Tell me about your customer support helpdesk’s current state. Here’s a quick checklist.

Do you still:

• Need to fetch queries manually?
• Manually look for customer data and related information?
• Set reminders manually from a different system?
• Manually manage a shared inbox?

If your answer to any of the above points is a “YES,” I’ve one question: Why?

In 2021, automation is everywhere! It enables users to achieve a wide range of tasks. From ordering pizza, checking luggage at the airport, planning a vacation, booking a doctor’s appointment, and beyond. The customer support industry is no exception.

Advancement in technology (that too automation in specific) continues to transform customer support interactions. Besides this, finding specific data from a puddle of information that the internet provides has become utterly important. Hence automation is much needed to streamline all this information and help customers find out exactly what they’re looking for.

We are at a breaking point in customer service as more companies are turning to automation in the form of chatbots, self-service, and other helpdesk automation tech to scale efficiently (and provide an exceptional experience.) In 2021, automation is not an option anymore; it has become a necessity. You’ll need to implement automation not just because your customers demand it but because your support agents need it. Without automation, your support will go topsy-turvy.

Most companies think of automation as something which is not very budget-friendly and something that they can do without. But since modern customer expectations are changing, companies have to adapt to modern ways of support.

Someone once said that:

Automation is cost-cutting by tightening the corners and not cutting them.

OTOH it is also important to note that:

Automation isn’t a silver bullet, and it won’t fix your broken processes for you.

Incorporating more automation into a company’s customer support operations must be handled carefully. When it comes to automation, “more isn’t always better.” Sometimes, too much automation can compromise the overall customer experience. No matter what, your customer support should not lose the human touch and/or customer empathy. So what is the right blend of helpdesk automation features and empathy? In this guide, I’ll walk you through the know-hows of helpdesk automation and how you can improve your overall support process with the help of various automation features. I’ll talk about:

Helpdesk Automation: A Brief Introduction

Helpdesk automation removes the drudgery from your support processes and allows your team to spend more time resolving more complex queries. This means they can get customers back to work faster and give them better job satisfaction. Nobody wants to spend their days listening to customers explain why they have forgotten their password for the seventh time this year.

Why do industries – of all sizes – continue to use manual processes on their help desks? In 2021, the argument of automation being expensive is not valid. The outlay required to automate basic tasks has a rapid return on investment (ROI). Besides, there are multiple reasons why brands must prioritize automation. Let’s find out!

Why Prioritize Automation

In the post-pandemic world, the roadmap for businesses must be designed on parameters of care, safety, and trust. Companies need to leverage technology to redesign the processes. They need to use data to offer better customer experiences.

Here are six benefits of customer support automation and how it can help your organization in the times to come:

1. Uninterrupted Availability

Customers of 2021 demand a quick and personalized resolution of their queries. Automating customer support processes can ensure 24*7 assistance and take a massive burden off of your support teams.

2. Convenience

Multiple sectors faced an increase in customer support calls related to the pandemic. Automation of repetitive tasks saves a lot of time and allows your agents to handle other complicated issues.

3. Makes Your Support Agile

This is important, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic. Many businesses with a reduced workforce are finding it difficult to address wavering consumer expectations. Automation can make your support agile. All you need to do is frame automated workflows.

4. Improve Workflow

Automation helps relieve support reps of repetitive tasks so they can handle customer queries easily. Specialized tools can ease the assistance process and speed it even when your teams are working remotely.

5. Real-time Analytics

If you manually note customer complaints and raise/allocate tickets manually, it could lead to a huge disappointment on the customer end. Plus, the process would be time-consuming. Automation of routine and keeping up with real-time analytics can help agents serve better. This is because they’ll directly be able to access previous communication through all channels. They will be able to view all the consolidated data from a single screen and offer an in-depth insight into the issue.

6. Manage Support Costs

Investing in new recruits just because your existing team is overburdened may not be cost-efficient for you. Instead, investing in customer support automation can help improve productivity and, hence, support costs.

DeskXpand is now available with its latest helpdesk automation features. It lets you add a comprehensive knowledge base and is rich with automated ticketing features. Opt for DeskXpand, help your agents with everyday mundane tasks, and let your customers enjoy impeccable and fast service.

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6 Helpdesk Automation Feature Ideas for Better & Faster Performance

Let’s explore top automation strategies that will help you rise above your legacy mundane processes and free your employees to focus on more value-inducing things:

1. Automated Ticket Routing

With automated ticket assignment, you can assign tickets to relevant agents who are most capable of handling them. It ensures that every single support ticket is in safe hands and is redirected to the right person. For example, technical issues will need to be assigned to agents with technical expertise. Or, billing queries will get assigned to agents who have relevant knowledge about return policies and procedures.

2. Automatic Ticket Conversion

As a brand, you might have multiple customer-facing channels. In order to merge all the queries in a single dashboard, you need the right IT helpdesk automation tools. With automation, you can enable ticket conversion. This way, all the queries will be automatically converted to tickets regardless of what channels they come from. You can also set priority criteria to enable timely resolution.

3. Automated Alerts & Notifications

In order to automate support and offer seamless customer support, you will need to keep your agents and customers well informed all the time. Automatic alerts and notifications can reduce your agent’s efforts. You can send notifications whenever a specific customer task or condition is met. You can send these notifications in the form of emails or text messages and enable users to track the progress of a ticket.

4. Canned Responses

If your agents need to draft a fresh response every time they’re on a call with the customers, then it’ll kill their productivity. To save your valuable time, helpdesk automation tools let you create thousands of canned responses. Canned responses are pre-formatted messages that customer support agents use to respond to similar customer issues. Let your support reps type the responses once, save them, and reuse them to offer a smooth experience.

5. Automated Reports

If you manually measure your team’s performance, it can lead to unavoidable errors, biases, and improper analysis. With helpdesk automation, you can gather precise metrics and get a holistic view of your team’s performance. Admins can receive automatically generated reports on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis and track progress accordingly.

You can generate and receive insightful reports on key aspects like:

• Ticket Volume
• Number of Tickets (open, closed, escalated)
• Average First Time Response
• Average Resolution Time
• First Contact Resolution

6. Ticket Escalation

Every customer expects resolution immediately at the time of first contact. However, the processes on the support end are more complex than customers assume them to be. And it isn’t always possible to resolve a query right away. Plus, agents also need to escalate issues to higher authorities when they do not have the expertise or authority to handle a customer issue by themselves. And doing this manually will create more problems than it solves.

Therefore, it would be better to have an automated process that escalates specific support queries to the right/relevant people. Admins can create ticket escalation rules that will automatically escalate tickets to the appropriate members of your team. For example, a request refund query can be automatically escalated to the support manager who has permission to initiate refunds.

Automation Is Here To Stay: Are You Ready For It?

Industries across all major sectors and niches are acknowledging the pivotal role of IT helpdesk automation in helping them solve the crisis. In response to a survey, 73% of respondents agree that customer relationships have improved due to automation, 76% said that automation benefitted their workforce.

Industries are anticipating the growth of automated solutions and acknowledging the need for helpdesk automation for their business. DeskXpand’s automated helpdesk provides built-in automation functionalities that will do away with all your redundant tasks. The admin can automate well-orchestrated support workflows, tickets as well as responses.

It is built by functional experts and developers with certifications in their respective fields. We are an ISO27001 certified portal development company with 14+ years of development experience. We build products that you can customize according to your present and future needs. Sign up for your free trial now!

The Article is Originally Published On:

https://www.deskxpand.com/blog/rise-of-helpdesk-automation/