What if a help desk is so helpful that it knows when you are about to have problems, and calls you first?
Good ol’ Mr. Clippy, that annoying little “helper” that used to appear on your Microsoft screen, was the first effort to proactively assist a computer user. But it was stupid – it never actually helped.
Whether you work at a big company with a help desk, a small company with “Timmy-the-computer-whiz” in shipping, or are a work-at-home freelance writer, computer problems are a fact of life.
But most problems are far too complicated for the “frequently asked questions” web link – which hardly ever answer your questions, let alone really help.
Most help desk calls are frustrating, and they cost money, because they cost time. The time you lost figuring out you had a problem. The time you lost calling the help desk. The time on hold, and the time you spend explaining the problem to a computer whiz who often isn’t all that helpful.
But what if your business turned that model on its head? What if your help desk reached out to your users and customers when your system spots a problem? Systems are advanced now – they can do this. But I’d guess about only two percent of our clients at C/D/H are doing it.
Here’s what I’m talking about: We’re monitoring password changes for one of our clients. We know that one password change requires another change for remote email access, and another for company-provided iPhones.
We also know that there’s a two in three chance the user will screw up one of those things. And that there’s a two in three chance the user will call the help desk.
We can call users at the first change, to head off problems with the other two. Our client saves time, reduces frustration, and improves company productivity.
Systems are also smart enough now to know how a process should occur. If the process goes sideways, the system red flags them, and alerts the help desk, so it can get proactive before the issue causes more down time.
This alert process is already built into systems on the market today, including Microsoft’s System Center Operations Manager. You set the alerts – which computers to monitor, how often to monitor them, what to do when things don’t work. The system automatically corrects the problem for you! Voila! Everybody’s back to work.
Here’s how that works: You can run a “fake” or synthetic transaction, as if a customer is buying something from your website – 30 times an hour, if you want.
A hundred things have to happen to transact business online. Check inventory stock, accept the credit card, get bank approval, and dozens of other things.
But we know that, if the process takes longer than 10 seconds, most customers will bail out. I want to know about a slow-down before it costs me money. Set an alert if the synthetic process takes more than, say, 10 seconds. You can do the same for things like sending automated customer emails, starting a midnight backup, or sending the weekly payroll file to ADP. Then you fix the problem before it becomes a problem.
This is why systems management is taking hold in many enterprises. We all have computers, but when they don’t work, we are unproductive and waste money. Businesses don’t like to waste money, whether global enterprises, or a single work-at-home sales professional.
It’s a great time to be a small business. You don’t have to be a computer genius or have a huge IT department to have a proactive helpdesk. You can go out and buy the service – you just need to know what you want. Or, if you’ve got an internal help desk, you can expect more from them.
Either way, these days, make sure your help desk actually helps. There is no excuse anymore.
Paul Hillman is a partner at C/D/H, a Grand Rapids-based technology consulting firm.