other means. For technicians in the field, help desk SMS means that they will receive clear information of cases to attend to. And since the message will stay in the phone’s memory, there will be no need to create case notes or a work order–the SMS response that is sent will cover all these issues automatically. Since the SMS is a memory resident, messages cannot be overlooked or forgotten, increasing the reliability of the service offered.

These are just a few reasons why help desk SMS can help you run your help desk operations more smoothly. SMS is an easy way to communicate for both users and operators. The benefits that can be gained by implementing SMS into your help desk operations make it an attractive option to consider.