Help Desk Support Hurdles

5 Common Hurdles of Internal Help Desks

1. The Help Desk Doesn't Have Buy-in from Upper Management
Some organizations do not make a serious commitment to their internal help desk teams. Due to a lack of understanding, some in upper management don't connect the dots and see how important the help desk team is to restoring productivity to employees that drive the company's core products and services. As a result, management is now forced to write repeatable processes designed to fix issues and serve the enterprise instead of being reactive in a crisis.

Oftentimes, the need for an internal help desk team becomes apparent when a business-critical function is down and it has negative implications on the organization. As a result, the help desk team is forced to write repeatable processes designed to fix issues and serve the enterprise instead of being reactive in a crisis.

2. The Help Desk is Not Aligned with the Company's Mission
The help desk must be completely aligned with the mission of the company as a whole. If the purpose and mission of the help desk is not fully embraced by upper management, then the help desk will never be successful in serving the needs of the organization.

One question most help desk consultants and sales personnel ask during due diligence is, "Does the Help Desk meet the need(s) of the business?"

3. The Help Desk Staff Doesn't Have the Right Expertise or Training
Many times, personnel are placed in a help desk role because it sounded like an interesting job, or the company ran out of other departmental opportunities due to layoffs, restructuring etc. Because these personnel had served in other areas of the company, management believed these people could handle a help desk position. Unfortunately, these personnel are often not the best fit for the role, and this can have a negative impact on both the team and the organization. It then becomes a chore for the IT group to ask for funding for training, skilled personnel and trained customer service managers.

4. The Help Desk Has Too Many Roles
Sometimes companies will have a help desk team that handles multiple roles within the organization. However, the potential pitfall to this solution is the lack of oversight of staff as well as each help desk agent's desire to trade off between help desk work and desktop work. Without good oversight, one of the two will eventually suffer.

5. The Help Desk Cannot Handle High Call Volumes 
The help desk function has not been taken seriously and the internal Service Level Agreements (SLAs) for resolution are non-existent. Staffing ratios vs. call volume, training and hiring the proper skill sets all contribute to this issue. 

Learn about 5 additional factors affecting an internal help desk team's ability to handle high call volumes.