Help desk software solutions - An introduction

If you have purchased a product or taken service offered by a company and you have trouble in using the product, the first place where you will call is the company's help-desk. The help-desk is also the point of contact for calls on product information. The aim of setting up a help-desk service is to support customers and product end-users. By calling up the help-desk, a customer can get information and help on how to solve technical issues related to product usage.

A help-desk is a separate entity in a company with a phone number that can be used by the customer to make calls whenever required. It can also be part of a company's website. Product users and customers can go to the company's website to get information on the company's product or find answers to their problem.

Help-desk activities are supported by help-desk software solutions. A help-desk software solution will ensure that all help-desk activities are managed and carried out efficiently. It's now a very important tool for both small and large organizations.

Help-desk software solutions automate certain help desk functions and also track requests or calls received, thereby enable efficient management and response to calls. This boosts the company image to the customer and the company can also get required feedback on their products from customer calls.

When a help-desk solution is implemented for internal purposes, the company employees can route all queries on office equipment usage or problems encountered with devices like printers, computers and other IT products to the IT department through the solution. The solution enables the IT departments to track, manage and sort all internal requests efficiently. Problems encountered by employees will be recorded and assigned to the concerned staff for further action. The employee can log into the system to view the status of their call. This will in turn help to lower overhead costs and ensures employee satisfaction and productivity

When you want to purchase a help-desk solution, it is advisable to do some research on the products available. Find out information on how long a particular help-desk product has been on the market and how many people are using a particular version of a help-desk solution. Matching the features of the help-desk solution with your work requirements is essential before a purchase so that you can have a solution that matches your work demands.

Joushua James - Help Desk Software Solutions

How to Deliver Technical Support That Delights the End User

"Technology, like art, is a soaring exercise of the human imagination.", according to sociologist Daniel Bell in his 1980 book, The Winding Passage. The art of what we do, as information technologists, lies in how we deliver creative solutions to workplace problems. The truth of the matter is that our jobs, in information systems and technology, are not really about technology at all. Our jobs, instead, are about solving workplace problems. Technology is merely the vehicle we use to accomplish our true objective. Increasingly, the help wanted ads in our industry require not only technical skills, but also skills in dealing with people. People are, after all, our customers. The old jokes about the I.T. guys commenting about how great their jobs would be if only it weren't for the end-users can no longer apply. The few I.T. people who still believe that are at risk of being outsourced out of a job, automated out of their jobs, or otherwise replaced in the modern workplace.

Are people skills becoming more important than technical skills in today's workplace? Absolutely not! Are people skills as important as technical skills in today's workplace? Quite possibly, depending on the job. For example, most of us are not overly concerned with an airline pilot's human skills, but we're very concerned with her skills as a pilot. The commercial pilot, however, who doesn't consider the comfort of his passengers in how he flies the plane may soon find himself flying freight instead of people. Even the freighter pilot who fails to practice good customer service skills with her employer and her employer's clients may soon find herself replaced by another pilot who values human relationships. There may always be a place for the rare individual whose extremely high level of technical competence makes him so valuable that his absence of human skills is overlooked, but don't count on that for your long term career growth. The reality is that, if people like you, they're a lot more forgiving of human error and when they don't like you, they look for ways to get rid of you.

What are the skills that can help you in today's workplace? You can break them down into five fundamental skill sets:

-Dependable and Reliable Service
-Responsiveness
-Competence
-Empathy
-Professionalism

Dependable and Reliable Service means providing reliable and accurate service - consistently accurate answers and follow-through on your promises. Your users should get the same courteous, pleasant and knowledgeable service every time they contact the Help Desk. In part two of this series, I'll show you practical tips to make sure your end-users say you provide dependable and reliable service.

Responsiveness is the willingness to respond to customer needs by answering their phone or email requests quickly, and being willing to do what it takes to respond effectively to a service request. In part three of this series, I'll show you how to prioritize requests to ensure that the most important requests get the fastest response while still servicing the lower priority requests.

Competence means providing correct, knowledgeable service, performed with accuracy and confidence. Technical competence goes without saying, but how can you maintain your technical competence even if your employer doesn't pay for training? In part four of this series, I'll share with you realistic techniques to use to demonstrate your competence and some practical tips on maintaining your competence on your own.

Empathy means providing caring and personal service. You can convey empathy when you listen for the hidden meaning in what a user is saying, acknowledge the emotion, and offer caring assistance. In part five of this series, you'll learn key phrases to use to demonstrate empathy and techniques for conveying your empathy to the upset end user.

