When your customers need a more specific solution to the one they can figure out on their own, there is value in having a team available that can resolve it in the fastest and most effective way. This is why most enterprise organizations choose to outsource their help desk services to a help desk support team. Nonetheless, hiring the right help desk support team can be quite an undertaking. To truly experience the benefits of an outsourced help desk support team, you need to determine exactly what level of support you will need. Here are 4 key ways to help determine what level of help desk support you really need.
1. Customer Needs and Expectations
It's important to understand what level of support your customers need vs. what level of support you want to offer them. No two customers are the same, and each customer will have a different expectation of the support he/she is given, so it's important to ask the following 4 questions:
2. Are my customers comfortable with self-service tools? And can they answer their own questions with these tools?
3. How long do my customers expect to wait for answers?
4. Do my customers really need to use a website to get help?
2. Current Capabilities
Now that you know the level of help desk support your customers want from you, it’s time to sit down and look at your strengths and weaknesses so you can deliver the best experience to your customers. Here are 10 recommended capabilities to look at when assessing your level of help desk support:
2. Reporting
3. Communication
4. Knowledge Base
5. Flexibility
6. Capacity
7. Customer Loyalty
8. Technical Skills
9. Resource Utilization
10. Return on Investment (ROI)
3. Team and/or Organizational Changes
Are there things that your team and/or the organization will need to change once the help desk support team comes on board? The kind of help desk support team you hire needs to help you deliver on your support goals first and foremost, but most support teams will also have additional suggestions to help you improve your processes and efficiencies to be even more successful. You can use the questions below to help you think about the changes you may need to make:
1. Who will be the liaison with the outsourced help desk support team?
2. Do you need to change your IT’s organizational structure to accommodate the move to outsourcing
3. Do you have defined processes in place today?
4. Are those processes and/or solutions documented in a knowledge base today or will you have to build that for the new help desk support team?
5. What will happen to the staff currently providing the help desk support?
4. Scalability
You need to determine if the support you intend to get from your outsourced help desk support team is scalable and will continue to work as your business grows. You shouldn't be paying for something you don’t need, but you also don’t want to hire a new help desk support team every time you need additional support. Sit down with your team and discuss the solutions you are outsourcing to see if they are more for the short or long term. That way, you will have a better idea of the things you can do on your own, and the things that will need the support of a help desk team.
When your help desk support team finally comes on board, you will also want to setup performance metrics and continually monitor them to ensure the partnership is successful. What metrics you consider important is up to you and your organization, but here are five recommended top key performance indicators that will help give you a sound foundation to keep your help desk support team on track for success.
Are you looking to hire a help desk support team to help improve the processes and efficiencies in your organization? Simply click here to speak to our team of help desk experts.
