8 IT Help Desk Best Practices You Need to Follow
Luis Aponte 
Averting technical setbacks is crucial to maintaining smooth operations for today’s businesses. However, many companies struggle with resolving IT issues while managing their regular activities. Adopting IT help desk best practices is key to overcoming this challenge.
“As remote work escalates, mastering IT help desk best practices becomes a necessity for improving your operational agility and customer service excellence,” notes Luis A. Laponte Jr., Principal CEO of OneTech360.
Robust technical support plays a pivotal role in delivering quality customer service and maintaining employee efficiency. Post-pandemic, there has been a notable 16% increase in help desk ticket volume, a trend likely to persist as more businesses shift towards remote or hybrid work models.
To ensure your help desk operates efficiently and no support ticket remains unresolved, following IT help desk best practices is essential.
In this article, we’ll explore eight of these best practices, underscoring their importance for successful help desk management and customer support that leads to positive customer experiences.
Improve Customer Satisfaction by Following IT Help Desk Best Practices
Work with a reliable help desk support team that focuses on resolving issues quickly.
What Sets an IT Help Desk System Apart From a Service Desk?
When you engage with a service desk, your request is fielded by a human providing assistance with intricate IT challenges. Typically, a service desk agent addresses queries for further details or requests for added services.
Conversely, an IT help desk adopts a solution-focused approach. Generally, it uses automated software to generate support tickets and tackle straightforward IT issues, aiding your support desk team in managing the influx of requests.
An end-user employs a help desk application to find a solution to their issue, which might subsequently be escalated to your service desk. The best practice involves leveraging your help desk as a supplementary resource for your established support team.
8 IT Help Desk Best Practices Every Business Should Know
Now that you have a good understanding of the differences between help desk and service desk best practices, let’s take a closer look at eight of the most significant IT help desk best practices.
1. Selecting the Ideal Help Desk Software
Conduct thorough research to find the most suitable help desk software for your company. Focus on tools that are user-friendly, easily integrable, and effective in cutting down resolution times.
Look for software that features a user service portal, enabling swift submission of support requests. This functionality enhances the customer experience and fosters trust with your end-users.
2. Recruiting Adequate Staff to Meet Demand
Larger organizations typically encounter a higher volume of support requests than smaller or medium-sized businesses. This isn’t a reflection of product or service quality, but rather a consequence of having more users.
Recruit sufficient team members to address user issues promptly and maintain reasonable response times. Overburdened support technicians are unable to resolve issues efficiently, leading to decreased customer satisfaction.
Also, consider geographic service locations when hiring support desk agents. It’s important to ensure that users across different time zones receive consistent, high-quality support.
3. Efficiently Categorizing Support Tickets
Systematically organize your support tickets to help your team identify and prioritize specific issues. Common categorizations include issue types such as bugs, feature requests, or instructional queries.
Implementing effective strategies in IT help desk categories is crucial. The best practices involve:
- Using specific category names to avoid ambiguity and confusion for your team
- Adding extra fields to each ticket for more detailed insights, like request timing or user names
- Tailoring categories for operational efficiency, such as “resolvable tickets” or “closed tickets,” to guide your team on how they should interact with them
4. Utilizing Automated Ticketing Systems
Support desk agents working with automated systems report a 69% increase in job satisfaction. These systems, while not replacing human agents, assist in managing ticket volume.
Automated ticketing ensures that tickets are assigned to the most qualified personnel. Employ these systems also to resolve simple technical problems, freeing up time for your agents.
5. Implementing a Service Level Agreement
Establish and uphold a Service Level Agreement (SLA) for your IT team. This should encompass standards like minimum response times and acceptable issue resolution rates.
An SLA not only motivates your technicians but also provides a tangible means to measure their performance. Additionally, an SLA helps to avoid misunderstandings between you and your team members. It sets clear, referenceable expectations for discussions and reviews.
6. Create a Comprehensive Knowledge Base
Develop a knowledge base to provide your desk teams with quick references for common issues. This can include vital contact information and protocols for escalation scenarios.
A well-structured knowledge base enhances your support team’s efficiency in resolving issues. It allows them to consult pre-existing solutions, saving time that would otherwise be spent on devising new ones independently.
7. Monitor Customer Satisfaction Metrics
Track the efficiency and effectiveness with which each support agent handles issues. It’s equally important to monitor user satisfaction levels. Assess unresolved tickets over specific timeframes and conduct post-resolution surveys to measure customer contentment.
This data is invaluable for identifying areas of improvement in your support services, whether it’s through additional training for your agents or upgrading your desk system.
8. Personalized Follow-Ups Post-Resolution
Research from Mediapost indicates that 84% of consumers prefer to be treated as individuals rather than mere tickets. Providing personalized service becomes a challenge with a large clientele.
Ensure to send follow-ups to every user, regardless of the simplicity or speed of the issue resolution. This gesture of personal attention significantly enhances user satisfaction, making them feel valued and cared for.
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Choose a Trustworthy Partner That Follows Every IT Help Desk Best Practice
These eight IT help desk best practices offer a solid foundation for effective management. That said, tapping into the wisdom of experienced professionals can propel you even further.
OneTech360 delivers round-the-clock IT help desk services, backed by an impressive 100% phone pick-up rate and an average resolution time of just 11.3 minutes that help you resume your workday faster.
By partnering with us, you’ll experience a decrease in recurring IT challenges, thanks to our reliable remote and on-site technical support services.
Reach out to us today to streamline your IT support system to benefit both your remote users and your in-house teams.
Reliable Managed IT Services at Your Fingertips
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Luis Aponte
