In today’s MSP workplace the volume of incidents and requests sent to the helpdesk has risen considerably. With this in mind it’s now time for your helpdesk to modernize. Do this by adopting enhanced technologies to elevate user experience, provide personalized services, resolve issues faster and drive ROI.
Step 1: Technology
In a modern helpdesk, a PSA platform acts as the conduit and force multiplier for all IT activities. This affects everything from technician efficiency to customer service distinction to billing. Here’s how to enable technology to transform your helpdesk:
- First define the business purpose and role of each functional area of your helpdesk.
- Next define which integrations and workflows are needed to streamline your helpdesk. This includes RMM, reporting, quoting, project management, invoicing and billing.
Step 2: User Interface
Providing your helpdesk team with an easily navigable interface that allows technicians to oversee multiple processes from a single dashboard is a must. Here are the prerequisites of a modern helpdesk interface:
- Handle tasks with minimal clicks or keyboard shortcuts.
- Complete tasks on one screen without additional tabs or windows.
- Manage tasks on the go with mobile accessibility.
Step 3: Optimization
Optimizing your helpdesk is imperative to getting rid of bottlenecks, resolving issues faster and boosting profitability.
You need to analyze the following KPIs on a daily basis and pivot as required:
- Same day close %
- Tickets by assignee/priority/queue/status/issue type
- Time logged by technicians
You need to analyze the following KPIs on a monthly or quarterly basis:
- Tickets per asset/per user
- Actual hours per ticket
- Same day closes vs. new tickets
- Revenue per asset/per user
- Mean time to resolution
- Initial response time
- Categorization by ticket type
Step 4: Workflow Automation
Automating your helpdesk workflow is an efficient way to optimize ticket resolution. This also boosts technician efficiency and ensures common routine tasks like ticket generation are processed without human intervention. For optimal workflows follow these guidelines:
- Automate ticket routing, assignment and priority.
- Set up workflows so that documentation such as user, device, password, apps & services, and SOPs pertaining to a ticket are shown automatically.
- Create workflows so that any alerts from RMM, backup, security and compliance automatically generate a ticket in your PSA.
- In addition, configure workflows so that any alerts from RMM can be remediated automatically.
Step 5: Billing and Payment Automation
Modernizing your helpdesk also entails automating your billing and payment process for faster invoicing and a better customer experience. You must:
- Define which billing and payment steps you want to automate, such as post items.
- Review contracts to identify which elements of billing to automate such as time and materials, expense and product charges, recurring services, fixed price contracts and projects.
- Eliminate manual reconciliation by automating the unit count of services conducted including per user, per device and per license.
Also be sure to check out best practices on how to organize helpdesk tickets.
