How to improve help desk automation

As customer experience (CX) and digital employee experience (DEX) become more important in business success across industries, companies must find ways to deliver greater value to customers and employees. One area where many companies can improve is technical support service, which can make or break customer or employee satisfaction. Automated help desk software can support IT services, bringing a higher level of CX or DEX — and a higher level of efficiency — to businesses.

Specifically, automated customer service is often faster and more accurate than older manual methods. For example, customers can start the process with their own information, which they pre-populate the system's forms. But what is help desk automation and how do you automate your help desk? In the sections below we examine the impact of automation on service desk operations and offer tools and ideas for implementing it.

What is the impact of automation on IT Service Desk operations?

Automation can be used to improve many help desk processes, including the following.

Ticket management. Enabling automated ticket routing eliminates this tedious task for analysts, freeing them up for more valuable work and providing customers with a more timely response. Automating ticket closing gives customers a sense of completion and improves call center metrics.

Customer information updates. Anyone who has ever called a customer service center understands the frustration of having to repeat information to multiple agents. Help desk automation minimizes this problem by entering information once and having it populate system-wide or identifying callers by the phone number they are calling from.

Service level agreement (SLA) compliance. SLA deadlines can be tracked by an automated system and moved to a different stage if too much time has passed.

Repetitive and low-level tasks. Employees are able to make high-value contributions to the company when they are freed from low-level, repetitive tasks such as resetting passwords, creating folders, setting up multi-factor authentication, and provisioning new users.

Help desk automation tools

In the past, the best help desk tools available were Excel and Outlook, which service reps used to manually manage tickets and communicate with IT. Now, information technology infrastructure library (ITIL)-based processes, knowledge management, web-based service desk functionality, mobile service desk applications, and customer knowledge bases automate these same processes. These tools can address technical support challenges such as high costs, low customer satisfaction, and user productivity.

The following video suggests specific features that end users often find useful.

Help desk automation ideas

Like other digital acceleration initiatives, a successful IT help desk automation implementation requires foresight. Consider the following tips as you proceed with planning.

Use a value-first approach. When introducing new systems, it can be tempting to use technology for technology's sake or because certain software is the latest trend. However, technology should be used as a tool to achieve goals, not as a goal in itself. Strategic objectives such as improving the customer experience, reducing costs, driving revenue growth or improving security should be a priority when making decisions.

Improve processes before and after introducing new tools. Even the best technology can't compensate for ineffective service features like a poorly designed user interface. Before exploring new software, take stock of your existing processes to discern which problems can be solved with a new system and which would be better solved with a process-oriented approach. Once the new software is installed, take the time to adjust processes accordingly.

View help desk tools as an ecosystem. Make sure any new software will integrate well with other existing systems.

Take the opportunity to innovate. Help desk tools can be used to automate existing processes or to do things in a completely different way.

What is self-healing-based help desk automation?

Beyond automation is self-healing automation, in which IT teams address system issues proactively rather than reactively. That is, they predict and fix problems before customers complain about them. Self-healing systems help businesses by maintaining a high level of productivity, efficiency and end-user satisfaction.

Instead of wasting time putting out fires, IT professionals can offer more value-oriented services, such as refining processes and looking for small improvements that can have a big impact.

What is the best automated help desk software for my company?

Each company requires its own set of features for an automated help desk solution. However, here are a few that most will need.

Scalability. Any software tool must be able to grow with your business.

Easy to use interface. Look for user interfaces that are easy to learn and navigate. Make an appointment for a demo and have questions ready to be answered.

Reports and metrics. Part of the benefit of automation is the ability to use data (such as call reasons and average response times) to make automation even more effective.

Collaboration and productivity. Features that allow agents to communicate with each other help facilitate faster, more effective service.

Responsive customer support. Make sure agents are readily available to help when something goes wrong.

Enjoy the benefits of new school technical support operations

It is worth at least considering the suggestions above for any company for which IT service is important. Automated help desk operations can bring the following benefits:

• Sizing. Automated help desk software can help you scale up your service operations without the need to hire additional staff.
• Speed. Automated help desk software can often respond to end-user needs faster than the human equivalent.
• Fewer errors. Automated systems are often more accurate than humans, reducing potentially costly errors to a minimum.
• Better use of the team. Allowing software to perform technical support work allows staff to avoid tedious tasks and focus on mission-critical endeavors.
• Better CX. Greater speed, efficiency and accuracy, as well as self-service opportunities, provide an improved experience for end users.
• Better governance, risk management and compliance (GRC). Automation includes electronic records that can help comply with regulations for various entities.
• Cost reduction. Many of the above factors result in reduced technical support operations costs.

As you can see, the benefits of help desk automation can take your business to a whole new level of service, efficiency, and performance. In light of this evidence, adopting automation solutions for help desk operations is a no-brainer that can help you better interact with your customers and employees.