How to Improve Help Desk Performance?

The help desk is a very important part of any business, it maybe tedious and routine but it does have its great uses like improving customer experience, relaying useful information about the customers to the marketing team, helps improve products and services, adds positive reputation to the company and many more.

Because help desk can be a really boring job or highly stressful in some cases, your employees’ performance can be at risk. You may experience employees resigning due to lack of challenge, workload mismatch, or better opportunities offered to them by other companies.

So how can you improve your help desk’s performance? Here are some tips to help you out.

Establish Metrics with a Rewards System

Whenever a goal is set to be achieved, it is not too much to add a reward along the way. A reward system can be a powerful influence not just to employee performance but as well as motivation and behavior.

You can set different levels of metrics and provide a reward whenever a help desk agent reaches it. It can be based on quantity of work output or quality of work delivered, or both. If you are having difficulties determining what type of rewards to give based on the level of metrics you are going to set, ask your department managers to assist you.

Encourage Company Trainings and Seminars

Your help desk agents might not pursue a promotion today, but they will eventually. But how can you promote an employee with little knowledge and lack of experience for the promotion they are asking for? Help them grow professionally by encouraging them to attend company trainings and seminars.

If you make your employees feel that you care for their career growth, it will add up to their loyalty and morale thus improving their performance.

Team Building Is Not Just For Having Fun

If you think that team building is just another excuse for a short-term out of town vacation for your employees, you are dead wrong. Psychologically, it is a discipline that helps improve your help desk agents’ personality such as leadership and problem-solving skills. It also helps foster creativity, build trust amongst co-workers and develop better communication.

Using various fun and motivational activities that are carefully planned to help your employees’ mental health, your help desk agents can growth both personally and professionally.

Improving Employee Retention is Also Important

Some help desk agents can handle pressure but not the stress that accompanies it. So before they can call it quits, you better prepare a plan to retain them. Don’t let your talented employees leave your company and head straight to your competitor’s doorstep.

Here are a few tips:

  • If the rewards system you have establish is not working or not enough, revise it.
  • Motivate your help desk agents by improving their employee benefits.
  • Offer them career growth through company trainings and seminars.

If a help desk agent is happy with his job, he is likely to be more productive which is beneficial for the company. But there are times when a talented employee can’t be persuaded not to leave his position due to personal reasons or an issue with his co-worker. It will help you a lot to perform an exit interview with them so you can pin point the real cause and prepare a solution the next time it happens.

Should You Outsource Your Customer Service?

Many businesses today, both big and small, are outsourcing their customer service and other parts of their company to third party service providers. Outsourcing customer service doesn’t only cut down manpower costs, it can also help improve products and services, end-user experience, and provide you with time advantage over your competitors.

The thought is very tempting but should you really be outsourcing your customer service? If you are unsure if it is the best solution for your company, here are some things to consider to help you decide.

Labor Cost in the Long Run

Always weigh in the possible costs of outsourcing your customer services versus hiring in-house call center agents. It would be wiser if you draw a plan and make some rough computations before deciding whether to outsource or not.

If your company has a large volume of customers calling in 24/7 and your customer service is not available all the time, maybe it’s time to go outsourcing. Some companies hire third party call center services because they are the experts when it comes to handling all types of calls and customer behaviors. There will no longer be a need to add office space, equipment, software and other office supplies to house a team of customer service agents, plus language and call training will never be a problem because it will be the responsibility of the third party service provider.

Outsourcing your customer service may not be a great idea if you only have a few calls coming in.

Consider Your Customers’ Needs

Once a customer has bought a product or service from you, caring for them should not stop there. Having a good customer service will add more smiles to your customers keeping them coming back for more.

If you want customers to keep talking about your great new product or the amazing service you offer, you should always be ready to answer all their questions all the time, but is your customer service ready for that? Are your call agents equipped with the latest technologies in call servicing? Because your customers are always equipped with the latest gadgets, you should be able to take clear calls all the time. Customers do not want choppy calls, buzzing sounds, low volume speakers or microphones, and they definitely do not want to wait while you Google the answer to their questions.

Outsourcing your customer service may provide you all the things needed to run a smooth call center and keeping your customers happy. So if you are having the aforementioned problems and can’t seem to find a solution, maybe outsourcing it is the right move.

Communication is Key

Some people and business owners will warn you about language barriers when planning to outsource your customer service, because many businesses today are opting for outsourcing call center services in Asia to save more on costs and to intensify manpower and call servicing. But did you know that even your own in-house customer service agents can mess up customer calls? Language accents and different nationalities have nothing to do with delivering a good or bad information over the phone, what’s important is the quality of communication.

It wouldn’t hurt to sample your own in-house customer service and then try a local call center and an offshore call center to see the differences. If you feel that outsourcing your customer service will provide better communication between you and your customers, you might just be right!