Creating A Customer-Focused Help Desk: How to Win and Keep Your Customers

Is a widget product Help Desk necessary because the inappropriate quality of raw materials and poor supervision result in excessive re-work? Is it because bad design, poor packaging and careless handling causes damaged product to reach the customer?

In short, is it simply reacting to problems?

The proactive Help Desk can be a strategic tool for building good reputation, for marketing, sales and competitive edge. The Help Desk that identifies problems can spur business process improvement--better, more reliable processes. It is seen as an asset to any business. It has its stethoscope on the heart of the organization, preempting problems, creating value and goodwill. It is likely to be held in high regard by senior management, who appreciate its contribution to business results. Because of this, investment can be justified: in advanced Help Desk tools; in resource; and in training. Staff morale is likely to be high.

The reactive Help Desk, however, gets associated with the poor service or product that it is there to protect. It is seen as an overhead, typically starved of investment, resource and training. Typically, in the reactive Help Desk, staff are over-worked, under-appreciated and not supported by appropriate equipment and tools. Staff morale tends to be low and turnover high.

The solution to the reactive Help Desk is simply to get things right so that the Help Desk becomes less necessary. A high problem level is trying to tell the organization something. That something is usually that management action needs to be taken to fix the problems at source--permanently.

About the Authors

Andrew Hiles is a Fellow of the Business Continuity Institute and a Member of the British Computer Society. Andrew was founder chairman of the influential European Information Market (EURIM) group which supports the UK Parliament's All-Party EURIM Group in handling European legislation. His first book on Service Level Management was published in 1991; his second book in 1993. He contributed to Croner's Guide to IT Purchasing. His software package, SLA Framework, has been purchased by leading international companies.

Andrew is a published writer and international speaker on service management. He has presented at Cranfield, Henley, Ashridge and GEC Management Colleges and at numerous conferences in Europe, USA, Southern Africa, the Middle East, Hong Kong, the Philippines and New Zealand and Australia.

Dr. Yvonne Gunn, BSc, MSc, PhD, is a Fellow of the Institute of Statisticians, a Member of the British Computer Society and a Chartered Physicist. She is a Director of the Kingswell Partnership, with more than ten years experience of supplying consultancy on service management, Help Desks and customer support to a variety of blue-chip clients. Yvonne has broad experience as a Computer Services Manager; in providing marketing and technical support for software sales; and in developing software.