Many businesses fantasize about help desk outsourcing to help their operations while others fear the worst when turning over such a key component of servicing their customers. Customer satisfaction is what keeps businesses in the black and the idea that an untrained outsider could lose customers and profits can make the blood run cold.
There are many advantages of outsourcing to take into consideration, most significantly the thought of being able to allow your IT department to work on higher-reward work that will improve your overall business instead of being stuck in a quagmire of customer service related issues. Another advantage is the bottom-line; outsourcing can lead to higher profit margins. Those two benefits alone are what drive the discussion of outsourcing.
So should your company take the plunge? Is outsourcing your help desk the direction your company should take?
Help Desk Responsibilities
The help desk supports customers or employees, and often both by doing the following jobs.
- Take incoming calls and emails about technical issues, with the goal of answering or solving any problems.
- Most issues concern an employee’s or customer’s computer, or with an online ordering system.
Depending on your point of view this is either a simple and straightforward procedure or it is a potential nightmare of misinformation and/or incompetence that will destroy your business. Both points of view are valid, but ultimately the latter is a view based on a lack of trust and vision.
Benefits of Outsourcing Your Help Desk
The benefits of allowing another company to assume your help desk operations are numerous. What it boils down to is finding a reputable operation that is trustworthy. Here is how outsourcing can greatly enhance your business.
- Operate your business 24 hours a day instead of being restricted to the typical nine to five. If you do not have a help desk operating 24 hours a day you will receive complaints from both customers and employees. Outsourcing help from several time zones can increase satisfaction for customers and employees by having someone available to help at all times. Speaking to a live person instead of a pre-recorded message is a definite outsourcing plus.
- The majority of companies that provide outsourcing services do so at a lower rate than what you would have to pay your staff. You will also eliminate benefit packages and other perks that an in-house team would need which will lower costs even further.
- Free up management related costs by outsourcing call center services. The outsourcing company will do most of the management related duties for you, which will also reduce the load on your human resources department.
- A company that specializes in running help desks are highly trained professionals that are used to dealing with the accompanying issues that come with running them. Many companies find that outsourcing help desk responsibilities actually improves customer and employee satisfaction.
Having a highly trained help desk available 24 hours a day will improve your day-to-day operations and boost profitability. Allow the professionals to take care of your help desk while your company can grow even faster without the burden of having one in-house.