Choosing a help desk system. 9 typical misconceptions
We are developing a system for automating post- sale customer service for small businesses, Okdesk , and therefore we deal daily with a large number of small service companies:
It turns out that bad choices and implementations, caused by the wrong approach to automation projects in some companies, give rise to myths in the market about the futility of implementations in certain situations. Following the results of communication with more than 1000 representatives of medium and small businesses, we selected the most common misconceptions, because of which companies refuse to implement the Help Desk systems. Many of these misconceptions are reasons for refusing the introduction of other automation systems. We wanted to share these misconceptions with readers and dispel these myths.
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Indeed, it is more convenient for small companies, especially at the beginning of development, not to waste time on the implementation of Help Desk systems that do not bring significant benefits at this stage. However, when scaling it is important not to miss the moment when the absence of the support system will be an anchor, i.e. when applications start to get lost due to the fact that the existing accounting system (whether it is a paper journal, a channel in viber, or a chain of letters in an email inbox) will no longer cope with the load. According to our statistics, the “average temperature in the hospital”, at which applications start to “get lost”, is 10-12 visits per day.
Ideally, user support, along with CRM systems in terms of sales, is where to start building processes and automation from the very start of any, especially B2B business. By the way, in the West, doing just that.
Note also that, often, seemingly small volumes arise precisely because of the fact that requests from customers are nowhere considered or counted in different places. As a result, the head of the company simply has no idea about the real scale of the disaster.
Well-established workflows are really important, and the fear that it will be necessary to change a debugged system with difficulty is completely justified. But, firstly, there are many automation systems, and most of them are very flexible in terms of adaptation to the work methods adopted on the market. Secondly, unique and complex business processes that are not reflected in automation systems are a reason to think seriously about your company. Sometimes this is a competitive advantage, but more often - just the inability to build processes in accordance with the best practices (and in accordance with the processes incorporated in the technical support automation systems).
In any case, organizational difficulties in the implementation of any system can not be avoided: no one likes to change and work under the new rules. Very often have to deal with sabotage. If you are the head of the company, for you this behavior of employees, on the contrary, should serve as a signal of the need for changes.
The overwhelming majority of medium and small businesses constantly extinguish fires, i.e. time and energy are invested where at the moment “already burning”. While maintaining the existing scheme of work opportunities even for small transformations, both organizational and IT landscape, such a business will never find. But it is for them that simple support service systems exist. It is only important to distribute the efforts correctly - deviate a little from the principle of “permanent plugging of holes” and think about prospects.
Often, the issue is resolved administratively: time is allocated and people are set to implement those simple tools, regardless of the status of other tasks. An important argument in favor of choosing Help Desk solutions for such companies will undoubtedly be a convenient and simple interface, as well as the absence of the need for serious and lengthy settings to start work. For example, Okdesk companies start operation in 1-2 days.
In many ways, this problem is similar to the previous one: the available funds are constantly invested where there is a direct reduction in costs, i.e. There are no means for any “future” improvements (for the sake of indirect aspects: saving time, increasing customer satisfaction).
At the start, it is really difficult to assess whether the economic effect from investments in automation will be, especially if we are talking about customer support systems. To evaluate the effect, it is necessary to collect statistics and compare it with current data, but almost no one collects current data (so there is nothing to compare with).
In this case, the experience of colleagues in the market will help. For example, the experience of implementing a help desk system in an IT outsourcing company or in a food service automation company and HoReCa . And in order to lower the “entry threshold” for such companies, there are cloud services with trial periods that allow testing the tool with minimal costs.
Nobody can guarantee that the company developing a new solution will last as long as the client company. Unfortunately, there are really a lot of startups on the market that are actively “PR”, and after a year they close down or completely curtail development. Help Desk systems market is no exception.
Carefully study the number of active users and their reviews, the scale of the business of the developer of the selected software, the team of founders of the service (carefully study this aspect by previous achievements at previous jobs), as well as how they work at the sales stage. All this will help to draw conclusions about the “viability” of the decision and significantly reduce the risks of choosing “one-day solutions”.
People are conservative by nature. The team can and will resist innovations, and to do it quite successfully. The problem is solved by a competent approach to the motivation of employees who are forced to change habits.
Roughly speaking, you need to “buy” the support system first, and then sell it to your employees, explaining that everything is for the good (or impose it in an order, if it does not work out otherwise).
To reduce the negative on the part of the team allows the simplicity of the implemented tool. The less you have to learn new things and break your familiar work style to ordinary employees, the more willing they will be to introduce.
A company that works for the future will not leave its clients alone with unsolvable tasks. The problems caused by lack of experience are completely solved with the support of the developers and managers of the service itself, who have seen more than one implementation in their practice.
However, one of the important points at the heart of success is a clearly formulated goal of implementation and requirements for the chosen solution. What indicators does the company strive to achieve? What problems to solve? What functions are necessary, and which are rather idealized Wishlist without real use? Unfortunately, often, many do not understand what they really want, and even can not formulate clear requirements. Another problem lies in the desire to get flexible, sharpened by a very specific "Wishlist" for little money. Such companies spend in search of suitable options for years without getting any result.
