Cloud or On-Premise Deployment
Businesses that need full control over their customer data and incident management files, prefer to use on-premise solution. Businesses that need extensive customization and complex integrations would also help the on-premise solution. When it comes to flexibility and ability to scale, cloud-based online Help Desk software scores better. Businesses need not worry about infrastructure management, configuration, and scale issues as these will be easily handled online Help Desk Software. When you need more scale or a higher configuration, all you need to do choose a different pricing plan. Compliance and regulatory limits also play a key role in the selection of an on-premise solution.
Support Organization Structure
Some organizations offer multi-tier help desk support wherein each level of support offers a varied degree of customer service and usually there is a hand-off between levels. Also the channels that are used in these different tiers would be very different. Help Desk support can be spread across geographic locations. It is important to choose the right Help Desk software that supports such a complex organization structure and support models.
Capabilities
Help Desk Software needs to have some of the key core capabilities like ticket management, automation, integrated live chat, built-in phone support, reporting, and analytics. It is important to assess the strength of these abilities before choosing the software. Also a built-in knowledge base or integration with knowledge management system is key to implement today’s sophisticated Help Desk. Many of today’s Help Desk software vendors advanced capabilities like collaboration tools, customer portal, dashboards and mobile apps.
Also the needs of your business function should match the capabilities provided. For example, most Help Desk software are more tuned for customer support. If it is meant for internal use, say by HR department, it is important to assess whether it is tailored for such use cases.
ITIL compliance
ITIL offers best practices framework for customer service providers. Choosing software that has a higher degree of compliance with ITIL ensures that organizations are benefiting from such practices. This to an extent takes care of many of the compliance, audit, and regulatory issues.
Scalability
As your business grows, you’ll need to manage more business users, support technicians, and end-users. The Help Desk software should be scalable to support future business growth.
Localization
A business that operates globally, will need to communicate with customers from different countries. In such a case the Help Desk software should be able to offer its capabilities in multiple languages.
Security
Help Desk Software should support both data level and user-level security. Businesses must consider security protocols such as data encryption, data storage, and access protocols before making a choice. The software should support the necessary authorization and authentication mechanisms to deal with multi-level support and organization hierarchy.
Integration
Help Desk software must be able to interact with other applications like CRM and analytics software for which it will require integration capabilities. Larger enterprises may have dedicated Knowledge Management Systems that would need integration with Help Desk. If the organization is implementing a larger service delivery framework, then it needs to integrate with other tools and applications that support other critical functions of service management.
What are the challenges in adopting Help Desk Software?
According to Research and Markets, the ITSM (IT Service Management) market is slated to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.78% between 2016 and 2020, with the cloud-based ITSM market reaching a CAGR of 14% between 2016 and 2021.
But before thinking about what the future of help desk support software will be, it's important to consider the challenges that are being faced.
Data Security
Business users are becoming more comfortable in using their personal devices in the work environment. While this increased mobility is enabling businesses to be more productive, it also comes with the risk of data misuse. This can make it difficult for Help Desk software to be effective across such a dynamic environment.
Compliance Issues
Today’s businesses operate in a dynamic environment with interrelated IT components. These complexities can lead to inadvertent violations if the Help Desk software is not up to date or advanced enough to manage constantly changing regulatory policies.
Growing Data and Applications
As business users adopt more technologies, company environments often experience data proliferation or fragmentation of data across applications. This can cause multiple issues in terms of security, compliance, transparency and speed for the Help Desk software implementation.
Staying Up-to-Date
Help Desk software needs to stay relevant with continually changing technologies and customer needs. While customers can adapt quickly to new channels of communication, this can pose a challenge for Help Desk software that is not agile in its ability to evolve.
ROI of Help Desk Software
Businesses that invest in Help Desk software usually experience improved productivity and faster resolution of customer issues. According to an Avanade whitepaper, for every $1 invested in customer experience through help desk software or similar platforms, you can reap a return on investment of $3.
Poor customer service is one of the key reasons for customers to move away from the organization to go to their competitors. 86% of the customers cite poor customer service is one of the key reasons why they do so. For 51% of the customers, one poor customer service experience is enough to do so. Investing in a good Help Desk Software helps organizations to do away with this issue.
Reduce Time and Costs
By reducing the time to create tickets and resolve issues, Help Desk software can help businesses reduce the time and costs per customer issue. According to a BMC blog post, the cost of manually handling a help desk ticket is $22. By automating the process, 22% of total service desk tickets were resolved at practically no cost.
For many of the organizations, support revenue is a major source of revenue and for such organizations, Help Desk Software not only brings in internal efficiencies contributing to bottom line, but also greatly helps in improving customer satisfaction and NPS thereby contributing to top line.