IT Downtime could be costing $25 million a year. Does that make self service obligatory?

TL:DR: As per the latest research launched by Nexthink, for an organization with 10,000 employees, IT downtime could be costing $25 million a year. This makes IT self-service portal no longer just a nice-to-have thing but a priority!

Hello hello! ??

Welcome to the first post of The Support Scoop by DeskXpand - a biweekly newsletter that covers the ins and outs of customer support!

It’s really good to have you here! ??

The topic for discussion is the rising need for the IT industry to have self-service functionality in place. Hope you enjoy reading!

Employees are losing an average of 28 minutes every time they have an IT related issue.

From the list of a zillion things that hampers productivity and time management, IT issues take the top position.?

Additionally, the remote working environment makes it even more challenging for employees to communicate with support teams or HR teams to resolve issues.?

If we consider approximately two issues a week, nearly 50 hours a year are wasted! ??

Now the question is, how can your organization combat these issues? How can you help your support teams/HR department and employees? Answer - Self-service portal

What is an IT self-service portal?

Today, most people are comfortable looking for information themselves instead of having to ask the support staff.?

IT self service portal is a platform that enables companies to streamline customer support by enabling end-users to find answers to their questions.?

? It enhances speed, increases productivity, and improves customer satisfaction.?

When it comes to IT self-service portal, knowledge base and ticket management works like two kidneys. Using knowledge base articles, end-customers can search for answers themselves. And if they still need assistance, they can use the portal to raise tickets.?

In short, the portal ensures you are able to deliver a seamless support experience in your organization.?

Challenges that IT self-service helps you overcome

IT self-service portal is a one stop solution that helps your support teams to solve daily challenges. Here are the most common challenges that you can solve.

#Challenge 1 - High ticket volume

Every support query costs you both time and money. Support members have to constantly be on the phone or answer emails; and the more tickets, the more people you need to hire.?

It becomes crucial to focus on reducing the number of support tickets to reduce cost. Self-service is a pocket friendly solution that helps deflect incoming tickets.

Customers can get all the help they need while your support team focuses on other important activities.?

#Challenge 2 - Long resolution time and repetitive tasks

Long resolution time can quickly become tedious when a support team receives too many requests from multiple channels. Not to forget how extremely tiring it is for teams to sort each query manually.?

Enter self-service. It not only helps end-users get instant answers but the internal knowledge base can also assist support reps. It keeps all the data organised to help them quickly understand and solve queries.?

#Challenge 3 - Employee satisfaction

Keeping employees engaged not only increases productivity but also retains them by enhancing employee satisfaction.?

There are multiple ways to create a positive experience. However, the easiest is to start with an employee self-service portal. The portal fosters independence by putting all the information and access in an employee’s hand.?

How to launch an IT self-service portal (umm… in less time!)

Building a portal may seem to be an extensive and time consuming process. You may have to bring a large team of content specialists, developers, etc. to get started.

If that’s what you think, then you have not yet met DeskXpand! It combines ticketing system capabilities with easy-to-use self-service portal features to get your customer portal up and operating in no time.

What to expect from DeskXpand

DeskXpand is the ultimate help desk software that businesses of any size and industry need, to be on top of support processes. There’s so much that you can do with DeskXpand. Here’s just the tip of the iceberg:

Seamless Branding

With DeskXpand, creating an IT self service portal becomes very easy. You can make the portal stand out by customizing the theme to match your unique brand identity. Whether it's the font style or the layout of the portal, you have complete control to modify it!

Knowledge base articles

Create knowledge base articles and FAQs using the self-service functionality. You can invite involved team members to collaborate when creating articles. DeskXpand allows you to build a collaborative workflow for approval and feedback.? While setting up a knowledge base, bifurcate articles into different categories, and make advanced search options available to users.?

Roles & permissions

Define the level of access each user can have in your self-service portal. You can create profiles as well as manage access with permissions. That way, each team member can have a clearly defined role. It helps limit access to business critical information, and ensures security.?

Create support tickets

If end-users are unable to find the information they are looking for, they can raise queries using the portal. DeskXpand helps support reps sort queries, communicate with peers, chat with users - ultimately leading to successful resolution.?

We firmly believe that usability is a non-negotiable aspect in building a good software. And that is why we have built a help desk software that support teams define as intuitive.?

Curious to explore DeskXpand in depth? We suggest you try it to believe it! ??

?? Sign up for a 7 day free trial today!

And do not forget to subscribe to the newsletter if you haven’t already yet. We’ll see you soon with the next story!

Bbye! ??