Help Desk Outsourcing

A help desk will check and troubleshoot the problems occurring in computer and the similar products. A team well informed in the information technology will attend the customer calls and help them by finding, analyzing and eliminating common problems in their computer applications. Outsourcing means to transfer a previously handled in-house business function to an external provider or a third party. This transfer of an organizational function will also be done to a third party placed in a foreign country and is called as offshore outsourcing.

Corporate companies will have their own in-house help desk that is responsible for checking and troubleshooting the problems occurring in computer and the similar products and applications being used in the company. But the new trend grew in the recent years is help desk outsourcing. That is to give the organizational functions to the outside help desks. The help desk outsourcing has its own limitations, but it is preferred by many, if not all, companies. The outsourcing will definitely bring measurable benefits to some companies. The main benefit of the help desk outsourcing is that the functions can be given to a specialist and focused provider.

Corporate companies know the necessity and importance of an in-house help desk. It is well-known that a standard in-house help desk can make the working of the company smooth and in meeting deadlines. It is very much necessary to keep a well-informed in-house help desk. Poor provision for the help desk will adversely affect the firm. It would be difficult for the in-house help desk to perform the work load every time. In such instance the necessity of depending of outsourcing help desk will arise.

The help desk does the following tasks:

• They do customer services like email and telephone abilities to respond to the customers? needs.
• Troubleshooting by gathering information, evaluating and providing solutions.
• With their knowledge on the overall systems they can do system maintenance, supporting workstation and perform security services. As the help desk needs to learn the new technology as soon as it is invented, they will know the very recent developments in the technology. That helps them to perform tougher tasks.
• With their knowledge to present the technical information which if recruiting the most unhelpful people in the world and sitting them at the front line, on our service desks! I don’t go along with this view. As someone who used to have direct responsibility for recruiting service desk staff, I believe we staff the desk with bright, enthusiastic and motivated people. So where does it all go wrong from there?

  Firstly, front line support is largely a thankless task. It takes a special kind of person to really do it justice. Resilience is certainly imperative, and it’s something most support people internalise and continue to build up lashings of as a consummation of the day-to-day perils of being in the front line.

  However, being a good support person needs more than resilience. There are a number of very important factors that will help you in your pursuit of great staff and ultimately an acclaimed service desk.

  Lets face it; the staff we recruit can’t uniformly be ‘useless.’ I concede that we don’t always get it right but why is it that we frequently hear such utterances about our staff? As IT managers, if we recruited them, we must surely have chosen them in preference to other hopefuls because they demonstrated an appropriate level of skill, common sense and probably because we quite liked them. What happened in the meantime? Does the very act of working on the service desk debilitate your skills?

  I would suggest not! I was a service desk manager for many years and I am passionate about service desks. For me, there is a formula for creating a great team and it requires a lot more that making sound staffing choices and being a good manager.

  The issue is habitual in many organisations. Let’s face it - as either a stakeholder or user of a service desk, we tend to expect a lot and give very little. I know the old adage ‘its better to give than to receive’ but the poor old service desk would have to be wearing their underpants on the outside of their clothes to have any sort of chance of getting it right!

  The key is senior management commitment and passionate line management. I know, I know…You’ve heard it all before, but let’s face it if you don’t choose the right people, pay them the right salary, train them, give them the correct tools for the job and most importantly provide them with the autonomy they need, how can they ever provide the kind of service your users expect? Choose the right people!

  Let’s be honest, for a start, we sometimes pick the wrong people in the first place - fledgling graduates, people looking to get into IT or temporary staff. Does that ring any bells? For me it sets off the chimes of despair! Really good service desk staff need a whole range of skills, many of which cannot be internalised by ‘just anyone!’

  We want them to be good communicators, active listeners, have excellent troubleshooting skills and be able to manage our incidents and requests from start to end. That’s a formidable set of requirements. Our expectations are high; we need to make sure we don’t choose people who have only a small chance off satisfying those prerequisites.

  So, why not just choose good people? Well, there are two reasons. Very often, a role on a service desk is not highly valued. It is often viewed as a ‘necessary evil’ – something to be endured, a first step into the more technically skilled and rewarding 2nd and 3rd line support roles. The result is that most people don’t want to sit on a service desk for any great period of time. Why? Well, because they expect it will get boring and fundamentally that kind of role is never venerated. For most people that’s not going to ‘cut the mustard’ when they are trying to establish a sound career path.

