If your help desk agents sent a reply to the same customer's email but had different responses, it will only show the level of disorganization in your help desk. It might leave your customers more confused and frustrated than ever.
You can avoid this common mistake with proper help desk software. It allows agents to check what tickets other agents are handling in real time. It alerts them to an agent typing a reply to an email so they can avoid responding to the same email. The software may also limit agents to specific inboxes to prevent sending multiple responses to the same customer.
2.Taking Too Long to ReplyAnother critical mistake IT help desk services make is letting the customers stew with their concerns, stress, and anger and making them wait for your reply. Around 46% o customers expect businesses to reply to their queries within four hours, while 12% expect a response in as quick as 15 minutes or even less.
So, how do you ensure that you meet these expectations? First, create a service level agreement with your help desk provide so you can set expectations. It would help if you met the email response time of 4 hours, while live chat should have a two-minute reply window.
Second, train your employees to share quick responses while keeping mistakes to the minimum. Set up technical and product training to help them find quick answers or solutions to customer concerns.
Automation can help you sort through a pile of help desk issues, establish an easily understandable workflow, and streamline the support desk process. The help desk software can, for instance, automatically open a ticket and direct it to the right support agent whenever a customer submits a query.
However, you should limit the use of automation to a few parts of the process. Otherwise, you might risk damaging your reputation and productivity if something malfunctions, ruining the way your IT desk support works.
One thing customers hate to do when dealing with the help desk is repeat themselves. Even if your customers start connecting with you via live chat and abandon it as they get occupied with other things, your help desk should be able to continue the conversation via other channels, such as email or phone calls. Your help desk should allow you to keep track of past customer interactions by putting them all in one place for easy access. It should help customers interact with your agents on one channel and continue the conversation on other channels without an issue.
5.Not Using the IT Helpdesk to Handle Customer Support ManuallyIt might not seem like it, but manual customer complaint handling is a typical IT help desk mistake. While you think you might be saving money by not paying for help desk software, you are wasting time, bringing your productivity down, and possibly losing ongoing customer interactions.
The right thing to do is to invest in reliable help desk software to help you attend to your customers' concerns, keep everything in order, and take advantage of the tools' automation features. As mentioned, you should use automation sparingly to make things run smoothly.
If you decide to make your customer support available round-the-clock without considering if there is enough demand from customers or if you can afford it, it might lead to costly losses. These losses would come from paying for agents you don't need, training expenses, and hardware equipment investments, among others. You can make your IT help desk grow into just the right size if you base your decision on accurate data related to your customer service needs.
7.Sounding Extremely ScriptedFollowing customer service scripts will save you time, lessen the agents' efforts in dealing with multiple customers, and provide a consistent help desk experience. However, it helps if your agents know not to stick to the script 100%. They should be able to carry on conversations with the customers naturally to avoid miscommunication and losing their customers' trust.
8.Lack of InformationIt can be disappointing and frustrating for customers to get a response to their queries without clear information. They know when your customer service agents need to gain more knowledge about your company's products or services. It might cause them to doubt your agents' ability to resolve their concerns and to look for supervisors for help, worsening the situation.
You can create an internal knowledge base about your products, services, and processes in the company. Make it accessible to your customer service agents to help them relay accurate information and resolve customers' concerns.
If you are a managed service provider looking to deal with your customers' support-related concerns in an organized manner, invest in a good IT help desk. You can use our system here at ITarian to manage your customers' tickets, respond to them promptly, and establish a functional and systematic workflow. Contact ITarian today to learn more about how we can help.
What is EDR? EDR refers to endpoint detection and response, a set of tools designed to identify & protect endpoints from cyber threats. Find out more.