A help desk is a support service where customers can receive help and report issues. In this article, we will present to you 8 steps process of creating MSP Help Desk.
Introduction
An MSP help desk is all about giving your clients an easy way to let you know when they run into IT problems that need fixing. Ideally, it should be there for them whenever they need it, even outside of regular work hours. This gives your customers a clear place to turn for support and also keeps you from getting flooded with random emails or calls whenever something goes wrong.
Here are the key steps to setting up a help desk for your MSP business for the first time:
Figure Out Your Help Desk Goals and Procedures
Before you even think about launching a help desk, you need to clearly define what it aims to achieve and how it will operate. This means deciding exactly what kind of IT issues you’ll handle (will you fix everything, or just specific types?) and mapping out the whole process: how customers will send in their requests and how your team will respond. Sorting this out early on helps make sure your help desk runs smoothly and effectively right from the start. Trying to set it up first and then figure out the details later is a common pitfall.
Bring on Support Engineers
You’ll need IT support engineers to handle your help desk workload. If you don’t already have engineers with available capacity on your team, you’ll need to bring in new hires specifically for this role. How many of engineers you need for the help desk can change based on your operating hours. It makes sense to start with a smaller team and then expand as your MSP business grows.
Get Your Engineers Trained Up
Even if you hire experienced IT engineers for the help desk, they’ll still need training on the specific procedures you’ve set up. They’ll also likely need some time to get comfortable with any software tools they’ll be using daily. Be ready to provide refresher training or updates for your engineers whenever you change your service offerings or make adjustments to how your help desk operates.
Make a Timetable
Your help desk’s schedule should be adjusted to meet the needs of your clients in order to operate as effectively as possible. Determine the times of day (and days of the week) when you are most likely to receive support requests, and make sure your help desk is open and staffed as much as possible during those times.
The majority of requests should typically be received during regular business hours, but this may not always be the case based on your customers’ schedules and business operations. For example, a customer who conducts specific business operations overnight might require assistance during that time.
You can adjust if you are unsure of when demand will peak.
Install a Ticketing System
You can monitor customer support requests with the use of ticketing systems. When a request is received, a ticket is created and used to record details about the request and the response from your team. The ticket is closed once the problem has been fixed. You can use several different ticketing systems, both open source and commercial.
Put in place a knowledge base system
You’ll need a repository where support engineers can save knowledge base articles for all of the various issues related to all of your offerings for future reference, if you want to scale the expertise of each team member and their troubleshooting experiences throughout the entire team. One well-liked platform for this is Microsoft SharePoint, a general-purpose knowledge base system.
Track Your Development
To monitor your progress and identify areas for improvement, be sure to gather and regularly evaluate metrics related to your help desk operations. The number of requests you receive each day or week, the average amount of time a ticket stays open, and the average number of staff hours spent responding to requests are important metrics to monitor.
Another way to get important information about how well your help desk is doing is to survey your customers. After every ticket is resolved, for example, you can implement a rating system. This is a brief survey that displays three smiley faces (unhappy, neutral, and happy) that indicate how satisfied the customer is with the help desk’s performance.
Adopt a mindset of continuous improvement
Your help desk should not be viewed as a one-and-done task. Even if you’re happy with how it’s working now, you should always look for ways to improve it for your customers (by increasing response times, for example) and your company (by maximizing the amount of time employees spend on support and lowering the cost of operating the help desk).
Your help desk will stay effective and streamlined as your MSP business expands if you keep improving it.
In conclusion
Help desks can significantly improve customer support operations for an MSP company. For the benefit of both your company and your clients, it is crucial to have the appropriate strategy and software in place to ensure that your help desk operates effectively.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What is meant by an MSP help desk?
An MSP help desk is all about giving your clients an easy way to let you know when they run into IT problems that need fixing. Ideally, it should be there for them whenever they need it, even outside of regular work hours. This gives your customers a clear place to turn for support and also keeps you from getting flooded with random emails or calls whenever something goes wrong.
What are the key steps to setting up a help desk for your MSP business?
- Figure Out Your Help Desk Goals and Procedures
- Bring on Support Engineers
- Get Your Engineers Trained Up
- Make a Timetable
- Install a Ticketing System
- Put in place a knowledge base system
- Track Your Development
- Adopt a mindset of continuous improvement