  Pay them appropriately

  The second reason that we sometimes get the wrong people is that many organisations don’t pay their Service Desk staff well enough. Good service desk staff should be commanding the same salaries as you pay your desktop engineers or other 2nd line internal support teams. If you start to pay the right salaries, you get good people and also send a very clear message to your users and to other support staff; the service desk people are at least as important as they are!

  Support tools and technologies

  My third real annoyance about the way we treat our service desk staff is that frequently we don’t give them the tools to do the job. A computer and telephone does not a service desk person make! You expect them to be able to answer the phone promptly and courteously, understand and translate your request, prioritise it appropriately, resolve it and if not send it to someone who can, and quickly. Throughout this process you want regular updates, an escalation source if it doesn’t go to plan and before it’s resolved (in a timely fashion) you want to be able to accede suitable closure. Furthermore, where the incident has been significant, you expect some assurance that someone is going to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

  Do you still think the telephone, the PC and a paper file of scribbled hints and tips will avow the service desk to manage that lot? Again, not without the underpants!

  In reality a good service desk needs the correct level of investment. I mean tools, information, business knowledge, and the correct level of technology. Our service desk staff may not need to be technical gurus but we do expect a certain level of skill because, as well as being able to resolve some incidents, it gives the service desk a fighting chance of understanding a user request and elucidating it into something meaningful so that someone else can resolve it.

  As users of the service desk we also expect them to know who we are and not ask us the same ten questions each time we call for a simple request. Give them a good customer database, preferably a configuration management database to refer to, so they will be able to obtain this information, understand who you are, what you do, what technologies you use and how quickly you need to get your issue resolved.

  In addition, if you want a good first time fix rate, you need to provide knowledge of the requests and incidents your service desk receives as well as mechanisms that allow them all a consistent ability to affect a resolution. Diagnostic scripts, frequently asked questions (FAQ’s), a ‘known error’ database and diagnostic tools are also excellent ways to help in elevating that first time fix rate.

  Training

  Make sure that as well as the technical skills that they may need that they know your business. I don’t mean those limited snatches of information retained from their induction day; they spent most of that longing for the free buffet and wondering when the Chief Exec was going to stop extolling the virtues of the company. I mean get them involved in your initiatives and projects, let them test your new applications, train them to use the most critical systems, make sure they spend some time with your vital business functions and make this an ongoing activity.

  Respect

  Give them some! A great way to allow your desk staff to earn it is simple. Make sure that key people in each department and your senior mangers are obliged to spend at least one day a year on your desk. Thereafter they will hold your staff in high esteem. Believe me; nothing sharpens the mind to the plight of the service desk like the experience of

Help Desk Services

Any production, supplying, banker, manufacturer, sales company or any customer oriented organization takes care of customers. The business concerns are competing with their competitors. They are competing with product, quality as well as service providing. When customers are paying for, they also want all in one stuff i.e. quality, support, delivery and service. So who is there to serve customers? They are help desk executives. The help desk provides technical as well as non technical helps to the customers. In broad sense help executives are two types, general and specific. General support services are provided for customer satisfaction, relationship building, retaining customer for future deals etc. Where as the specific supports are installing product or device, technical aspect, trouble shootings, warranty coverage, regular servicing etc. The help services are provided either by the direct company or outsourced to the third party company. Whoever is the help service provider, it has to appoint a number of help desk executives for different customers. Help desk service executives are trained by the first companies. They update the knowledge, technology to the support executives, so that they can aware and guide to the customer.

The process of help desk service starts from the training, knowledge sharing among the support service members. They know the database of customers, product, and service methods. They have adequate infrastructure for communication, sitting arrangement, computers, internet, tools etc. for customer service. A team has to work under a supervisor and they provide each service under a quality check. They maintain record of services, client feedback, issues etc. This record helps them as different case studies for future support.

Help desk support center has a Knowledge Base that is a searchable library of useful information, records of resolved case, frequently asked questions (FAQs) and other support information. They use this knowledge for new customers studying the old cases from the record. The service proving practice makes an executive expert in a particular domain.

The media like internet, telephone, online desk charting help a lot to the support providers and customer. A simple email from help desk can solve a problem of customers any of the world. KoreOne has been providing the help desk concept, jobs, resources, about customer service companies, who hire help desk executives.