This happens when management drops the task of selecting and implementing Help Desk systems on line managers. However, the owners themselves in small business often dismiss automation systems with the same rationale. An important (you can even say “philosophical”) question: do values ​​in any particular instrument in this case really do not exist or simply do not want to see it? In our experience, a similar reason for refusal arises when there is a serious lack of motivation to improve the quality and transparency of work (and hence sabotage)? Who knows what the new system will reveal?
For an objective assessment need metrics. Do business have them? This is an occasion to think about whether it is time to take on efficiency.
In general, market conditions are becoming more stringent. The competition is already high, and in addition the tax burden is constantly increasing, and inflation cannot be avoided. The only way to stay afloat in these conditions is to constantly move forward, seeking new sources of resources. And one of such sources is the optimization of labor productivity just due to automation .
There is already some kind of automation. However, the tool tool is different. Often, to automate the same Help Desk, email or Excel is used, which is not intended for this purpose at all. Such tools work inefficiently. Moreover, the larger the scale of the business, the more serious the result is the lack of the tool. And here we return to the previous point: is there a motivation to work more efficiently? If there is, it is necessary to reform the set of tools used, because further without the necessary functionality it will be more and more difficult. We wrote about this in a note about Excel flaws as an accounting tool .
In one of the upcoming articles we will deal with migration issues from a specialized system.
If in your organization the development of “production” tools has stalled due to one of the listed reasons, think about how you manage the situation in the company and how you will overcome these barriers in the future. And, of course, always be prepared for the difficulties and the need to overcome them!
- IT outsourcing;
- KKT service and other specialized equipment;
- digital agencies and web studios;
- vendors and service developers.
It turns out that bad choices and implementations, caused by the wrong approach to automation projects in some companies, give rise to myths in the market about the futility of implementations in certain situations. Following the results of communication with more than 1000 representatives of medium and small businesses, we selected the most common misconceptions, because of which companies refuse to implement the Help Desk systems. Many of these misconceptions are reasons for refusing the introduction of other automation systems. We wanted to share these misconceptions with readers and dispel these myths.
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“We are too small. We have few customers / applications »
Indeed, it is more convenient for small companies, especially at the beginning of development, not to waste time on the implementation of Help Desk systems that do not bring significant benefits at this stage. However, when scaling it is important not to miss the moment when the absence of the support system will be an anchor, i.e. when applications start to get lost due to the fact that the existing accounting system (whether it is a paper journal, a channel in viber, or a chain of letters in an email inbox) will no longer cope with the load. According to our statistics, the “average temperature in the hospital”, at which applications start to “get lost”, is 10-12 visits per day.
“We began to lose customer requests. At the height of the season, only for a month, this led to the loss of two customers in subscription services a year bringing us about 100 thousand rubles. ”
Alexander Mishin , Director of Business Technologies LLC
Ideally, user support, along with CRM systems in terms of sales, is where to start building processes and automation from the very start of any, especially B2B business. By the way, in the West, doing just that.
Note also that, often, seemingly small volumes arise precisely because of the fact that requests from customers are nowhere considered or counted in different places. As a result, the head of the company simply has no idea about the real scale of the disaster.
"The user support system will not support the current workflow"
Well-established workflows are really important, and the fear that it will be necessary to change a debugged system with difficulty is completely justified. But, firstly, there are many automation systems, and most of them are very flexible in terms of adaptation to the work methods adopted on the market. Secondly, unique and complex business processes that are not reflected in automation systems are a reason to think seriously about your company. Sometimes this is a competitive advantage, but more often - just the inability to build processes in accordance with the best practices (and in accordance with the processes incorporated in the technical support automation systems).
In any case, organizational difficulties in the implementation of any system can not be avoided: no one likes to change and work under the new rules. Very often have to deal with sabotage. If you are the head of the company, for you this behavior of employees, on the contrary, should serve as a signal of the need for changes.
Constant lack of time or hands to implement new
The overwhelming majority of medium and small businesses constantly extinguish fires, i.e. time and energy are invested where at the moment “already burning”. While maintaining the existing scheme of work opportunities even for small transformations, both organizational and IT landscape, such a business will never find. But it is for them that simple support service systems exist. It is only important to distribute the efforts correctly - deviate a little from the principle of “permanent plugging of holes” and think about prospects.
Often, the issue is resolved administratively: time is allocated and people are set to implement those simple tools, regardless of the status of other tasks. An important argument in favor of choosing Help Desk solutions for such companies will undoubtedly be a convenient and simple interface, as well as the absence of the need for serious and lengthy settings to start work. For example, Okdesk companies start operation in 1-2 days.
“For a long time, Intraservice was used in the work, but functionally it ceased to meet our requirements. The transition to the new system, as in the case of any migration, raised concerns: the new interface, new work rules, employee dissatisfaction. At Okdesk, the transition went unnoticed and was greeted by everyone exclusively positively. The system is really very convenient and intuitive. ”
Alexey Teploukhov , Director of Private Solutions LLC
Lack of money for Help Desk system implementation
In many ways, this problem is similar to the previous one: the available funds are constantly invested where there is a direct reduction in costs, i.e. There are no means for any “future” improvements (for the sake of indirect aspects: saving time, increasing customer satisfaction).
