How Much Time Is Your Help Desk Wasting?

by Stephanie Faris on Monday, September 05 6:00

Help desk teams are already overloaded with work, with businesses often expecting a minimal number of people to handle a large daily ticket load. However, many help desk teams waste time each day without even realizing it. In addition to the usual general workplace time wasters, there are productivity problems specific to the way your help desk receives and handles calls. Here are a few ways your help desk is wasting time.

Non-Ticketed Work

One way to make your workflow more efficient is through the use of a help desk ticketing system. However, that system is only effective if it s used. Too often, technicians are approached while on the way to lunch or working on another issue and asked to help with a problem. Even if it only takes a minute or two, this allows an end user to move in line in front of all of the other people who have followed protocol and placed tickets. Your technicians should be urged to ask every user to place a ticket when these requests come through, even if the issues are small. Then ensure that each ticket gets a rapid response so that no one feels as though they ll have to wait long for help.

Too Long on Repairs

Technicians have an admirable habit of continuing to work on something until they find the problem. In doing so, they can learn and grow as professionals. However, when you have a valued member of your help desk team spending eight hours troubleshooting one software problem on a PC or mobile device, your end users suffer. Have images of each device type stored on your server to allow you to wipe and reload a problem PC in a matter of 20 minutes or so. Some issues can t be resolved by an operating system restore, so put a process in place that allows a senior technician to look at a problem taking more than a set time allotment to resolve.

Training End Users

Some tickets are simply a result of poor hiring practices. If an employee lacks the basic technical skills necessary to do a job, it s important that management is aware of this as quickly as possible. Pull a report each month of help desk tickets and note issues where training could make a big difference. If an employee puts in a ticket because he doesn t know how to find a lost file or execute a specific command in Excel, for instance, you can point out where training could help that employee be more efficient. If an end user insists on putting in tickets for petty issues, such as changing the toner cartridge in a printer, it may be necessary for the help desk leaders to sit down with that employee s supervisor with a report of monthly calls from his or her team.

Your help desk team works hard, but a few small changes can make things easier for them. It will also improve response times for your end users, which will benefit the business as a whole. Continually monitor your help desk tickets and resolution times to determine areas that can be improved. While you ll never be able to completely eliminate the stress, you may be able to streamline things so that your team operates more efficiently, making things easier for everyone.