Tips & Tricks To Help You Make The Most Of Your Service Desk

If you have introduced a modern service desk within your organization, it is imperative that you optimize it in order to achieve the best results. Check out these strategies that will help you provide holistic support to your users using your service desk 

Tips And Tricks To Help You Make The Most Of Your Service Desk

In 2021, one of the most important factors behind the success of an organization is the support provided to its employees and customers. As digitization has evolved and dynamic technologies are being introduced at lightning speed, it becomes important for an organization to streamline its support processes. 

A service desk allows you to provide seamless support to your customers and your employees. It makes it easier for the management to cater to the customers/employees and resolve their issues. 

However, implementing just any service desk within your organization will always be a bad idea. It is important to undertake a thorough assessment of your needs and implement a platform that provides you with the best results. The traditional service desks are no longer useful in providing quick and personal support to your employees or customers. Therefore, businesses across the globe are switching to more modern alternatives that help them provide personalized support to users. 

The Importance Of Implementing A Modern Service Desk

1. Easing The Burden On The Agents
   
   A modern service desk reduces the dependence of the users on the support agents. The traditional approach to customer or employee support often led to the agents dealing with a plethora of cases at the same time. Service desks relieve the agents from this burden by allowing the employees and customers to auto-resolve their issues. When every single case is not routed directly to the agents, they can focus on every case effectively and provide the most suitable solutions to the users.
   
   
2. Providing Quick Support To The Users
   
   The traditional service desks require users to wait until the case reaches the agents; they look into the same and provide solutions. A modern service desk helps you provide quick answers to users' questions by automating the support processes. These platforms often eliminate the need to get agents involved by automating the primary level of support (L1) via chatbots.
   
   This way, the users can obtain resolutions to their issues within a few seconds, especially in emergencies.
   
   
3. Automated Ticketing System
   
   A modern service desk frees the users from creating support tickets, tracking them, and closing them once the cases are resolved. It automated the ticketing system from start to finish to make ticketing easier for the users. A simple chat with a modern service desk can help users create their tickets based on the issues they are facing. These cases are immediately routed to the agents and all relevant details of the concerned user and their case.
   
   The service desk would also keep the user notified about the status of their case in real-time through automated notifications. When the issue is resolved, the ticket is automatically closed with all the details recorded for future reference.
   
   
4. Optimizing Enterprise Knowledge Base
   
   A modern service desk allows you to make the most of your enterprise knowledge base. The use of AI and machine learning allows the platform to understand the context of the questions asked and scan the knowledge base to return with the most suitable solutions/suggestions. This helps you provide personalized support to your employees or customers without getting the agents involved from the get-go.
   
   

Tips And Tricks To Make The Most Of Your Service Desk

Once you have implemented a modern service desk within your organization, it is important to optimize it to obtain the best results. Here are some of the best tips and tricks that will help you make the most of your service desk and provide holistic support to the users: 

1. Have Clearly Defined Goals
   
   One of the first and most important aspects to consider while implementing a service desk within your organization is to have clearly defined goals. This provides you with a sense of direction and helps you create a blueprint of the support you are willing to provide.
   
   Clearly defining your goals and objectives helps you ascertain where you want to go with your service desk and what tasks you are willing to accomplish.
   
   Answering the following questions would help you establish the goals you want to attain through your service desk:
   
   - Who are you willing to cater to with the service desk – customers, employees, or both?
   
   - Which processes are you willing to automate through the service desk?
   
   - What are the key issues faced by your customers or employees?
   
   - Are your employees engaged well?
   
   - What are the needs of your HR department?
   
   - What issues is your IT department facing while catering to your employees or customers?
   
   Once you answer these questions, you will have the significant tools and features to look for in a service desk.
   
   
2. Work With The Right Metrics
   
   In the age of digitization, an organization often deals with large volumes of data regularly. However, all data is not valuable and relevant to provide ideal support to your employees and customers. A modern service desk allows you to identify and track the right metrics for your organization.
   
   It is advisable to use your service desk to work with the most suitable metrics for your organization, including support ticket volumes, new support tickets, response time, wait time, backlogs, satisfaction rates, ticket distribution, and more. When you have limited but right metrics to work on, you can focus on the most important processes for your organization.
   
   
3. Get Your Service Desk Employees Trained
   
   Although most modern service desks are simple to implement and easy to use, training support desk employees are crucial to optimize their platforms. If they have been accustomed to the traditional approach of using service desks, make sure you help them switch to a modern platform at an even pace.
   
   This helps you relieve your employees or customers from having to wait to get their issues resolved. Well-trained service desk employees can provide quick, effective, and personalized support. This, in turn, helps you build healthy relations with your team members and customers.
   
   
4. Integrate The Service Desk With Your Collaborative Platform
   
   The relevance of collaborative platforms like Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Slack has only increased over time. These platforms have allowed professionals to communicate and collaborate with their peers and managers virtually from any location.
   
   You can leverage the functionality of these platforms by integrating your service desk with them, especially if you want to provide seamless support to your employees. This allows your employees to obtain seamless support on the same platform that they use for work. Whenever they are stuck and are looking for help, they can interact with the chatbots on their respective collaborative platforms and resolve their issues.
   
   Moreover, integrating your service desk with a collaborative platform helps you centralize your support processes. This allows the management to provide personalized support to all employees, irrespective of their department.
   
   Read More: How do conversational chatbots reply to questions from employees without causing any delays?
   
   
5. Give More Importance To Self-service Portals
   
   Setting up self-service portals allows your employees and customers to resolve their issues without involving support agents. Feed your knowledge base with all relevant data to solve at least the fundamental issues your employees or customers face.
   
   This way, the users can log into the service desk, get their questions answered within a few seconds, and get back to their work without waiting for the support agents. However, eliminating support agents from the equation is never advisable. Make sure that your service desk allows users to get their cases routed to dedicated agents if they need further assistance on their issues.
   
   
6. Gather Feedback From The Users
   
   Whether you are catering to your employees or customers, it is always important to gather feedback regarding your support services. This helps you understand the effectiveness of your service desk and allows you to ascertain if you have achieved your goals.
   
   If you provide support to your employees, you can use modern service desks to send personal surveys through your collaborative platform. This helps you obtain solutions from every employee on a centralized platform and understand the pulse of your organization. The results obtained can reinforce the aspects that work and rectify the ones that don’t.
   
   
7. Use Your Service Desk To Automate Repetitive Tasks
   
   Especially for IT employees, the team often spends most of its time handling repetitive requests for changing or resetting passwords. This prevents your IT professionals from focusing on other, more critical issues.
   
   Use your service desk to automate these repetitive processes, preventing your IT team from getting involved. A modern service desk allows users to undertake processes like changing and resetting their passwords by themselves simply by chatting with the platform. A simple command connects their request to the backend, authenticates their identities, and allows them to make the required changes almost immediately.
   
   

The Final Word 

These were some of the essential tips for making the most of your service desk. Whenever you implement a service desk within your organization, make sure that it is in sync with the goals you want to achieve and possesses advanced tools that make your work a little easier.