A company’s helpdesk system is the back office of customer service; it’s where new customers come in and current ones go when they need support. This means that a helpdesk solution can make or break a business. Many companies have considered updating their helpdesk solutions, but they don’t know where to start, or how to make the switch.
Here’s a list of steps that are essential for transitioning from one helpdesk solution to another.
Get team buy-in.
How do companies get a team on board with a new helpdesk solution?
It’s not always easy to convince a team that they need to change their current helpdesk software. Many factors go into this decision, including the cost of switching, onboarding time, and benefits provided.
The first thing companies should do is make sure everyone understands why they’re considering changing the helpdesk solution. Companies should ask team members what they think about the idea of moving forward with a new one. If there’s any hesitation or uncertainty, explaining the benefits of switching, like increased efficiency or better customer service platform, can help ease concerns. Once the company has buy-in, it can begin the search for a suitable solution.
Determine the major stakeholders for the future helpdesk solution.
How do companies decide who should be on the team? It’s important to identify and understand the needs of all team members, not just the ones that work the phones. Customer service reps, supervisors, and managers all have different concerns about a new helpdesk that should be incorporated into the decision-making process.
A customer service representative might want better ways to handle phone calls or more up-to-date information about changes in their customers’ accounts. Managers will care about creating an efficient system that is easy to maintain. And supervisors should be a part of the conversation because they’ll need to train everyone. They will also have to make sure their responsibilities don’t take too much time away from customer service reps who need extra support.
Companies should be sure to include a person who can objectively evaluate the current environment, like a manager who has access to all the data or someone from IT that can check for gaps in functionality.
Identify critical integrations with the team.
Integrations are a great way to make contacts and customers more satisfied. A customer service system that can work with your CRM or marketing automation platform can be a game-changer for companies.
Here’s some important questions to consider when itendifying crucial integrations:
- How will new helpdesk software use these integrations?
- How easily will they integrate with the current infrastructure?
- Will the company need to hire an IT consultant or systems integrator to get it up and running?
- How much will it cost?
Plan the data migration.
It’s now time for the company to tackle the question of migrating data from one system into another. Here are some important questions to consider when planning the data migration:
- How are they going to handle this process?
- What type of data will they need to transfer from the old helpdesk software and how long will it take to do so?
- How much work will it be for developers?
- How much time does it require from the support team?
- How many hours per day will it take?
Devise a plan to train the support team on the new solution.
It’s important to have the people who will be trained on a new helpdesk system understand how it works and what they’re training for. It’s best to start with a short introduction of the new system, what it will do for the company, and why they should care about using it.
Companies should discuss the new goals for customer service, standards for handling calls and chats, and points of contact in case of emergencies. The training session should include demonstrations of the new software as well as hands-on team involvement to make sure everyone understands how it functions. Once the company completes this first part of a training session, it can move on to more advanced topics like escalation of helpdesk tickets.
Consider a helpdesk solution powered by artificial intelligence.
How much time does it take to answer customer service calls and chats? How many hours per day are wasted on tasks that could be automated by an AI-powered automation platform? How can companies make sure that their team has the right tools to succeed in today’s competitive marketplace?
What if we told you your team could save 200 hours a week? Sound too good to be true? Think again.
Companies looking for ways to increase efficiency, reduce costs, and improve customer satisfaction through better call handling should consider switching to an AI-powered automation platform.
For more information, download this guide about the State of Support Automation.
What is Capacity?
Capacity is an AI-powered support automation platform that connects your entire tech stack to answer questions, automate repetitive support tasks, and build solutions to any business challenge.
Teams are overwhelmed by questions and repetitive tasks. Capacity provides everything you need to automate support and business processes in one powerful platform.