Considering dropping my help desk
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I know this is really long read and I appreciate all those who will provide suggestions.
I started using HeskDesk (self hosted help desk) about 3 years ago. I loved it, but updates and feature requests came to stand still.
Cue Zendesk. After the trial and my testing with my micro business clients I went forward with it. Only drawback from an admin point is I don't have the ability to split tickets when the client requests multiple unrelated things per ticket.
When I got Zendesk, I would get alerts on my mobile devices and that was helpful, and now that I have O365 and can get my mail anywhere on any device, this doesn't seem to be a big enough reason to have the support desk.
Then there are the clients. At this time only a handful use the support desk correctly, others can't even use it at all. I even have email enabled so they don't actually have to go to the support desk. Some will email/create a ticket and then after I reply send me a regular email. For some users I have tried to use forwarding to the support desk (causes it's own issues when creating tickets, namely it states I created them but that can be changed), of course new employees aren't automatically forwarded. Not to mention the client who said NOT to use the ticket system on them as my business isn't big enough to do so. This is the same client that won't use encrypted email for passwords.
I am tired of fighting with the clients, I would really like everything support related to go to a help desk but am at a loss how to make everyone happy. I have considered deleting my main business email address to force the issue. I have also considered tossing the support desk and go back to email only.
Does anyone have any suggestions?
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A helpdesk email that only goes to tickets? That's what we used to do. No way to get support unless you went that route or call in and a ticket will be made over the phone for you.
I'm betting that the issue here is, if you pull back a level, that they are contacting a person rather than the company. They are acting as if you were a one man show rather than a firm. Because of this they don't see the value in tickets. They need to understand that reaching out to an individual means that there is no accountability for response. Tickets are assigned to the person doing the work. Emails to the ticket system are fine. But going to ANY individual whether by phone, email or otherwise means that they are bypassing the processes that get their requests actioned.
For us, inbound calls go to a helpdesk, not a person. Emails are the same. Make everything go to central, shared accounts first. Don't let customers go directly to individuals.
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i'm about to have to sojourn into this myself. moving from a one man show..doubling up
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Good luck, adding new people, especially the first one, is one of the hardest business steps.
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First off we are a two man band, however my wife is the graphic designer so she doesn't answer the phone or deal with clients unless it's design related.
Should delete my alex@ email address so they are forced to use my support@ email address?
Also for those who don't know, Zendesk does allow the user to create and view tickets via the web based support desk.
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@technobabble said:
Some will email/create a ticket and then after I reply send me a regular email.
I'll sometimes do that with my IT support providers. Surely Zendesk should handle this (I've never used it)? But generally, I'll just click on reply - so if your e-mail comes from your support@ email address, then this would work fine, right?
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Yes it does work that way, but I have some older clients that got my alex@ email address at some point and will use that one instead of support@ email address.
Seems the thing to do is change my alex@ email address with vendors and such and then forward alex@ to the support desk so that it will never again go to O365. That's a lot of work on my side, but would make life easier in the end.
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How many tickets do you get a day?
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Not many but I love the ability to view the tickets which is why even with the extremely low volume of tickets it helps, plus I can keep track of jobs my wife should be working on.
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even if low volume a helpdesk is good for search. the old tickets (if techs document) basically become an internal IT knowledge base, and can have a lot of good enterprise knowledge in it.
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I've generally always had a helpdesk/ticketing system. I gave it up a few years ago for a while, and now regret that decision, as there are problems I face now that I remember I've fixed before but I can't remember how and I wish I'd logged the solution at the time.
But I've never got users to raise tickets themselves. I've always created the ticket myself. I don't find this a hassle. If you only have a small number of calls, why don't do you just do this?
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I implemented a ticketing system where I am as the job filing system was simply:
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move email to tasks
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mark complete
Exchange should not be used for a filing system.
I regularly look back on old tickets for fixes and locations of where I put things. The latter probably isn't best practice but it's easy to find to document during the slow times if it's important.
I have mine set up so that I forward email to it using separate mailbox.
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@Carnival-Boy I actually have been doing this via forwarding or just copy and paste emails.
@nadnerB it is good to hear someone say that Exchange should not be used for a filing system.
It looks like I will have to change my email address and then forward the old address to the support desk.
Thanks for all of your questions and suggestions, it was much appreciated!
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@nadnerB said:
Exchange should not be used for a filing system.
Why not?
I'm being slightly contrarian here, but I don't see why you shouldn't.
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@Carnival-Boy said:
@nadnerB said:
Exchange should not be used for a filing system.
Why not?
I'm being slightly contrarian here, but I don't see why you shouldn't.
Other than scaling and performance issues at large scale, if you plan you Exchange use this way it is fine.
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The issue with Exchange as a filer is that it is unstructured. Lacks the features of a relational database. It's just unstructured documents which are not easy to search.
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I like the search and I like using rules to move e-mail into folders. OK, it's not the most sophisticated, but what it lacks in sophistication it makes up in simplicity and ease of use.
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Yes very simple. But imagine storing things not originating in email in there.
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95% of my entire life originates from e-mail! If I need to pick up some milk on my way home, my wife will e-mail me.
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I too like to use folders, but before my help desk, I had issues finding client work related emails (tickets) as they tend to combine these things.
My one fault with Zendesk is the inability of the admin area to break tickets apart. I prefer a ticket for each project, not 3+ unrelated projects per ticket.
