Managing a helpdesk is not easy. We’re all willing to admit that much, but sometimes good things happen and you should showcase that. A good statistic, a positive story, a worthy cause, these are all good examples you should show to the rest of the world and your prospective clients.
Showcase your openness
You have stats, you have data you use to quantify your employees success rates? Use that data to your advantage and be more transparent.
All you need is a simple set of numbers showing how your workers fare at answering quickly, or how often the post-intervention survey gets a positive answer, etc. These kinds of statistics might normally be information useful for the internal aspects of your business, but with some polishing and a few signed clauses they can really help develop the outside of your business. Just take the time to look over your existing data and see if anything you currently are doing could apply. If not you can still set those kinds of reports easily by asking your clients if you can quantify their satisfaction or if you can share certain aspects of your interaction with them, like for example your speed to answer their query.
If you have this kind of data available or are planning to, making use of this kind of data does not mean full transparency. You can still be selective, and you should. Simply pick recent data, or partial data, from the year before that showcases a positive aspects of what you are doing and update these listings every few years with similar or equivalent other pieces of data. If you have a bad year, change the data you showcase. For these things you don’t need to make an annual report available, just pick one number that looks good and make that apparent on your website.
Showcase some stories
The other type of data you can make good use of is not just statistics and numbers but real stories and real examples.
If you have good clients or ones with feel good stories of their own, piggy back off of that and use them to showcase what you do for them.
We all have those small clients that do great things, or big clients everyone knows; use these clients and share their stories and profiles to showcase features you have.
For example: a non-profit making good use of your helpdesk system to manage donations for a cause. You can showcase their work and your system at the same time. Simply have their cause and their process as an example of how to use your platform, this will help businesses using the same model or looking to do the same. This will also show you care about your clients and their cause, because you do.
This is the kind of feel good story that enables you to make good publicity and showcase that you are helping good small businesses that do great things.
Another classic example is showcasing that one of your clients is a big and important one, like a firm or a university, etc. This is a simple method that shows that if someone as big and powerful as this client can trust you with their data and their needs, then you are more than worthy of any other small or big business shopping around for what you offer.
In the End…
There is not only sadness and horror stories in the Helpdesk world. There are also good moments. You should make good use of those and help yourself by helping others. Gather data about what you do and how you are doing it, and if you already have that data, make good use of it. Showcase your efficiency, speed or the amount or types of businesses that you service. If you have interesting or large clients, showcase these and make their projects known. All these little things will help publicize you and them and will let you learn much more about your client base and the work you are doing!
Photo Credit: starmanseries / Billboards / CC BY