Get smart, don’t do basic helpdesk: go the extra mile.
Don’t send an email when they say they have trouble with their email service. Don’t send them a notification to let them know you won’t be sending them any more notifications. Don’t do basic helpdesk, go the extra mile and offer sensible services. Just don’t do basic helpdesk!
Get smart, look internally
Just think about all the things you hate about the very basic helpdesk experiences in your life and then realize that you’re the source of one of these for someone else. I know you have many other things to worry about and that you’re exhausted from having to explain a hundred times how to get to this page or how to fix this issue, but that is precisely the reason why you have to answer those questions a hundred times.
Look over your processes, are you doing things that can be considered as basic as the examples I mentioned at the start? If you’re answering one question often enough that you wish they’d smarten up about it, doesn’t that mean you should make triple sure that this question is answered somewhere on the first page of your website in bold red text and highlighted in green? Unfortunately, it does.
Take the time to review how your helpdesk is being run, what kinds of answers are being given and how they are being given. All these things will help redress this problem you clearly don’t know you have, the curse of the basic helpdesk.
Go the extra mile, distance yourself from the basic helpdesk
Offer personalized experiences:
People using only your application and no other services of yours should get access to a branch of your helpdesk dedicated to app support. It should go without saying that those sites should be mobile friendly and stay mobile friendly as the years go by. If you have something you need to maintain and upgrade it. Websites that look like 1998 now are poor examples of the company behind it. That’s just basic helpdesk as well.
Mobile sites should also be light on data, forget all your empty graphics and animations from wix, place yourself in the shoes of the person trying to get help. They want help now and they want it simple and fast. If your not-so-mobile-friendly website take years to load and crashes through simple taps, you are the cause from your customers’ frustration right out of the gates.
This is a particular example but this applies to any of the helpdesk services you offer,
Ever been on hold on a helpdesk hotline which plays terribly fuzzy music and is interrupted every ten seconds by a crystal clear announcement of some sort? That’s absolutely inexcusable in this day and age just have the announcements at the start and don’t have your customer freak out every ten seconds thinking she’s about to talk to someone only to find out, again, and again, that she isn’t. And fix your music!
Don’t handle clients in a ‘’Classic’’ way.
These examples all point to one thing: don’t handle your customers in a classic manner, don’t do basic helpdesk. Take the time to work through your help options just like you do with your projects. Don’t stamp the staple system down and say Job Done!
Do things differently, take the time to develop intuitive systems with a variety of tools, live-chat, automated chatbots, live demos, phone lines, email, built-in application help options and mobile friendly sites. And build those items just the way you would want to be handled yourself!
In the end…
Helpdesks are the joke of the tech industry and have been since computers came around. Learn! There’s no excuse anymore to make these kinds of mistakes and offer basic helpdesk! Get some form of helpdesk that allows you to expand as your business expands, to make changes and integrate new technology into your workplace. Here at OneDesk we offer intuitive helpdesk options which allow for clients to attach and integrate other tools in order to build on their basic helpdesk formulas. Lead by example, get smart and gear up.
Photo Credit: el cajon yacht club / Tool Chest / CC BY