How to run a good helpdesk
You've successfully completed the first step - your product has a userbase. But that's just the beginning. In order to retain existing customers and get new ones you have to keep your users happpy. The way to do it is by running a well-organized helpdesk that provides quick and useful answers to your customers' questions.
- Design a clear workflow. Even the best customer service team needs a clearly structured workflow. When a new ticket appears in the system it should be immediately obvious who should respond and when. Good work structure will shorten reponse times, increase customer satisfaction and make managing the helpdesk team easier. Look for a software solution which lets you observe tickets throughout their lifetime - from submission to resolution.
- Automate processes. You have a great customer support team - don't waste their time. Try to keep the time spent on repetitive actions which have no positive impact on your company to a minimum. It's important that you helpdesk team spend their time solving customers' problems rather than grappling with your ticketing system. Choose a software solution which lets you easily and intuitively manage typical helpdesk activities.
- Communicate with your users. Make sure that your users know exactly what's being done to resolve their issue. Your helpdesk should make available information about the key events in the life of each ticket, such as when it's created, assigned to a team member and closed. This will make your users safe in the knowledge that the helpdesk is working hard to help them.
- Help your users help themselves. Some of the issues submitted to your helpdesk will always be trivial and solvable without involving team members. This is why you should build and publish a knowledge base of user problems and solutions. This might not drive the number of helpdesk calls to zero, but is guaranteed to reduce it at least slightly. A helpdesk knowledge base can also serve as a tool for your customer support team and a SEO resource.
- Monitor the work of your helpdesk team. After you've assigned tasks to your team, it's a good idea to monitor their completion. You should also be on the lookout for bottlenecks within your helpdesk management system. Make sure that your team knows what you expect of them and reward meeting your expectations. A good way to do that is gamifying your helpdesk: give your workers points, trophies, achievements and other rewards based on their performance.
- Track customer satisfaction. Your helpdesk is running smoothly, but are the customers happy? Automate feedback collection and ask users to rate their interactions with your helpdesk. This way you can keep track of what's good and bad about your systems and plan for the future accordingly.