Do you think your company is too small for a dedicated help desk system? No matter how large or small your organization is, what budget you have, or what existing systems you have in place, help desk software is a solution for everyone.

And here are 4 reasons why.

1. Email is Hard to Track

It is understandable that you may be using email for customer service or internal support management. Most companies use email heavily. Even with a dedicated help desk platform, email is the preferred method of communicating. As a support application, email is used by end users and support staff alike for asking questions, issuing alerts about problems, clarification/follow up and resolution.

However, email can only be tracked to a certain extent. Of course, support technicians solely using email can flag messages and separate them into appropriate folders. But a large volume of messages can quickly clutter an email inbox making tracking and follow up very difficult.

If this is or has been you, you most likely have already experienced some issues: Lost important support requests; received complaints from upset clients or end users, inefficient staff response times and unhappy administrators.

Unwieldy email can have lasting effects on the success of your business.

With dedicated software, you can track requests using what are called tickets. A ticket is a call # to a specific issue or request that doesn’t get lost or deleted. You can track and record things like who is working to solve the problem, the time it took to solve it, and the urgency of each ticket, so you will never lose sight of a message. Some platforms even integrate with your current email client allowing you to communicate with your end users using email without even leaving the help desk.

2. Real Software Offers Analytics

Help desk/self-help software offers more analytics than the previously mentioned tracking. You can monitor the efficiency of your IT staff including ticket resolution times and keep tabs on assets and tie them to tickets learning which ones need repair most often.

A dedicated help desk can schedule reports in whatever timeframe you need, and otherwise use metrics to understand what issues your business needs to address to optimize performance, in an intelligent, evidence-based manner.

3. Automation is More Efficient

A help desk solution can also automate tasks or projects saving you time overall. Many home-grown platforms, like email, lack automation and require manual data entry. If you are already using email, an automated system can convert inbound emails and turn them into support tickets without any manual data entry.

With dedicated, targeted software featuring automation you can streamline, simplify, and get to work without delay.

4. Software Can Save You Money

Think help software is too expensive? It can save you money, or at least pay for itself when compared to an inefficient email or home-grown system.

A good help desk/self-help platform saves time and money with its metrics, automation, and efficiency, so your staff spends more time working, and less time trying to figure out what went wrong with your home-grown system.

Conclusion

Perhaps you don’t have any budget for a help desk system platform right now. Maybe you feel that using email is working well enough and that there isn’t a reason to invest in something specifically made for support. Or maybe you have cobbled together a home-grown system for your business and you don’t know what you are missing.

Good news! There are some really good free help desk systems out there to get you started; then as you grow or later develop a need for more features it is a simple flip of the upgrade switch. Try it today and save!