Tech Support Vs Help Desk
The difference between help desk and tech support may seem nitpicky, but it’s important for IT managers. They can save time and money by clearly separating these two teams and understanding the roles of each.
A help desk focuses on customer service and caters to general questions about products or services. It can also escalate technical issues to tech support.
Job Roles and Responsibilities
Although help desk and technical support may seem like two separate entities, they both share one common goal – to serve customers. The difference between them lies in the approach and methods they use to achieve this goal.
A help desk team takes a holistic and general approach to customer issues. Despite not needing to have in-depth technical knowledge, they must be familiar with all products and services offered by your company. This ensures that they are able to offer customers detailed and personalized responses.
Technical support, on the other hand, uses a more target-specific approach to problem solving. It is the department that deals with IT and hardware issues. Tech support representatives listen to customers seeking a “fix” and guide them accordingly through the steps of resolving their technical problems. They are also responsible for resolving complex issues and escalating them to other departments. This is why it’s crucial to make sure that your technical support team has the right skillset to handle your business needs.
Approaches to Problem Solving
As consumers grow savvier, they demand more personalized help and customer service. To keep up, companies may need to update their support systems and training methods.
A help desk team can answer basic queries and questions about a company’s products or services. However, when it comes to a technical issue, they may need to escalate the ticket to tech support.
Tech support teams focus on offering technical customer service. They have a deeper understanding of the products and services they offer and are more specialized in helping customers solve complex technical issues.
They can also create helpful manuals and guides for a product and share them with customers. This ensures that a customer can find step-by-step instructions to resolve their problem. They may also be responsible for identifying and solving problems with hardware, software or network. In addition, they can also provide technical support for a company’s website or computer systems. They can even assist with creating an effective IT training program to improve employee productivity and satisfaction.
Communication Channels
Help desks have multiple communication channels that include email, phone, and chat. They offer a wide range of services to meet the needs of each customer.
However, telephoning remains the preferred channel for many customers. This is because the personal interaction satisfies their need for a direct, personal connection.
While helping customers use products, tech support teams may also provide training and create helpful manuals or guides for their end-users. Using a platform like Scribe, for example, can make it easier to generate step-by-step instructions that customers can follow.
The main role of the technical support team is to resolve complex IT issues. If a problem is too complicated for help desk agents to handle, they escalate it to the higher-tier technical support department. This division consists of tiers that allow tech support representatives to specialize in specific areas such as software, hardware, and system problems. This allows them to focus on providing the best possible support for their customers.
Cost
Tech support is an expensive division to operate, especially for businesses that use a lot of hardware and software. The department typically comprises multiple tiers, each of which is reserved for different levels of technical expertise. This means that a ticket may need to be escalated from one tier to another in order to get the necessary information to resolve the issue.
Having a help desk and a technical support department allows a business to scale its customer service operations as the company grows. This is important as some businesses will find that using a service desk alone may not be enough to offer a high-quality customer experience in the long run.
Choosing between a help desk and a tech support system will depend on the type of support your customers or employees need. For example, if you are a software or SaaS company that offers more than just transactional interaction through email and chat, a help desk is the right choice for you.