It’s service desk only for IT?

It has been a while since the service desk assignments stopped being just answering open tickets. With the advancement of technology and the transformations in the way the customers and brands relate, the service team has even more important responsibilities.

Of course, the team has developed strategies and procedures for delivering an efficient and effective service.

Does this strategy only apply to IT (usually responsible for the service desk) or can the idea and format of work be encompassed by other sectors? That’s what we’re going to discuss today. Follow along.

We can consider that the service desk is a help desk advance, because in addition to being able to solve more complex demands, it brings other aspects of customer service improvement. Be an internal customer, be an external customer. In general, service desk bases can support other industries in delivering quality and excellence to the customer.

Even if you have not formalized the service desk “dialogue” with other departments, know that much more of this service desk is already part of the activities of the structured sectors and focused on serving your client in the best way.

Believe me, the teachings of the service desk are already part of your business.

Do you know the pillars of the service desk? We will list the key ones below and show you that they are certainly already part of your scope of work. And, if you don’t do it yet, you will soon understand how these pillars can be applied.

  • whole view of the problem and solution;
  • optimization and integration of management processes;
  • effective solutions to customer demands (internal and external);
  • mapping processes;
  • prevention of technical incidents and information security;
  • empathy with the client;
  • assistance in the execution and standardization of tasks and functions;
  • SLAs as compasses for carrying out the work.

Need to talk about SLA…

When thinking about SLA always keep in mind “alignment of expectations”. What does that mean? Come on: SLA stands for Service Level Agreement and it is a document, a kind of contract, in which all the details of the service provision are listed.

From: what is the task, what is the goal, deadlines, responsible, possible related difficulties, resources involved and any other factor that is part of the work or sector. According to ABNT (Brazilian Association of Technical Standards) SLA is required for IT hiring. In other areas of the company, it can serve as a guide to have a better flow of work relationships and job performance.

The information contained in the SLA also serves as a basis for analyzing metrics and indicators of success.

Discover the advantages of being inspired by the service desk.

A department that is organized and committed to fully meet its demands can easily identify traces of the service desk. As you saw in the previous topic, none of the aspects is unique to the IT area and much has to contribute to the company as a whole.

We have raised three of the key advantages of applying service desk features in other departments. Check it out and see how it can all be adapted to the reality and needs of your business and your teams.

Increased employee productivity.

The automation of tasks and creating a smart (and shared) database of data streamlines access to customer history, information exchanged between sectors, reduces the time to build the solution, and enables effective methodologies to be performed for all the activities of the company.

Productivity is linked to well-being in the work environment. And one of the elements of well-being is the availability of resources necessary for the employee to perform his duties. In this way, we can expand the benefits of service desk even to personal fulfillment, which results in quality and commitment.

It is worth mentioning that productivity is linked to the good use of useful time and not to exhaustive production and without consistency to actually serve customers well.

One of the factors that most influence the quality of a service is the average waiting time. The more agility, the more chances of ensuring customer satisfaction. Added to the standardization of the processes and the workflow, together with the automation of the sorting step and after sending answers, it is possible to reach the solution more easily.

Besides, the integration between areas allows information to flow more smoothly and thus, it also supports the speed of call resolution. And you can be sure that all of these benefits noticed in the process reflect directly on the relationship with the customer and their experience with your company.

Saving of financial resources.

 

 

Investing in a service desk brings great results to the company, both in terms of cost savings and profitability. In addition to increased productivity and better use of resources, the company gains quality in its deliveries, avoids damages caused by the fragility of the system, reduces the customer’s dissatisfaction rate and even the turn-over.

Who does not want all those benefits for your company, right?

By relying on the service desk in addition improve processes, you can see that the consumer experience is even more rewarding and the chances of customer loyalty increase significantly.

To continue accessing our materials and leveraging your expertise on service desk, help desk and the entire sphere of customer service, follow the Mildesk blog.

The importance of a Help Desk for retail.

You already know how important is to preserve the satisfaction of a customer, and this satisfaction without any doubt goes through the service. When a customer buys something on your shop – whether on a virtual store or a physical store they expect that all the problems they face after the purchase are resolved quickly and efficiently. To ensure that this expectation will be answered, you need an excellent help desk.