Shakir A, independent writer for IT Recruiting and Staffing Services / IT Technical Professional Staffing Services, Jobs,Business,Consultancy, Recruiting and latest trends in hiring industry at San Jose, California and near by city/ states.Visit http://www.koreone.com

A Help Desk is a System Designed to Help and Support

A help desk is a system designed to help and support an end-user of a particular product. The help desk system provides information and helps solve technical questions on how to use the product. In today world, many help desks are web-based. Users can go to a company help desk website and find answers to a particular question or problem about the company product.

What is Help Desk?

A help desk is an information and assistance resource that troubleshoots problems with computers and similar products. Corporations often provide help desk support to their customers via a toll-free number and/or website. There are also in-house help desks geared toward providing the same kind of help for employees only.

An easy-to-use help desk that helps organizations automate their customer service and IT support processes to deliver consistent, reliable and superior service to both internal and external customers. A help desk can also be used internally. In all organizations, employees encounter problems with their computers, printers, and other machines. Help desk software helps Information Technology departments manage, sort, and track service requests using the most efficient methods. The results of implementing a help desk are lower overhead costs and higher employee satisfaction and productivity.

Browser based help desk solutions are much less expensive then most existing systems. You can likely purchase a browser-based help desk solution for a price of a single year's maintenance fees of an existing help desk system. When considering purchasing a help-desk solution, it is advisable to establish how long the help desk product has been on the market and how many people are using particular help desk product versions. The other solution is software-based help desk in which the same consideration must be kept in mind.

A help desk solution is becoming a necessary part of business. Whether for a small startup or large Fortune 500 organization, a help desk can support customers, employees, and suppliers. The help desk will ensure the effectiveness of the company and ensure smooth company operations.

Keep in mind several things when looking to a help-desk solution:
? Who will be your customer on the help desk?
? What is your help desk budget?
? How fast do you need a help desk solution?

Qualities of Customer Service

So what does quality customer service involve? The following ten points illustrate the basics of developing good relations with your customers:

1. Let your customers know that you appreciate their business by thanking them.

2. Remember: a customer who feels valued is more likely to come back for seconds!

3. While it is very important that you?re Customer Service Representatives are polite and cheerful. A response of "I know exactly how to assist you" will have a far greater impact than a polite "I do not know anything about that".

4. Check and be sure that your packages are arriving within the promised time frame.

5. Customers appreciate honesty. If you promise something, you had better be able to deliver on it. Otherwise, you will be doing your business a great disservice. People are far more likely to repeat stories about poor customer service than top notch customer service. Its human nature -- we expect the best!

6. If a mistake has been made or a customer is dissatisfied with the product or service they have received, take ownership of the problem and assure the customer that their concerns are valid. Show them that you are willing to work with them to solve the problem.

7. Be sure that your customers can easily contact you 24 hours a day, seven days a week by phone, fax, or e-mail.

8. A quick response to a casual inquiry will appear professional and therefore establish credibility. As for responding to customer complaints, think of it as damage control! The faster you respond, the more likely it is that you will be able to both repair the mistake and restore the customer's faith in you.

Overall, your goal should be to create a quality service experience. Help desk is a call center that handles questions about products. The term most often refers to technical support centers for computers/software.

As for the information being available is that when the help desk is accurately and speedily handling all of its calls, the entire business is more productive. This boosts profitability and also promotes customer satisfaction. It is simply not possible to run a help desk efficiently without the use of sophisticated software.

Posted by: Marketing Team Call Centers India Inc,

We at http://www.callcentersindia.com are providing you the resources to everyone in the Call Center Arena. This site is designed specifically to fulfill your information needs regarding call centers with special reference to Indian Call Centers and offshore call centers. http://www.callcentersindia.com?

Help Desk Software For Small Businesses

When profits go down, the first area in which a small business may want to save money is its help desk. This type of frugality has its costs, however, in the form of long call backlogs, angry customers, and eventually even lower profits. A better option would be to improve the efficiency of the help desk in order to ensure even better service at a lower cost. One of the best ways to accomplish this task is by purchasing help desk software to streamline operations.

There are a variety of help desk software packages on the market. Among the most popular are Support Wizard, Parature, and FootPrints. Help desk software can assist the small business owner in comprehensive, adaptable problem resolution including generating and tracking tickets, responding to requests, and automating communications using outlets such as through calls or email. Help desk software is particularly useful for small businesses in which key personnel often travel, because it can allow access to the help desk over the Internet.

