Helpdesk technology has long been a valuable part of the customer service strategy. Providing a valuable environment for organising tickets, driving team efficiency, and sharing knowledge, the helpdesk can make any business more efficient. In a world where customer experience strategies are growing increasingly complex, demand for helpdesks is higher than ever.
Currently, the value of the helpdesk landscape is set to reach a value of around $21.8 billion by 2027. What’s more, around 86% of service teams having a helpdesk system in place helps to boost their productivity levels.
If you’re still wondering whether helpdesk technology should form a critical part of your CX strategy, here are some of the reasons you might want to consider investing in 2022.
1. Build More Streamlined, Efficient Workflows
One of the biggest benefits of helpdesk technology, is its ability to enhance and improve business workflows. A helpdesk helps you define how tickets and customer queries will be resolved, and assign the right tasks to the agents with the correct knowledge. A good helpdesk helps companies order tasks according to priority, and deliver on service level agreements and promises.
Additionally, help desks can significantly reduce the risk of tickets getting lost and forgotten. When service demand increases in your business, it’s easy to lose track of what issues need to be followed up and completed. A helpdesk helps to keep everyone on the same page, and working towards the correct goals. This improves your chances of greater customer satisfaction.
Companies can create a unified platform for all the resources their teams need in helpdesks too, from knowledgebase articles to videos. This means they spend less time jumping between applications to find the guidance they need.
2. Reduced, More Manageable Workloads
Helpdesk software can even reduce the strain and pressure on your teams. When used to support your hybrid and remote workforce, the right helpdesks can make it easier to track down information, FAQs, and solutions to problems without an agent having to seek out additional help. Good helpdesk software provides your team with all the information they need in one convenient place.
Many of these tools can even integrate with asset management tools, CRMs, and other solutions to create a single pane of glass environment for problem resolution. Since 72% of customers now say they expect companies to know their purchase history before a conversation starts, it pays to have access to the right aligned information.
Many modern help desk solutions have a range of automation options available. They can send updates about ticket progress automatically, and alert employees when the status of a request changes. This means employees spend more time on valuable work.
3. Improved Employee Experience
Helpdesks are frequently presented as a solution for CX (customer experience), but they can also be valuable for enhancing employee experience too. Service desks significantly reduce the workload for teams, by making information easier to find and automating common tasks. Some also come with gamification and productivity-boosting tools to make the workplace feel more engaging.
The right helpdesk technology could allow your team members to track their accomplishments, set goals, and monitor their progress over time, even when working in a remote or hybrid environment. It can also offer valuable self-service solutions for team members who need to resolve issues with their own technology remotely.
For instance, around 43% of helpdesk tickets in one NETSCOUT article were related to the use of UC&C tools. Helpdesks could help users find guidance on how to use tools so they can stay as productive as possible.
4. Enhanced Customer Experience
Perhaps the most obvious reason to invest in helpdesk tools right now is to differentiate your company from a customer experience perspective. Helpdesk technology can improve the customer experience in a range of different ways. For instance, according to Microsoft 30% of customers say talking to a knowledgeable agent is crucial to their experience. With helpdesk technology offering useful insights, companies can deliver more meaningful responses to customers.
Helpdesk technology can also help align customer support requests and tickets from multiple distributed environments, from email to social media and live chat. This allows companies to offer a more comprehensive omnichannel service strategy.
With clear workflows, notifications, reminders, and assignments, helpdesks can also ensure agents have the tools they need to resolve tickets faster. Companies can implement routing strategies to get questions to the right agent straight away. The same tools can also come with automated suggestions and guidance on how to solve common problems.
5. Collect Meaningful Insights
Most helpdesk software will come with technology included to ensure businesses can get behind-the-scenes insights into customer preferences and business performance. Reporting and analytical tools can give you an overview of the issues your customers have most commonly, so you can create self-service solutions to assist your audience outside of working hours.
Some helpdesk tools also come with feedback systems intended to help users collect reviews and feedback from customers, This can make it easier to understand which factors are helping your business to stand out from the competition, and which you need to improve.
A good helpdesk solution can also offer insights into team productivity, showing you how many tickets and issues are resolved on a daily basis. You might even be able to track which staff members are the most productive.
6. Preserve Compliance
Around 59% of customers now say they care more about the customer service experience today than they did before the pandemic. A helpdesk tool can help you to deliver the service your customers expect with streamlined workflows and automated systems. However, these tools can also play another role – by helping to preserve high levels of compliance.
In today’s hybrid workplace, where team members are distributed all over the world, a helpdesk offering can ensure all of your employees are following the same policies and adhering to the correct standards when dealing with customer service and data.
Secured solutions can also help you to store valuable information from customer interactions, along with CRM insights, in a way that keeps you compliant with the latest privacy regulations. This ensures your business can grow with data access, without putting customer privacy at risk.
