Customers have many different channels to request support from your company’s Help Desk. These contact channel methods include chat, telephone, email, social media, in person, and many other channels. Therefore a Help Desk telephone system is still the mainstay of all Help Desk support channels and will be for the foreseeable future.
Help Desk Telephone System Benefits
Person to person communication – Nothing will improve customer satisfaction like a positive interaction with your customer support staff. Customers reporting issues tend to be upset. For that reason, empathy goes a long way to diffuse the situation. An understanding human voice can project empathy unlike an email or text message can.
Interaction recording – A benefit of providing support by telephone is the ability to record the interaction. As a result of recording calls, processes can be put in place for compliance, coaching, training and support reviews.
Remote support – Many Help Desks have the ability to provide remote support, which allows Help Desk agents to remotely connect to the customer’s computer to directly resolve the issue. While connected remotely to the computer, it is critical to be able to speak to the customer during the interaction.
Warm transfers and conference calls – On average 30% of all calls cannot be resolved by the first level Help Desk Agent. However, there are times where the first level agent can warm transfer the caller or conference into someone who can. By not disconnecting the call with the customer, it improves the customer experience.
Help Desk Telephone System Properties
The technology used in a call center has come a long way. Gone are copper wires and basic desk phones. Help Desk call center phone systems are digital based and leverage programmed functionality.
Voice over IP (VOIP) – The human ear can interrupt analog sounds. In contrast computers and networks understand and route digital signals. VOIP means that your telephone calls are converted to digital information with a protocol known as SIP (Session Initiation Protocol). Then the digital data is converted back to an analog signal so you can hear it through the handset.
Automatic Call Distributor (ACD) system. An ACD will handle incoming and outgoing calls to make sure they follow the call routing rules that you set up. Routing of a call is the process where a caller is redirected to a specific queue based on programmed criteria. Programmed means Help Desk Management can set up criteria based on time, volume, location, caller selection, language, and other criteria to redirect the call.
- Time-based call routing – Calls can be sent to different call centers based on time. If a caller in Boston calls the Help Desk at night, the ACD could have the rule to send all nighttime calls in the United States to a call center in India where it is daytime.
- Skills-based call routing –Help Desks may handle support calls for multiple companies or support multiple services. Rules can be set up based on the number dialed or input provided by the caller. The call will be sent to an agent based on their skill set and ability to handle the support call.
Help Desk Call Recording
Part of a Help Desk telephone system is usually a call recording and archiving system. Each of the calls handled in a customer service phone systems will be recorded for future playback and review. Call recording systems are highly configurable. Call recording can be configured by extension, department or entire company. Recorded calls can be attached to Help Desk ticks as an attachment. They can be set up to mask the audio of protected data such as credit card or social security numbers. There are many reasons a Help Desk may want or may be required to record their calls
- Industry Regulations – Many financial service companies may need to record transactions to comply with federal and state regulations. In addition, some regulations require calls to be recorded to validate sales confirmations. Likewise, recordings can validate callers have been informed of the terms of the sale. Also call recording can provide an audit trail to ensure a company is complying with Do Not Call requirements.
- Coaching – Management can review calls for quality and provide agent coaching to improve performance.
Add on tools and services
Many advanced systems are available for Help Desk telephone systems to make agents more efficient and customers have a better experience. These services include predictive dialing and screen pop of caller’s information into the ticketing system. Similarly, customer relationship management (CRM) systems can link customer background information to the interaction.
- Workforce Management (WFM) – This is a focus area on the processes needed to optimize the productivity workforce operations to handle Help Desk call volumes. Included in WFM is attendance, performance management, scheduling, forecasting, and resource demand management.
- Interactive voice response (IVR) – This is a system where the called can interact with the Help Desk call IVR system through the use of voice and keypad input. For example, the Help Desk call IVR system can present a number of options and can understand the answers from the caller either by speech recognition or the keypad number they enter. The benefit of this system is it generally reduces waiting time for the call. In addition per call costs are reduced and the caller can be routed to the most appropriate extension.
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