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Help Desk support issues

The types of Help Desk support issues and how to deal with them

Help Desk support can mean just about anything pertaining to the sales and service of products you make. If your company produces edible items such as snacks or drinks, then Help Desk might mean having someone call in with a nutrition question, a complaint about taste, or a even a suggestion for improvement.

In general, the more complex the product you provide, the more difficult will be your support burden.

There are two types of product support issues – technical and non-technical issues. Technical issues involve the difficult software and hardware problems requiring intensive troubleshooting or specific knowledge of the system you're selling to resolve.

Non-technical issues might include sales support (how much does it cost to upgrade to the next version) or even support for simple technical issues like how to reset a password or where to download the latest version of your software. Likewise, a non-technical support issue might be a question on whether or not the lollypops you produce come in a root beer flavor and where they can be purchased.

You'll want to deal with these two types of issues in a specific and most likely different way. For example, non-technical issues will very likely have definite answers to questions. How much does it cost to upgrade? Well, from version 1.0 to version 2.0 is X dollars. There's no guessing or problem solving involved. The Help Desk person simply looks up the information somewhere and gives out the answer.

Technical issues are more difficult to manage. There usually is some problem solving (and perhaps even a little guessing sometimes) involved in providing a solution to the problem. In most cases, the person solving the problem isn't going to be able to easily look up the solution in some file and pass this along to the customer.

You will likely find that one Help Desk support solution will allow you to handle both types of support issues – technical and non-technical. In fact, using a single solution is in your overall best interest as it allows you to manage your support with a single tool. Your support professionals don't need to learn multiple tools, you don't need to maintain multiple tools, and your support staff can interchangeably answer questions on the fly. For example, if a person handling a difficult technical issue is asked how much an upgrade costs, they can answer this by using the same resource as a non-technical support staff person might use.

Likewise, you may find your non-technical staff dealing with an issue that becomes technical as the customer begins to ask more questions. Using the right Help Desk Software solution, this staff member can reassign the issue to a more technical resource. The customer doesn't have to contact you again with a new issue. The customer is happy and your repeat business and referrals will increase.

You'll find using one Help Desk solution to manage your technical and non-technical issues to be the best overall method of providing reliable product support and increased customer satisfaction.