What Are the Benefits and Limitations of Help Desk Software?

Has your help desk outgrown its shared email account approach? Are your agents regularly duplicating efforts because everyone isn’t on the same page? If so, it may be time to upgrade to a help desk software solution. 

What Is Help Desk Software? 

Help desk software enables help desk staff to track requests as they move through the problem-solving process, usually through a “ticketing” method. Tickets (help requests) are assigned to specific agents and maintained in a centralized location. Some help desk software includes automation benefits to further streamline processes.  

To overcome some of the common issues facing their teams, an increasing number of organizations have turned to help desk software over the past few years.

Who uses help desk software?

Modern organizations that need to manage multiple help desk requests on a regular basis will benefit from help desk software. Though these solutions are particularly well-suited to large corporations with busy help desk staff, medium and even small organizations can also benefit from help desk software. 

It's important to understand and weigh the various benefits and limitations of help desk software before you make an investment. 

Help Desk Software Pros (Benefits)

Why use help desk software? There are several attractive benefits for busy organizations. 

Centralized ticketing

Help desks can be chaotic places. Teams are often large and maintain staggered schedules to ensure the desk is always covered. This allows the team to offer assistance throughout the day, yet all of this coming and going can lead to missed communications and generate confusion. 

Help desk software vastly improves on outdated approaches like shared inboxes, where multiple agents log in to the same account to review requests. A ticketing system allows every agent to track the status of tickets, claim unassigned tickets, and review ticketing notes on unsolved incidents. 

Help desk software solutions also allow agents to communicate with one another outside the view of the customer. Tickets that have been resolved are saved in the online help desk software’s database. Agents can review how issues were previously resolved, rather than reinventing the wheel whenever similar issues reemerge. 

No more lost or duplicated help requests

Busy organizations that generate numerous daily help desk requests are bound to lose track of tickets from time to time without a centralized solution in place. 

Often, this occurs when agents turn their attention to issues with higher priorities. With help desk software, teams can prioritize tickets and address them accordingly. Less important tickets can be postponed, but they won’t get lost in the shuffle.

Help desk software also ensures that individual help request tickets aren’t assigned or claimed by multiple agents. Duplicated efforts waste everyone’s time and can lead to confusion on both sides of the request. 

Accountability

Online help desk software keeps track of how tickets are handled and by whom. Agents who know that their names will be attached to tickets from start to finish are sure to feel greater ownership over their contributions. 

Ticketing also makes it easy for agents to touch base with one another regarding tricky incident requests. When challenging requests are escalated to higher-level agents, those agents can then review the existing notes, which are attributed to the agent who wrote them. 

Reporting capabilities

Help desk software can store information about tickets and agent performance — information that can then be used to quantify team effectiveness. Reporting allows organizations to examine common customer issues and integrate changes to products and services in order to address them. 

Reporting also gives management insight into workflow patterns that can inform how they schedule agents and assign roles. 

Are tickets piling up at certain times every week? Are customers routinely making requests after hours? This valuable information can transform the way help desk teams operate. 

Remote work benefits

Online help desk software solutions which include a cloud component make it possible for teams to work together remotely from a centralized starting point. 

Remote help desk teams that need to access the same spreadsheet or email accounts can become stuck when there’s an access issue or if a spreadsheet file is corrupted. Cloud-based systems alleviate these issues. 

Cloud capabilities can help teams that aren’t typically remote, as well. Remote access to the ticketing system can be a handy feature when an agent needs urgent input from a manager or coworker who is away from the office. 

Limitations of Help Desk Software Cons

Help desk software can vastly improve help desk performance, but it’s a good idea to consider a few of the challenges and limitations of these solutions. 

Cost concerns

Help desk software is a more costly solution compared to shared inboxes and tools like spreadsheets and file systems. Help desk products can be purchased as self-hosted software that organizations install or as Software as a Service (SaaS) products hosted by third parties. Generally, self-hosted products are more costly than SaaS solutions. 

Still, organizations are likely to come out ahead in the long run by turning to a help desk software solution. Taking into account the time wasted on duplicated work, hunting down lost tickets, and the constant updating of spreadsheets and/or other tracking methods, help desk software could be a relative bargain. 

Learning curve

When an organization implements a help desk software solution, it will take time for the team to get up to speed on how to use it. If employees don’t understand how to operate the software or what the overarching goals are for using it, your time and financial investment will be wasted. 

That’s not to say the learning curve isn’t worth the effort. It’s important for organizations to take stock of their various potential solutions and to select options that feature intuitive controls. Vendors offer a broad range of help desk software. Organizations need to do their due diligence to ensure they pick a tool that is the best fit for their particular needs and work style. 

Is Help Desk Software Right for Your Organization? 

Accelo’s ticketing solutions can help your help desk team improve communication, maximize effectiveness, boost client satisfaction, and eliminate the chaos of ad hoc help ticket systems.  Your team can work together from anywhere, too. Remote teams love Accelo’s cloud-based features. 

Learn more about Accelo’s unique automation features and sign up for a free demo today.