A help desk is an information and assistance resource that troubleshoots problems with a product or products. There are many “Help Desks” products and services available. Corporations often provide help desk support to their customers in various ways.
Help can be given:
1. via a toll-free number (often through a call center)
2. via e-mail.
3. via website through a static FAQ (Frequent Asked Questions) system
4. via website through submitting written questions
5. via website through live chat system
6. via website through live voices and video messaging or conference system
There are also “in-house help desks” geared toward providing the same kind of help for employees only using intranet.
A typical help desk has several functions. It provides the users a central point to receive help on various issues. The help desk typically manages its requests via help desk software and includes a tracking system which allows users (often customers) and helpers (employed by the help desk) to track requests and replies with a unique tracking ticket number.
The help desk software can often be an extremely beneficial tool when used to find, analyze, and eliminate common problems in an organization’s products usage, both internally and/or externally..
The user notifies the help desk of his or her issue, and the help desk issues a ticket that has details of the problem. The user gets information on how to login and to access the ticket issued. If the first level support technician is able to solve the issue, the ticket is closed and updated with documentation of the solution to allow other help desk technicians to reference in the future. If the issue needs to be escalated, it will be updated, noting what was attempted by the technician and will be forwarded to the second level support.
There are many software applications available to support the help desk function. Some are targeting enterprise level help desk (rather large) and some are targeting departmental needs. Some are for small companies or even for personal business. There are even several free applications available. These we will address in the near future!
Large help desks have different levels to handle different types of questions. The first-level help desk is prepared to answer the most commonly asked questions, or provide resolutions that often belong in an FAQ or knowledge base. Typically, an incident tracking system has been implemented that allows a logging process to take place at the onset of a call. If the issue isn’t resolved at the first-level, the ticket is escalated to a second, higher, level that has the necessary resources to handle more difficult calls. Three escalation levels are commonly used.
Larger help desks have a person or team responsible for managing the tickets. Typically, larger help desks have several teams that are experienced in working on different issues. Tickets can be assigned to one of the specialized teams based on the type of issue.
Many help desks tickets are elevated in priority on time. If no proper answer or solution has been made after a certain set time, the priority is elevated and more experienced helpers are getting involved.
Fred Lotgering
LotCon Biz Solutions
http:/www.24x7helpdesk.com