In case you think it?s too expensive, consider the costs to the customer of a software-less help desk:

o Time wasted deciding where to go for help.
o Time wasted on hold for customer support personnel.
o Time wasted reading through dense product manuals.
o Time wasted through poor procedures and practices.

Ultimately time wasted for the customer will result in dissatisfied customers and poor business performance. Direct costs to your business may include:

o Lower employee productivity when staff is called away to assist.
o Duplicated support efforts.

Nevertheless, be prudent when considering the purchase of help desk software, because not all packages are appropriate for small businesses. Some packages include hidden charges such as frequent updates, so it would be a good idea to find out what updates are expected and how frequent they occur. Nevertheless, think carefully before going to the other extreme and using free help desk software available on the Internet ? these packages usually have serious limitations and are appropriate only for very small operations. Nevertheless, small businesses should choose software with a relatively small number of features. Keep it simple because it?s unlikely a small business will need every feature of a complex product, so why pay for it?

Support Help Desk Software For Small Business

Help desks are now a fundamental and core part of good business service and operation. However, addressing the tricky issues, selecting the right tools, and managing the help desk correctly can actually be a very daunting task.

Typical help desk software functions include Helpdesk software systems range in complexity from basic ticket logging to fully integrated CRM systems, recording and tracking of support requests, reporting and service management and more, These are usually an automated benefit of the helpdesk application.

Sky Blue Support Help Desk Software (SBS) is is a flexable and strong CRM solution that puts you in control of your customer support needs. SBS uses the very latest technologies, to provide you with an efficient and easy to use Customer Relations Management Tool.

TSC2 Help Desk 4.1 provides a suite of integrated tools for managing a technical support department. It includes work order management, equipment inventory, scheduling, reporting, network auditing and a web interface. The software tracks all work order management system tracks all work requests and support issues, from computer errors and user-requested enhancements, to hardware and network upgrades.

LanHelpdesk 06.08.04, This stand-alone helpdesk solution is based on end-users submitting wizard-based Trouble Tickets directly from their computers. Users select from any of a large number of common computer problems, each of which requires the user to answer a series of relevant questions about the selected problem type. As the Trouble Ticket is sent, the local computer is automatically inspected, and dozens of relevant pieces of information about the user and the computer are attached to the Ticket.

LBE Desktop Helpdesk 4.0.152 is uses industry-standard databases like Access, Microsoft SQL Server and Oracle. Many reports are supplied. If you need more, you can build your own using any of the available reporting tools. You can group records and change fonts and colors.

DBS Help Desk 1.5a, This comprehensive tool lets IT support staff manage requests, computers, peripherals and program inventory. It is Web-enabled, so it lets users submit support request using Web browser.

QUAD Help Desk 2.5, Multi-user ready at no additional cost, this software provides basic functionality that does not require consultants to help you install and learn the program. Your CSRs will be able to record, search, update and report on calls about your products or services within minutes of installation. In addition, if you install the HTTP server on a PC with a static IP address, you won't have to install the Windows software on the computer. The Windows software includes wizards for querying and reporting on calls recorded in the database.

These Software provide a scalable, customizable, easy-to-use solution for your business. Help Desk software for Small Business provides a computer helpdesk or/and web enabled help desk solution, helping you to improve customer service and automate your customer service.
Software Reviews and Downloads Customer Support SoftwareLBE Desktop Helpdesk

 

How Help Desk Software Can Benefit Your Business

There is no small organization or large corporate network remaining in business for longer without an adequate customer support service for troubleshooting.

Customer Support Software and Help Desk Software are useful aids to manage your communications with both actual customers and potential clients. This type of software help you centralize email inquiries, live chat sessions, and online issues among other activities.

A typical Help Desk Software package often includes a convenient way to record issues received by phone, as well as those submitted via online support ticket system.

Help Desk Software also contributes to enhance interaction between staff and customers, providing them with top-notch technology that usually comprises knowledge and problem management, workflow, data analysis and reporting of issues submitted each day.

It does not really matter if your business is as small as less than three people working hand in hand, Customer Support Software and Help Desk Software will create the necessary aura of professionalism that your business needs.

Detailed reports and analytics are basic to tackle effectively all those issues handled by your Help Desk Software on a daily basis, but the software itself contributes also to develop teamwork efficiently.