Professionalism means that how you speak and act and the emails or other materials you send reflect a high level of training and expertise. This becomes the professional image that you project to your end users. In the sixth and final part of this series, you'll learn five powerful, yet simple techniques for conveying professionalism in your dealings with end-users.

Delighting your user is really easy most of the time. When you find ways to help your users be more productive and creative in their jobs, you'll find your job is more satisfying and more rewarding. As a support desk professional, you have tremendous opportunities for personal growth and you have daily opportunities to make a positive difference in people's lives. That's powerful!

Visit soundtraining.net to learn more about soundtraining.net's business skills training programs for IT professionals, plus accelerated technical training programs for IT professionals in the areas of Cisco, Microsoft, and Linux products. For a free copy of Don's article, "Ten Ways to Delight Your End-User", visit the soundtraining.net resource library.

My Web Host Promised Reliable Service and Technical Support, What Went Wrong?

You would think that, with the countless web hosting providers available, choosing the best would be a snap. Not so. It's hard to know who to trust with your business. After all, you've spent time and money developing a quality website that is sure to please your visitors. A miss-step, like choosing the wrong hosting company, could cost you money and your reputation. But do not fear. There are many good hosting providers. After you calculate the specifics, such as needed bandwidth, disk space allowance and price comparison, you're almost ready to sign with a hosting provider. The last and, maybe the first, key element is who will provide reliable customer service and the much needed technical support to meet your needs?

What is reliable hosting? Well, in a nutshell, a reliable host is a company that offers easily accessible customer service and always accessible technical support. It isn't good enough for a hosting provider to have "customer service" stated on their list of benefits. There are specific criteria that, when met, make for excellent and reliable customer service.

How responsive is their customer service staff?

Reliable customer service is easy to contact and available 24 hours a day. After all, your site is in a market where time stands still. If you're having problems with your site, you've having problems period. The Internet doesn't care if it's 2 am or 2 pm. Even if 24 hour phone support isn't available, there must be other means of contact. Through phone, email and support tickets, a reliable web host provider will offer 24 hours of customer service.

How large is their knowledge base?.

The ability to search through an index of common questions and answers may solve your problem without the need of contacting customer support. This will save you time and get your site working properly in record speed. The addition of an article base is an added bonus. You don't have to find a hosting company that offers a searchable article base, but if they do, it increases confidence that the company continues to provide quality and helpful information to their clients.

Great customer service is a must in your search for a reliable web host. But just as important is reliable technical service. Every hosting company you come across will promise great technical support. But what does this mean?

How easy is it to reach technical support?

Reliable technical support will start with easy access. If the means to reach technical support is somewhat muffled, run away! You will need technical support sooner or later, probably sooner and when you do you're going to want to reach someone A.S.A.P. There should be a toll-free number to contact technical support directly and a means to contact technical support 24 hours a day. The ability to contact "someone" 24 hours a day is not enough. In order to be considered reliable technical support they must be available 24 hours a day.

How do they protect you, the customer?

Does the web host provider continually take care of their own server? If they have technical support to watch out for themselves, they are in turn looking out for you. Because if your web host goes down, everyone goes down. Also look at how often they perform backups. The peace of mind you will have by knowing that your web site is protected and backed-up regularly by your hosting provider is invaluable.

These key elements will help your search for a reliable web hosting company and help alleviate your anxiety about "picking the right one." Along with the above pointers you may want to consider if you need any other support functions. Are you interested in web site management? Are you looking to have a professional design your site for a reasonable fee? If so, wouldn't it be nice to have all your needs met by one company? When one provider offers web site design solutions, reliable customer service and readily available technical support your problems are solved much sooner than if different companies handled each need separately. Remember your needs and you are certain to find a web hosting company that will fit you perfectly.

Flizard Technologies offers web hosting that you can count on. The most affordable web hosting service on the planet that comes with a sitebuilder and many more options.

Web Based Helpdesk Software

The term “Helpdesk” itself gives an overview of the software. Web based helpdesk means an interface where the clients are provided help with respect to spam mail, web forms, etc. Any problem encountered by a company working with computers can be solved by the web based helpdesk software with immediate effect. Helpdesk software is the perfect way to solve any technical anomalies faced by the clients.

