How to Build and Manage a Help Desk

When starting an MSP from the ground floor, the first service that they might offer is a help desk. There are perks to helping a customer through various processes or offering useful information to improve their situation.

However as simple as it sounds, even veteran MSPs can run into some issues in building and managing a successful help desk that people love. Below are several things to keep in mind when making an effective help desk.

Do Have Managers See The Big Picture

In order to build a great MSP help desk, managers need to have a better understanding of the MSP to begin with. Many companies hire or promote people to managers mainly for their technical skills and managers will continue to manage by relying on those skills.

It doesn’t work very well.

And you can see that when you tell managers about the bigger picture. If managers are thoughtful, they will keep those big picture visions in mind and change how they manage.

The big picture entails things like where the company performs best, where it’s going, and goals for the future. Since the help desk is at the forefront, you want a manager who can look at all the processes the MSP has in place and learn how those are continuously improving.

Do Have Processes And Systems

Processes are one of the major roles in building an effective help desk at an MSP. Reviewing them regularly will ensure that it continues to perform well.

The systems it has is the second most essential attribute. Managers should be aware they’re not working in the system, but rather on the system. In practice, a solution to accomplishing this is by having a dispatcher.

Dispatchers help managers tremendously as they serve as a right-hand man to management. They can control every ticket at the help desk in many ways. Checking it, viewing the quality of them and making sure next-steps are included.

Dispatchers are very helpful because technicians aren’t always suited or available for performing these processes.

Do Have Ticket Monitoring

Dispatchers continue to be vital because they can also help with monitoring tickets as mentioned above. What all of that entails is:

Monitoring tickets
Ensuring techs are updating tickets daily
Checking for updates

All of this can work nicely with the help desk to keep them on task and that work is getting done and recorded. Furthermore, it ensures that technicians are handling the most important tasks first which is simple, but when an MSP is flooded with tickets, it’s essential to weave through what’s the most pressing and what can be managed next.

Be Aware Of How To Document

Documentation is another key aspect for help desks. Problems can’t be solved if documentation is poor or scattered. Staff should exercise good documentation at all times and technicians should adopt habits of documentation too.

Documentation should be done through reviewing tickets and resolving them, mentioning what has been done to complete them.

Do Have Processes For Sending Tickets

When a ticket can’t be resolved by the help desk, it’s important to know what the “next steps” are for that ticket. For example, if someone is waiting for software installation, then that should be written on the ticket notes as the next step.

This makes it clearer for people to process and send tickets in the right direction.

On top of this, when a ticket is escalated, this should also be documented. It should be comprehensive and state why it’s being escalated in the first place. Furthermore, it should explain why it can’t be solved and what the note taker has already done to address the issue.

Getting The Right People For The Help Desk

Staff is of course important for any help desk, however you don’t want to settle with any person off the street. A successful help desk requires you to invest time, effort, and money into finding the right people and training them to be part of your vision.

This means hiring technicians who are willing to learn and grow as part of team rather than focusing on getting paid. When you have a team focusing on their own personal and professional growth, it becomes more rewarding and you’ll create a more comprehensive team.

How this can be influenced falls back to the managers that are looking after staff. Good managers will behave more like leaders and make staff feel good about coming to work and working together.

Furthermore, having managers who are able to mentor candidates who aren’t familiar about every bit of tech is a huge bonus.

Elements Of Success

Understanding these core elements and having a help desk meet each of these criteria ensures you have a better chance of succeeding. By putting all of this together, you’ll have better odds of becoming a better MSP than 90% of MSPs that are in the market right now.

About MSP Corp

MSP Corp understands that you’ve worked hard to build your business and you want to protect it. With a mission to be a world-class business partner for MSP owners across Canada, we actively seek to acquire and partner with owners looking to secure the value of the business they have built and provide a seamless exit process that ensures business continuity and employee and client stability.