Setting Up A Help Desk Support

[Saint_Michael 3]

Recently I gave presentation for a class in a Helpdesk class that I just finishing taking, and we had to present a small business like plan for a business to set up support in several ways; communication, tools and staff. I thought I present my bare bones version of setting up a effective Helpdesk support in your business or schools.

 

Introduction

 

Contacting Support

-Email

-Telephone

-Chat Room

-Forum Software

Tools

-Remote Desktop Technology

-Knowledge Base Software

-Help Desk Software

Escalation Procedures

-First Level

-Second Level

-Third Level

Conclusion

 

In order for any business to be successful, especially if you are running an IT business, by being able to provide good customer support for any products your business designs or sells. This is because not all users are computer experts and sometimes he or she might run into problems with that product your business is trying to sell.

 

CONTACTING SUPPORT

 

Communication is essential for any business, especially when your customers have a problem that they want to fixed. The three most common ways an IT business communicates with users is through a telephone, email and chat room. Telephones are the most common way for people to communicate, and if the problem is an emergency, they can call someone right away and get immediate support. With that immediate support the problems could be fixed right on the spot or if need be set up an appointment for someone to check out the problem.

 

Although e-mail is another common form of communication, sometimes a user will have to wait one to two days in order to get a reply about their problem. The catch is by using email it could take longer for support to reply or it could be shorter, depending on what the support personnel are doing that day.

 

The next form of communication is using chat room technology, with it support personnel could fix a problem right on the spot, or if the user is looking for information, they are able to copy it from the chat logs, and paste it on another document and save it for later. Another good way as to why your business should use chat room technology is that your support personnel can use Remote Desktop Technology in order communicate with the user. That way if the user is having a hard time a support personnel explanation or following his or her directions, they can help guide the user through the process of what he or she needs to do.

 

With the creation of various forum technologies, you will have a great way to build up a solid base for a good community of staff, clients and outside sources. Also it is a good way to help generate word of mouth support for your business and be able to help customers in looser fashion without any time constrictions and of course members of this forum can help each other out as well that way, they will free up support for them to work on other fuctions.

 

TOOLS

 

As for what tools a business should have for its support staff are many, but again, depending on the type of business you might be running those tool could be different. When it comes to computer related issues some of the best tools could make your support more organized and helpful.

 

As mentioned earlier, the use of Remote desktop technology is beneficial, by using Remote desktop technology the support staff will be able to guide the user around their computer to help solve a problem, or if the problem shows up again the user will be able to do it themselves. Furthermore, depending on the location of the user and or the support staff, using Remote desktop technology will cut off the need to send someone to your computer to fix it, unless the problem requires someone to go to the user's location.

 

With Knowledge base software, it is simple to use once support personnel are familiar with it, and once everyone starts using Knowledge base software, support staff will always be updated on current problems the business might have with the software or hardware. Also as a user they could search your knowledge base and see if they can find an answer to the problem the are having before contacting support. With helpdesk software being used, it will help maintain organization for the IT support teams, and be able to help maximize efficiency with the workload being spread out across the support teams.

 

ESCULATION PROCEDURES

 

With most support teams, it is a giving that each support team has a crew with varying experience at different levels f expertise. If not then your business could be losing customers if they cannot get the answers he or she seeks when they have a problem with their computer. With that in mind, I believe three levels of support are required in order to maintain a proper support team.

 

With First level support, usually these members of the support team are just joining, and so it is usually a entry level position depending on what kind of support is being provided. Usually at this level they can solve most common problems with IT related technology without the need to ask for support by a second or third level support team member. Also if gives a chance for the first level support to be able to learn about the help desk environment and with enough experience be able to move to a second or third level position.

 

A person who is at the second level of support is well knowledgeable in fix most common problems and a few uncommon problems. They also have a good solid knowledge on the software or hardware that they support, and so they could be able to help train or assist with first level support.

 

A person who is at the third level support will have the following qualities; they are able to handle any kind of problem because of the experience he or she as gain through the first two levels of support. Level three support are also experts in the software that he or she supports, and are prepared for solving complicated problems that might require more then one person. In addition, it is worth noting at this level of support that a person would be in a managerial position, and so they would be able to support and train first and second level personnel.

 

CONCLUSION

 

Although this plan is not perfect in any shape or form, but it is a start on how to help set up a support team for a business, and flexible enough to make changes to this plan in order to make a business support team solid.