At the start, it is really difficult to assess whether the economic effect from investments in automation will be, especially if we are talking about customer support systems. To evaluate the effect, it is necessary to collect statistics and compare it with current data, but almost no one collects current data (so there is nothing to compare with).
In this case, the experience of colleagues in the market will help. For example, the experience of implementing a help desk system in an IT outsourcing company or in a food service automation company and HoReCa . And in order to lower the “entry threshold” for such companies, there are cloud services with trial periods that allow testing the tool with minimal costs.
Negative experience of introducing in the past or fear of choosing an inappropriate “partner”
Nobody can guarantee that the company developing a new solution will last as long as the client company. Unfortunately, there are really a lot of startups on the market that are actively “PR”, and after a year they close down or completely curtail development. Help Desk systems market is no exception.
Carefully study the number of active users and their reviews, the scale of the business of the developer of the selected software, the team of founders of the service (carefully study this aspect by previous achievements at previous jobs), as well as how they work at the sales stage. All this will help to draw conclusions about the “viability” of the decision and significantly reduce the risks of choosing “one-day solutions”.
Irresistible organizational barriers
People are conservative by nature. The team can and will resist innovations, and to do it quite successfully. The problem is solved by a competent approach to the motivation of employees who are forced to change habits.
Roughly speaking, you need to “buy” the support system first, and then sell it to your employees, explaining that everything is for the good (or impose it in an order, if it does not work out otherwise).
To reduce the negative on the part of the team allows the simplicity of the implemented tool. The less you have to learn new things and break your familiar work style to ordinary employees, the more willing they will be to introduce.
“Our employees quite smoothly accepted the introduction of Okdesk, except that there was a requirement to document the decision of applications. Here we received indignation and discontent like “ we work ”. But an explanation of the reasons helps. In particular, in our case, documentation is used not for the purpose of constant monitoring of work, but with the goal of helping to avoid conflicts or to understand them, that is, it protects the employees themselves. ”
Igor Zverev , director of Keysystems-Ivanovo
“Lack of experience with such implementations will necessarily lead to failure”
A company that works for the future will not leave its clients alone with unsolvable tasks. The problems caused by lack of experience are completely solved with the support of the developers and managers of the service itself, who have seen more than one implementation in their practice.
However, one of the important points at the heart of success is a clearly formulated goal of implementation and requirements for the chosen solution. What indicators does the company strive to achieve? What problems to solve? What functions are necessary, and which are rather idealized Wishlist without real use? Unfortunately, often, many do not understand what they really want, and even can not formulate clear requirements. Another problem lies in the desire to get flexible, sharpened by a very specific "Wishlist" for little money. Such companies spend in search of suitable options for years without getting any result.
"We are already doing well!"
This happens when management drops the task of selecting and implementing Help Desk systems on line managers. However, the owners themselves in small business often dismiss automation systems with the same rationale. An important (you can even say “philosophical”) question: do values ​​in any particular instrument in this case really do not exist or simply do not want to see it? In our experience, a similar reason for refusal arises when there is a serious lack of motivation to improve the quality and transparency of work (and hence sabotage)? Who knows what the new system will reveal?
For an objective assessment need metrics. Do business have them? This is an occasion to think about whether it is time to take on efficiency.
In general, market conditions are becoming more stringent. The competition is already high, and in addition the tax burden is constantly increasing, and inflation cannot be avoided. The only way to stay afloat in these conditions is to constantly move forward, seeking new sources of resources. And one of such sources is the optimization of labor productivity just due to automation .
“Honestly, I sincerely wish that my competitors continue to work with applications in Excel. But this desire is not realizable. Everything develops, in any case, it will be necessary to introduce something if they want to continue to be in the market. The amount of money is less. Next year we will be offered to pay taxes more fully (the state will have the opportunity to control the taxable base in more detail). The cost of taxation will increase, which means that somewhere you need to find reserves. According to my ideas, they are only in labor productivity "
Vladimir Bachurin , Director of INNIKO
“There is already another system”
There is already some kind of automation. However, the tool tool is different. Often, to automate the same Help Desk, email or Excel is used, which is not intended for this purpose at all. Such tools work inefficiently. Moreover, the larger the scale of the business, the more serious the result is the lack of the tool. And here we return to the previous point: is there a motivation to work more efficiently? If there is, it is necessary to reform the set of tools used, because further without the necessary functionality it will be more and more difficult. We wrote about this in a note about Excel flaws as an accounting tool .
In one of the upcoming articles we will deal with migration issues from a specialized system.
Instead of conclusions
If in your organization the development of “production” tools has stalled due to one of the listed reasons, think about how you manage the situation in the company and how you will overcome these barriers in the future. And, of course, always be prepared for the difficulties and the need to overcome them!
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/338402/
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