Taking advantage of modern technologies, Help Desk Software enables Staff to Staff live chat, and it can also be configured as add-on package for other compatible Customer Support Software.

When it comes to determine which is the most adequate software for your company, experts recommend evaluating your present technology and consider an upgrade if necessary to make sure your chosen Help Desk Software is compatible with your business system.

There are software packages expressly developed to work under certain native operating systems that run on personal computers, such as Windows, Linux or MacOs.

However, numerous Help Desk Software packages are developed as scripts that run basically over an Internet Server, while others combine both,a server-side Customer Support Software, and a Help Desk Software client running from your PC or used for remote administration.

Furthermore, doing a research on a comparative basis among the different customer support solutions available in the market you will find that many of them are compatible with software that you already use, including Microsoft Outlook, Word, or Excel.

This characteristic allows a seamless integration of new Help Desk Software into traditional software applications you are familiar with, making easier updating contacts, sharing task, events, and bits of information already recorded elsewhere.

Just by adding Customer Support Software or Help Desk Software to your business, you are adding value to your products and services, promoting tacitly trustworthy and customers? confidence.

While Customer Support Software is focused to provide assistance to your clients whenever they have a trouble or need something to ask for, Help Desk Software is aimed to offer a global solution to manage different aspects of you relationship with clients and staff interaction.

Help Desk Software improves productivity of your business and efficiency of your workers, increasing also customer satisfaction and improving communication and troubleshooting.

There is another fact to keep in mind talking satisfaction of your customers. The Internet has literally diluted geographical frontiers so if your business is online, it's more likely that international customers approach you.

Whether national or worldwide, the implementation of Help Desk Software is an excellent strategy for any business, reducing the need of toll-free hotlines, and saving money in long distance calls between offices, or those calls placed from customers located abroad.

In the other hand, if you are running a conventional telephone support, the installation of Help Desk Software onto your system will lead you to identify those areas requiring more attention or substantial changes to improve performance and boost your sales.

Customer Support Software is also a convenient way to obtain feedback from users of this system. Afterwards, the information obtained can be added to your Help Desk Software database for further analysis and improvement of your business affairs.

Act now and let that your Help Desk Software reveal you the secrets of customer satisfaction contributing to your success.

John Bennet is the owner of PerlDesk, a company that provides customer support software and help desk software. http://www.perldesk.com was launched in November 2001, and has since become a leading product in the help desk field.

Help Desk Support

Help Desk Support comes under the priority level of job category. All most all the industries need a support and service division to satisfy and retain their customers. So their customers will be clients for them for a long term business. For an example, a Computer manufacturer is selling computers to thousands customers, and neither providing the technical support nor general help. In this case, they cannot generate new customer by any chance. The help desk support teams are deployed to support customer in various places for physical presence, tele-calling, email support.

Help desk support to customers is a third party business. Suppose a software company developing and selling to customers locally, regionally or worldwide. They outsource this customer support service to another company. This company recruits help desk professionals, train them and make them ready for customer service for the manufacturer company.

The presence trend is technical support rather than general. People are enough educated and aware about any general issues. They can solve themselves or bit instruction from the help desk team. But when the technical issues come in, they hardly can meet the issues solved. The help desk team has to provide complete support in any level. This is the main job for them. The desk help professional has to go certain process and methods to solve the customers.

The nature of the help desk job is quite interesting and challenging too in a very special wok environment. The job gives rapid career growth and opportunities. Beginners have many paths of entry to these occupations. Job prospects are best for fresheners who are up to date with the latest skills and technologies. Certifications and practical experience bring better opportunities.

The booming fields of help desk services are computer, IT, Telecommunications, finance. As computers have become an integral part of everyday life, technical issues also have become the part of every day life. The help desk professionals are only people who solve the solution at home, in the workplace, at schools. They provide advice to users as well as for day-to-day administration, support and maintenance of computer systems and networks.

Computer support specialists provide technical assistance, support, and advice to customers and other users. This occupational group includes technical support specialists and help-desk technicians. These troubleshooters interpret problems and provide technical support for hardware, software, and systems. They answer telephone calls, analyze problems by using automated diagnostic programs, and resolve recurring difficulties. Support specialists may work either within a company that uses computer systems or directly for a computer hardware or software vendor. Increasingly, these specialists work for help-desk or support services firms, for which they provide computer support to clients on a contract basis. For more articles please visit : www.koreone.com