The Expectation of a customer

It is illusion to believe that customers go to your retail just because they have the best prices or products.

Currently, most brands are present in many retail stores, to increase themselves. Therefore, the same product that a customer finds in your store, he also finds in the concurrent.

Besides that, with the high competition in the market, prices and payment terms are totally changeable. Right now, it may be that one of your competitors do some “super promotion”, offering discounts to overcome your store.

If these are not the weighing factors in the customer’s decision, then what is it? The answer is, in large part, on customer service.

How many times have you heard someone say (or do you even said) that would never return to a store, after having a negative experience of customer service?

When a customer buys a product, he already has some expectation of problems. It may be that the item is damaged with missing parts, that it is not exactly like the advertisement, or simply that it does not fully meet your needs. All this is already, to some extent, expected. So the customer wants to do business with a retailer that offers a good resolution to all of these problems.

In short, what really bothers the customer is not the problem itself, but the store’s apparent inability to solve the problem.

That’s where the help desk comes in.

Good and bad help desk in retail

The good help desk is one that is focused on the customer. In practice, this translates into a search for agility and efficiency. This is the minimum expected, although, in fact, the consumer is much more demanding than that. He wants personalized service and, above all, humanized.

Meanwhile, the bad help desk is one who:

applies phrases made of customer appreciation, without converting them into actions;

prioritizes procedures, not results;

“Pushes” the problem to other areas, rather than actively seeking the resolution of requests received;

treats all customers as if they were the same person, without taking into account the particularities of each case.

In the retail sector, the concern with the speed increases. The majority of care in this type of company involve a situation in which the customer has already bought and paid for a product, but for some problem, is unable to take advantage of it. It is natural that he feels prejudiced; and, the more your company takes to close the case, but this negative feeling is strengthened.

Help desk for offline vs. online retail

At this point, you may be wondering if there are differences between the help desk in the case of an offline retail (physical stores) and an online retail (e-commerce). The answer is yes, and these differences start from the customer relationship model in each of them.

In the physical store, there is greater customer trust with the company, thanks to the simple fact that the contact is direct. The customer enters his building, he sees the product before buying, he talks to the seller. At the very least, he knows the store actually exists. So when he looks for the help desk, it’s with some assurance that the problem will have to be solved. This, of course, greatly facilitates the service to this client, who is more open.

Meanwhile, in the case of an e-commerce, the entire relationship that the customer built with the store went through the internet. There was no right contact. If your store is not part of a large retail group, and it is the first time the customer is shopping with you, he will probably have “a foot behind”. When facing a problem, this event will only strengthen its defensive position. Therefore, when looking for the help desk, this will be a more complex customer service.

In this sense, an online retail help desk needs to develop even better quality care than its offline competitor. This is how you can ensure that even when facing some difficulty in the shopping experience, the customer will not lose confidence in your store.

Ensuring a high standard help desk

If you’ve already convinced yourself of the importance of the help desk for retail, you’re probably wondering how you can develop this activity with quality.

There are many ways to ensure a high-standard help desk.

It can be said that everything starts by developing in the company a culture of customer appreciation, without which it is impossible to have a service that meets the expectations of the modern consumer. It is also worth emphasizing the role of the team’s formation, from the elaboration of a rigorous selection process to the establishment of professional training and retraining policies.

However, one of the most important elements may be the use of good tools to help the day-to-day care. An example of a tool is the SSC, that is, Shared Services Center. This tool allows centralizing information that is necessary for service, ensuring greater agility and efficiency. In addition, it also allows for organizing and monitoring care through reports to identify opportunities for improvement.

Milldesk, for example, has a solution in SSC that you can apply to your retailer to obtain superior results in help desk. The system is entirely web, turning the implementation much easier. And it can still be configured to adapt to the specific needs of your business, whether it is a physical store or e-commerce.

In this post, we explore the importance of the help desk for offline and online retail, we talk about good and bad practices, and we present a tool that you need to adopt in your company: SSC.

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