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Earlier this week, we looked at some of the personnel factors that are common among extraordinary outsourced Help Desks. Today, we’ll continue the discussion on the characteristics of a great Help Desk, with a focus on the technology aspects to look for when evaluating Help Desk providers.

Call Management Systems

The best Help Desks have systems in place to track all incoming calls from clients. A call management system tracks such statistics as call volume, the length of time a call remains in queue, the length of a conversation with Help Desk personnel, and more. Monitoring important details of all calls allows supervisors to then review the data and analyze it to identify areas of weakness and improve upon them.

Call management systems help ensure that all clients who call the Help Desk will be assisted in a timely and efficient manner, as analysts can continually learn from previous client interactions.

Call Recording Tools

A call recording tool is another mechanism exceptional Help Desks often use to ensure the highest level of client services. These tools, such as the one provided by Red Box, record all calls that come into the Help Desk and archive them for future use.

Keeping copies of analysts’ conversations with clients is a great strategy for quality control. If an issue or disagreement occurs, supervisors can retrieve the call in question and use it to assess the situation, thus eliminating any “he said/she said” controversies. Call recording systems also increase the accountability of all analysts and engineers that are handling the calls.

Centralized Ticket Tracking Systems

Another technological feature of superior Help Desks is a robust centralized ticket tracking system. When a call or request for service from a client comes into the Help Desk, the analyst creates a ticket detailing the issue which is then stored within the centralized system.

With a centralized ticket tracking system, all historical ticket information is stored in a single location, so that analysts can easily access data on the type of work that has previously been done with that client. As a result, when you call the Help Desk for assistance, you will not waste valuable time explaining previous calls you had with other Help Desk representatives.

Business Continuity Plan

If, for some reason, your Help Desk provider’s facility becomes inaccessible, will you still be able to use their services? The best Help Desks have business continuity procedures in place to ensure that client issues will continue to be handled seamlessly in the event of an unexpected outage on their end. At Eze Castle Integration, our Help Desk is prepared to re-route all service calls to Boston or London if our New York City location becomes inaccessible, so that clients will not experience a lapse in service.

Takeaway Checklist

We’ve covered a lot in this series so here’s a recap of what to look for when selecting an outsourced help desk:

1. Dedicated expert teams
2. Centralized help desk personnel
3. Knowledge sharing
4. Personal touch
5. Feedback mechanisms
6. Call management systems
7. Call recording system
8. Centralized ticket tracking
9. Business continuity plan

Be sure to view our presentation that explores these 9 considerations further.

Our Help Desk

Finally, we can’t resist doing a little plug for our help desk, so it here it goes. Eze Castle Integration’s Help Desk is staffed 24x7x365 with fully trained engineers in New York City who are extremely knowledgeable and well-versed in handling any unexpected issue or general support question that a firm may encounter.

For more information on Eze Castle’s Help Desk services, please contact us.

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