The best part of the web based helpdesk software is that the client can access the helpdesk through any computer, anywhere in the world. The benefit of this software is that it is very flexible compared to its earlier versions. Given below are some of the advantages of the web based helpdesk software:

· There are many times when an employee tries to solve clients queries, some other employee solves the problem. This generally happens when your company is using a standard e-mail format to help your customers. Helpdesk software provides a separate interface through which each employee has the right to own and solve the query received by him.

· Some web based helpdesks also allow their clients to create their own trouble tickets. Besides, creating a trouble ticket is easy as filling up any web application form. This saves the company’s time as well as money.

· Some web based software also offers FAQ menus to their clients for better results. In this way, the clients will be able to solve their queries through mere interaction without any assistance from the technical support.

· The term “software” may sound too technical, however it is not. There is no need to buy the software at all. All you have to do register yourself and set the ‘settings’ to default mode and simply copy-paste the HTML code. That’s all you have to do and you have your own web based helpdesk!

· Just so that you get to experience the web based helpdesk software before registering for it, you can avail the trial offer in which the first twenty requests (queries) are free of charge. Besides, the monthly subscription fee for this web based software is about $9.95 per operator. This makes the web based helpdesk software very cost effective.

· Compared to e-mail based customer service desks, the web based helpdesks are more productive. E-mail based services generally use the format of multiple addresses which can create a lot of confusion. By using web based software, companies can direct the customer queries directly to the technical support.

There are many web based helpdesk software namely, HelpDesk Software, BLive 2.5, CRMdesk, etc. Web based helpdesk software can easily help to generate more revenue for any company by providing customer satisfaction with its unique features and immediate results.

If you need a powerful solution for your support make sure you check out a great Web Based Helpdesk Software for more info.

Web-Based Learning Management Systems Deployed in Customer Support Settings

In many respects, e-learning has matured as a technology and industry. Today we will look at how web-based learning management systems can and are being used as part of the customer support function in a company or organization.

What is a learning management system?

Learning management systems (LMSs) are web-based software application platforms used to plan, implement, and assess learning processes related to online and offline training administration and performance management. LMSs provide an instructor a way in which to create and deliver content, monitor learners’ participation, and assess student performance. They also provide learners with the ability to use interactive features such as threaded discussions, web conferencing, discussion forums, and other methods of communication.

Where and why are learning management systems being used in customer support settings?

LMSs are being used in business-to-business, high process, value added, and technology-oriented business environments in industries like telecommunications, advanced electronic technology, semiconductor manufacturing, insurance, banking, medical products manufacturing, and others. Learning management systems are being used in customer support settings because they can be a cost-effective solution to providing customer and performance support for a company’s products and services.

Why is it cost-effective to use an LMS for your company’s customer support operation?

Learning management systems can be used to create a library of custom online courses that demonstrate how to use your company’s products and services. The course can be updated at will, so you’re not paying every three months to print new product guides and support manuals.

LMSs can be used to track and monitor your customers, instead of using a bunch of spreadsheets. This is very effective in scenarios where customers must be certified in order to use your products and services. The learning management system can be set up to notify a user when their certification is set to expire using an email tickler so they can recertify on your product.

What other features in learning management systems can be used for the customer support function?

A good LMS comes with a help desk feature that can be used for 24/7 customer support. Learning management systems can have integrated web conferencing technology which can be used in a number of ways to support customers such as synchronous training used in product implementation; a web conference on a new feature set that can be archived for later viewing; actual, on-the-spot tech-support using the “share your desktop” feature so your tech can go in and fix any problems necessary; and more.

LMSs can have a built in survey tool that allows you to query your customers with the results stored in the learning management systems database for later use. Learning management systems can have a single sign-on/e-commerce registration feature that can be used to sell add-on features. They also may have events management/seminar logistics add-on application that can help you manage both your off-site and onsite customer support training, and much more.

A company can realize effective resource planning and substantial cost savings by using learning management systems in customer support settings. Even greater gains in productivity and cost savings can be achieved using a learning management system in hosted business model environment. The virtual customer support campus is created to have the same look and feel as the company’s web site. Since the customer support campus is hosted and maintained on the learning management systems providers’ servers, the company only pays for set-up, its level of desired functionality, and usage. In conclusion, web-based learning management systems can be a very useful, cost effective way to manage a company’s customer support function.

Dave Boggs is the founder and CEO of SyberWorks, Inc. He has been involved with computer-based and web-based training for more than twelve years. Before founding SyberWorks, Dave was the VP of Sales and Business Development for Relational Courseware. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics from Union College in Schenectady, NY, and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL.