To your customers, the helpdesk is how they see you, how they get service, and how they have their problems fixed. It is the number-one component to your reputation. To you, a helpdesk is a tool to create once your organization has grown to a certain size and a tool for creating a division of labor as you grow. A helpdesk is not needed for small organizations, but there is a particular growth point at which it becomes useful and, later, critical.
The helpdesk is the “face” of your organization, so make it a happy, friendly one, no matter whether it is physical or virtual. Properly sizing the helpdesk is important and affects not only your budget but also customer satisfaction. In planning your helpdesk, you must define what is supported, who is supported, where they are, when you provide support, and how long customers should expect an average call to last. Constructing accurate budget and staffing plans is made easier by collecting the statistics mentioned in Section 13.1.10.
Processes should be defined for staff to follow regarding how they provide support for various services and how issues are escalated. Software must be used to collect statistics on all calls and to track issues that last longer than a single call.
Once those things are established, a helpdesk can grow in other areas. Out-of-hours coverage can be instituted; policies can be better advertised; and, with high growth, the helpdesk can be split into separate groups for new-service provisioning and trouble reporting.
We discussed much in this chapter, and every issue in some way touched on communication. The helpdesk is how customers communicate with your organization, yet it is often the role of the helpdesk to communicate to customers how, when, and why things are done. Such communicate can determine whether you are perceived as friendly or unfriendly. The statistics that are collected help communicate to management the needs of the organization during planning cycles. Escalation procedures keep the communication flowing when things stall. Having a written out-of-hours support policy sets expectations with customers and prevents the frustration of unexpected calls late at night.