How to Run an Effective Help Desk

A Help Desk is usually not a profit-generating department within a company.  It is, for many organizations, a necessary expense, but it can add a significant amount of value to a company in a variety of ways.  In order for your Help Desk to add this value, it must be established with the proper mission, it must offer the right set of services, and it must achieve its objectives. 

In order to run an effective Help Desk, you must know, in advance, what services you are going to perform, you must know how to prioritize issues, and you must create realistic expectations.  All successful companies start off with a business plan, and the same rule applies to Help Desks. If your Help Desk is focused and has a clear understanding of your business, it will add a significant amount of value to the company in the form of increased productivity and customer retention.

In this course, we will cover all the topics necessary to run your Help Desk, including drafting a plan, determining which services to offer, when to outsource, how to measure performance, how to effectively deal with senior management, which tools will aid you, and how to ensure that your customers are receiving value.

As any project manager knows, the first rule of any successful project is to earn the support of a sponsor. In this case, the senior management of an organization would be the sponsors of starting any major endeavor, including the establishment of a Help Desk. Since Help Desks are usually an expense of the company, getting senior management's support is crucial. More importantly, though, you must also clearly understand what senior management expects of you. You never want to be in a situation where you are, for example, offering unnecessary services - especially if the budget in your company is closely watched.

Senior management sets the agenda and objectives of a company. They know the needs of the business – including the need for support. A Help Desk's fundamental objective is to support the organization. When you are creating your plan for your Help Desk, managers' input will be vital to understanding what services you should include. 

If budgets are tight, for example, senior management might ask you to include as much automation as possible in your procedures.

The types of feedback you might receive from management will vary, depending on a variety of factors. You might, for example, be told that you can outsource any service that might be better performed by an outside company. In some organizations, outsourcing might be strictly prohibited. Similarly, some automation might be called for by some companies, whereas others might want to emphasize more human intervention. You will take direction from management for all of these types of decisions.

In addition to management, you will also be working closely with other Information Technology (IT) departments within your company.They can be a source of help in many instances, and in others they can be challenging. 

Your Help Desk will share many things in common with other IT groups. For one thing, you are both responsible for keeping technology products functioning correctly. But, the most prevalent causes of conflict with other IT groups usually deal with levels of responsibility. The IT department might, for example, claim that certain duties or services are their responsibility, and they will request that you stop offering certain services. Alternatively, they might also try to push undesirable duties off on the Help Desk, when they do not want to be bothered with them. An effective Help Desk's plan will clearly outline its level of services to avoid such conflicts. 

Your Mission

A mission statement outlines your purpose, whether it is a mission statement for the entire company, a department, or your Help Desk. For Help Desks, a mission statement helps develop a strategy for dealing with customers. Some characteristics of a mission statement are: It must be believable, achievable, and recognizable.

Your Services

If you offer too many services, you risk breaking your budget and, more to the point, you risk failure in delivering quality service. Do not offer an overly broad range of services; work with management to determine the right level of service. The services you offer must be: manageable, supportive of the business, and well understood.