#GoToGetsIT: This article is part of an ongoing series from GoTo’s thought leaders on the frontlines: Our Solutions Consultants deeply understand our customers’ unique challenges and connect the right solutions to meet their goals using GoTo technology. Here, they share their industry knowledge on what it takes to help businesses everywhere thrive in a remote or hybrid world.
As an MSP, the value you provide to your clients will continue to grow as their reliance on technology expands. Because customers are depending so heavily on technology, your role as a trusted advisor is more important than ever. It is critical that your helpdesk and your processes support you in your journey to consistently deliver amazing service to your customers.
First, adopt the right tools
As an MSP, the right tools can assist your helpdesk in providing exceptional service to multiple clients, especially if the tools include multiple capabilities within an all-in-one solution. These might be incident management, problem resolution, and remote support software, as well as workflow automation, collaboration, knowledge management, and an end-user portal.
Once you have the right toolkit, here are some best practices to follow and how the right technology can help:
1. Set clear objectives and metrics
Tracking critical business metrics such as first-call resolution rate, average response time, customer satisfaction rate, and SLA performance is critical to maintaining customer satisfaction and building trust. Helpdesk reporting and analytics capabilities can assist you in identifying areas for improvement and tracking progress toward your objectives. With these metrics, you can quantify the effectiveness of your helpdesk, understand where it excels, and identify areas that need improvement.
2. Use a ticketing system
A robust helpdesk ticketing system ensures nothing slips through the cracks. This should allow you to easily keep track of all customer requests, assign tasks to team members, and ensure that all issues are resolved as soon as possible. By using a ticketing system, you can effectively manage and prioritize customer requests, monitor the status of ongoing issues, and leverage the ticket data to drive better business decisions regarding staffing, training, and automation opportunities.
3. Prioritize requests
Prioritize client requests based on urgency, impact, and your service level agreements (SLAs). With multiple clients, it's vital to have the ability to automate triage and use workflows to escalate the most critical issues first. This will help your team address the most urgent issues first, reducing downtime and helping you meet your SLA obligations.
4. Provide self-service options
Reduce the workload on your helpdesk team and improve customer satisfaction by providing self-service options. A robust knowledge base helps your customers quickly and easily resolve common issues without needing to involve your helpdesk. This frees up your team's time to focus on more complex issues, and helps your clients become more self-sufficient, ultimately improving the client experience.
5. Train the helpdesk team
Training can be a drag on your valuable resources, but it is also an investment that pays off in better service. MSPs can greatly benefit from vendor-provided training and certifications, especially when managing a varying range of client needs. These training programs can help your team stay on top of new tools, trends, and other best practices, so that they can consistently delight your clients.
6. Encourage collaboration and communication
Collaboration tools can assist team members in working more effectively together. Team messaging and video conferencing facilitate communication and ensure that everyone is working toward the same goals. With these tools, your team can collaborate on resolving issues more effectively and efficiently, improving your team's productivity and reducing resolution times.
7. Monitor and analyze customer feedback
Understanding your customer's point of view allows you to make better decisions and improve your service. Reporting and analytics capabilities make it simple to monitor and analyze customer feedback. By analyzing customer feedback, you can identify trends and patterns in the issues reported and address the underlying causes of those issues.
8. Continuously improve processes
You can ensure that your helpdesk team is always operating at peak efficiency by reviewing and improving your processes on a regular basis. Workflow automation capabilities can assist you in streamlining your processes and eliminating inefficiencies. By regularly reviewing your processes and improving them, you can ensure that your team is operating at peak efficiency and providing the best possible service to your customers.
Put these helpdesk best practices in action
You can provide exceptional service to your customers and improve customer satisfaction by following these best practices and utilizing an all-in-one IT management and support solution like GoTo Resolve. Expect increased loyalty and revenue for your business in return.
