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Service Desk VS Help Desk

Service Desk

According to Webinar Care (2022), approximately 79% of customers consider personalised customer support more important than personalised marketing. Help Scout (2022) adds that 78% of customers worldwide would choose the same company again based on their customer service experience, even if the company failed to deliver their product or service in the past. Based on these statistics, the need for an IT service desk is imperative to the success of any business, especially regarding customer service delivery. Supporting research gathered by Salesforce (2022) stated that 89% of customers would make a second purchase after having a positive customer service experience. Data from Hubspot (2022) supported this, saying that approximately 93% of customers would repeatedly engage with companies that offer excellent customer service. With the rapid advancement of technology providing ample opportunities for innovation in customer service delivery and robotic process automation enhancing these service desk processes, businesses can provide excellent customer service that reinforces customer confidence and builds long-term loyalty.

What Is a Service Desk?

According to Dynamix Solutions (2022), an IT service desk is a single point of contact between an IT service provider and its users. A service desk adopts a bird's eye view of the business and deals with overall business needs rather than strictly focusing on conflict resolution. These business needs include incident escalation, service requests and user communication. Many service desks will incorporate a help desk component designed to improve IT processes and business efficiency.

Service Desk Vs Help Desk: What Is the Difference?

Most people hear the terms "service desk" and "help desk" thrown around; a quick way to remember the difference is that a service desk provides a complete service while a help desk only provides help. However, this can become confusing as many organisations confuse or use the terms synonymously. According to Dynamix Solutions (2022), there are distinct differences between a service desk and a help desk’s services. The primary difference between service desk and help desk support is that a service desk focuses on delivering full-blown customer support to end users at every touchpoint of the serviced-based ecosystem. Some of the functions of a service desk include service requests, information requests and break-fix (incident management) solutions.

In contrast, a help desk primarily focuses on troubleshooting and break-fix solutions for customers experiencing technical issues. Therefore, help desk support services are a derivative subcategory of service desk capabilities. Most IT experts agree that the differences between the service desk and help desk services will vary per business. Companies should implement a technical support system that optimises organisational needs and problem resolution.

Does the Differentiation Between Service Desk and Help Desk Matter?

According to MSP360 (2020), your end users see no significant difference between a service desk and a help desk. Providing different services under different names may confuse them. Differentiating between the service desk and help desk services provided by your company matters as to help you implement different workflows and apply various vital metrics to track their overall performance and efficiency.

MODERNISE YOUR SERVICE DESK, WHILE REFOCESING YOUR IT TEAMS

Service Desk Benefits for Your Business

Managing a successful business is daunting for many business owners, especially regarding customer service and dealing with potentially problematic customers. Implementing a service desk will streamline your business operation, provide ample support at all necessary touchpoints and boost overall productivity. Some of the benefits of an IT service desk include:

Increased Efficiency

Successful businesses must operate like well-oiled machines, which cannot happen without implementing a service desk. Companies that forgo service desk support will face constant interruptions, breakdowns and slow-moving parts. These issues will significantly impact service delivery and the overall customer service experience if left unresolved. A service desk substantially enhances the efficiency of your operation and serves as a central hub for all your customer service communications. Any communication from end users and customers gets redirected to your service desk to deal with systematically improving overall workflow efficiency for your business.

Seamless Customer Service Experience

Customer service is the number one priority for most customers when choosing a service provider. Businesses that want to retain customer loyalty must provide an excellent customer service experience. The criteria for a seamless customer service experience typically include speed, consistency, user interface (UI) functionality and the overall helpfulness of customer service employees. When all of these factors work together, it creates a seamless customer service experience that reinforces customer confidence and long-term customer loyalty.

Boosted Productivity

Companies implementing automation features to their service desk significantly reduce the time taken to complete tasks. Intelligent and robotic process automation (RPA) allows your customer service employees to efficiently complete daily business tasks, ultimately boosting overall business productivity.

Efficient Problem Resolution

Running a successful business remains a complex undertaking. Nothing affects business productivity more than operational problems; however, issues of this nature are common and almost inevitable in business across all industries. The speed and efficiency of problem resolution are what matter to ensure the survival of your business. Implementing a service desk will streamline problem resolution for your business and more. Problems can undergo tracking and analysis to reach a quick resolution. With a core understanding of the causes, service desk support teams can mitigate and prevent future incidents.

Reinforced Library of Information

Businesses that implement a service desk into their operation will have access to a robust library of information which can provide significant advantages. You can store information about your customers, employees and business in this knowledge database. You can later use this information externally to inform strategic decision-making for your business and internally to provide relevant and helpful job-related information to educate your employees.

Service Desk Vs Help Desk: Which Is Right for My Business?

Smaller companies that do not need a full-scale service desk should consider a help desk service that meets all the tactical business needs and provides end users with immediate IT support to resolve technical issues quickly. Larger companies that focus on corporate strategy and require extensive IT functionality should consider offering a complete service desk option for their end users to deal with customer service traffic. Companies that want to provide comprehensive IT support services that cover every facet of their business operations can embed help desk options within their service desk. Ultimately the needs and requirements unique to your business model will dictate which service option, IT protocols, and processes suit your company to ensure long-term success.

Why Choose solverASSIST as Your Service Desk Provider

There is no better service provider for you than solverASSIST; we build service desk support models designed to meet your business's specific requirements and needs. Our approach combines the right people, processes and technology while remaining compliant with the ITIL service management framework. Our capable help desk team has extensive experience using the latest ITSM tools like ServiceNow and JIRA. They can quickly identify potential problems, develop tailored solutions and promptly resolve any customer service or technical support issues your employees or customers face.

For more information on our available services or if your business requires a custom service desk support model, contact solverASSIST today.