The help desk serves the purpose of addressing customers grievances and queries whereas service desk takes care of the customer experience. If you can ensure an amazing customer experience, you will witness higher customer retention and customer satisfaction rates, thereby ensuring higher sales and profits. So if the help desk had been your priority till now, it’s time to replace or convert it into a service desk.
According to a report, 84% of the organizations focusing on customer experience witnessed an increase in revenue. The service desk caters to the problems and concerns of the customers. This, in turn, is an opportunity to upsell and increase sales revenue. And since you are dealing with the existing customers, the probability of a conversion is always high.
Here we tell you the strategies you should implement to transform a help desk into a service desk. This is an opportunity to turn a non-profitable business process into a profitable one.
Install Help Desk Software
The time is here when the help desk or service desk operations do not need to rely on phone calls and emails. The Help Desk Software harnesses the power of IT, artificial intelligence, machine learning and other technologies to automate, synchronize, and computerize the overall help desk operations.
The help desk software facilitates collaboration among team members. This simplifies the process of addressing customer grievances as the expert advice is available instantaneously. Further, customer service executives also get a chance to make an upsell. The automated replies assist in solving generic queries. Similarly, automation can be applied to other tasks as well.
The service desk tool also acts as Performance Management Software. You can generate in-depth reports to analyze the performance of the executives, sales performance, the efficiency of customer service operations, and so on. Based on the collective information, you can decide the future course of action.
Be Prepared
The help desk process is limited to solving issues. But if you want to convert it into a service desk profit center, you need to equip executives with the right set of skills and suitable knowledge. They should know how to analyze customer behavior, how to make a perfect pitch, have in-depth information about products and services, must be expert communicators, and so on.
Regular training and interactions are necessary to keep your customer service team updated with the latest skills and strategies to handle the customers, both new and existing ones. You can also create an incentive-based program to reward top performers, thereby boosting their morale.
Give a Personal Touch
Generic information is always repulsive. Customers are most likely to ignore one-fit-all replies. The right approach is to personalize everything according to the customer’s requirement. Some of the tactics can be – addressing using the first name of the customer, using a conversational tone, inserting greetings and appreciations, showing gratitude, and so on.
When you adopt a personalized approach, the customer feels privileged and important. This drastically increases the chances of an upsell or an upgrade. Remember, customer service is foremost. And when you personalize a conversation, it can produce unbelievable results.
Engage via Multiple Channels
Besides phone calls and emails, the help desk software offers multiple ways of connecting with the customers. The ticketing system is the most basic communication system that works in an organized manner. The live chat feature is gaining prominence because it promotes prompt communication. Further, it allows customer service executives to render a personal touch, resulting in higher conversions.
As social media is becoming a virtual world, you cannot neglect it at any cost. The power of social media is evident from the fact that 63% of customers expect communication via social media channels. Let your customer service executives communicate with the existing and prospective customers on social media accounts of your company.
Optimize Help Desk Operations to Maximize Profits
A businessperson never misses an opportunity to monetize. When you can monetize help desk operation, by intelligently converting it into a service desk, you should put in all efforts to do so.