Technical Support Vs. Help Desk

Nikki Lu
Member

Posted 20-Jul-2004 07:26 AM
Hello all

I am currently working for a software company and have been given a challenging task. Our technical support reps are receiving 'how to' phone calls along with the true technical issues. The 'how to' calls are taking up a tremendous amount of time. I've been given the challenge of creating a new department—Help Desk—which will receive all of the 'how to' calls and the tech team will deal strictly with the technical issues. The area which I see myself becoming really challenged is the contracting, pricing and tracking of this new service. Can anyone offer some pointers or get me going in the right direction of creating this new customer service wing?

As always, thanks so much for your help.

Jean-Patrick (J.P.)
Member

Posted 21-Jul-2004 05:02 AM
Hi Nikki,

1-Make sure you comprehend well the Business Processes involved in your current "Support" and "How To" processes and the costs involved.

2-Ask yourself a very simple question: "Why there is so many "How To" calls, that the company has to invest even more money to support them. See if you can fix the problem at the source. Is it because of lack of training? Lack of user manuals? High personnel turnover? Why? Why? Why?

3-Then see what kind of strategy and technology mix can better support this approach. IVRs for call center prompting the user to decide between technical issue or "How To". Self service on a web site with FAQ. Or e-learning material to teach people "How To" do things. User Training. Or a mix of everything.

Good luck!

J.P.

Alvaro Martínez Parente
Member

Posted 22-Jul-2004 02:45 PM
Nikki:

My suggestion is that you let the experts do this job for you.

Please let me know if you want to discuss further: ampz@policomp.com

Best regards.

Nikki Lu
Member

Posted 27-Jul-2004 06:50 AM
Thanks for the input. Would anyone know a resource which would help us price SLA for the Help Desk—either per incident or annual. I've been searching for material that will explain the pro's and con's of each.

Thanks again