If you’ve ever felt the growing pains of scaling up your small business, you’re not alone. The logistics of development can be dizzying. While having more employees and customers can be beneficial, it can also bring new Information Technology (IT) troubles.
The good news is the right help desk software can serve your organization’s current size while also allowing room for growth. There are a few specific elements of help desk software particularly useful for small businesses looking to expand. Focusing on these elements can help you find the best IT solution for your needs.
In this article, we’ll cover four aspects of a help desk that can contribute to your business running smoothly, while also saving you time and money.
An Overview of Help Desk Software for Small Businesses
Help desk software is a solution for organizing and supporting IT teams. It serves to keep your work in order, your team in the loop, and your customers happy. A help desk can be useful for groups of any size. However, it’s especially helpful for small businesses, start-ups, and organizations experiencing growth.
As business increases beyond what you’re typically used to, you must be prepared to capitalize on these beneficial yet chaotic periods. When operations are constantly changing, it’s essential to make sure your tech doesn’t experience any hiccups. A help desk is a useful tool for this purpose, and can keep your processes and transactions rolling smoothly.
Seamless technology can also help keep your customers happy. In a world where most customers are willing to pay more for a better experience, maintaining high levels of service can positively impact your bottom line.
These factors make choosing the right help desk software for your growing business almost as important as the software itself. This is why we recommend looking for a help desk solution designed to complement your growth, help you solve problems with fewer bumps, and serve customers with maximum efficiency.
4 Help Desk Features for Small Businesses to Pay Attention To
When you’re looking for help desk software to serve your small business, there are a handful of key features to look for. Let’s take a look at four of the most important, listed in no particular order.
1. An Adaptable Ticket System Ready for Growth
More customers inevitably mean more tickets. This is especially true when you’re attracting new clients who aren’t experienced with your product. Right now, your teams might be able to handle most requests manually. However, this approach may not be practical when your tickets start to increase.
Instead, you can consider a scalable ticketing solution to both support your current size and adapt as you grow. Features serving this purpose include the ability to track and prioritize your tickets, and the functionality to automate simple tasks:
An adaptable ticket system will save you time by completing actions such as returning automated responses to basic questions that don’t necessarily require an IT expert’s assistance. You can also add escalation and routing options as needed.
Help desk software including these features can be critical for efficient ticket response. It can make it easier to retain customers and prevent tickets from slipping through the cracks.
2. Self-Service Options to Empower Your Customers
Every minute counts in customer service, both for bottom lines and customer satisfaction. In fact, most customers now expect self-service options. The more easily they can use your help desk, the happier they’ll be.
This means you can save time and money by looking for help desk software offering robust self-service options:
Online service portals and knowledge bases let users quickly find answers to questions themselves, such as how to reset passwords or change emails. Plus, by providing articles and resources to guide customers through simple problems and tasks, you’ll free up the time your IT teams would otherwise have had to spend on them.
In other words, with solid self-service features, everyone wins. Your customers will appreciate the efficient solutions, and your support staff will have more time to deal with complex issues.
3. An Easy Way to Keep Track of Time Spent
When you’re running a small business, it’s crucial to make the most of your team’s time. This is especially true during periods when you’re experiencing heavy growth. As tickets and team members increase, you probably won’t be able to personally monitor each transaction.
To maximize this valuable resource, you can look for help desk software with features such as billable hours tracking:
With this data in mind, it should be easier to decide how to allocate work based on who can do it the fastest. It can also help prevent problems. For example, if one of your team members is spending several hours on malware issues, you can provide training to speed up their resolution times.
However, if all of your employees are billing many hours in the same area, there might be a bigger issue to look into. A help desk providing direct feedback on time spent can support your team on a personalized level.
4. Problem Reporting to Guide Your Growth
The path to maintaining consistent growth isn’t always clear, especially for small businesses that might not have much experience with large client bases. This is made more difficult by the fact that most customers who are unsatisfied with your service will simply stop using it without providing feedback as to why.
You can lend some clarity to the process by investing in a help desk designed to keep track of your progress and generate reports on common issues. For example, if you know most of your tickets are concerned with password problems, you can take a look at your knowledge base walkthroughs and see if there are better ways to explain the relevant processes.
Insightful problem reporting can help you keep up with your developing organization. It can also make it easier to implement effective change where it matters the most.
Conclusion
Small businesses have many challenges to contend with when it comes to growth. However, a poorly functioning help desk doesn’t need to be one of them. The right software can provide critical data and functionality in an easily accessible way. By seeking out a product offering the support you need, you’ll have a powerful head start toward helping your business grow.
In this article, we discussed four main features to look for in help desk software that can save your small business time and money:
- An adaptable ticketing system to help automate simple tasks
- Proactive self-service options to keep your customers empowered and happy
- Time-tracking functionality, so you can efficiently assign work
- Insightful report generation to provide actionable feedback