Customer Support Management: Principles for Efficient Help Desks

This essay examines the critical aspects of customer support management, focusing on the efficiency and effectiveness of help desks. It emphasizes the importance of attention to customer cues and the strategic organization of help desk resources. By analyzing the initiation and execution of com...Read More

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Running head: CUSTOMER SUPPORT MANAGEMENT
Customer Support Management
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CUSTOMER SUPPORT MANAGEMENT
Introduction
A help desk is an organization that provides a wide variety of consumers with a single
point of communication for any technical clarification and assistance. By providing a single
point, the process of consumer assistance is streamlined by reducing the number of calls or visits
needed to be made by the client in order to receive exhaustive assistance. As a result, it is
important to efficiently manage help desk resources and services in order to maintain a smooth
communication channel.
In order to effectively run and manage a help desk, particular guidelines and principles
become important towards the actualization of the objectives of the set-up. The principles dictate
particular reactions, verbal and non-verbal cues as well as behavioral changes that indicate the
need for assistance by the client thus inviting the opportunity for the help desk to offer said
assistance.
One important aspect of initiating a communication process as stipulated by Mortensen
and Hazel (2014) is the need for uninterrupted attention directed at the incoming traffic into the
office premises. A majority of spatial interactions and manipulations discussed in the article
require the help desk operator to monitor who walks into the offices and the cues they elicit in
order to establish a willingness to engage in a communication process (Mehrabian, 2017).
Detection of the various bodily cues, motions and signals requires attention on both the desk
assistant’s as well as the client’s part. By analyzing the entire process of initiating and
conducting a communication process, the article defines the various points where most attention
is required in order to fulfill the intent of the help desk. Such moments include when a person

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walks into an office premise or makes a call to enquire a service. As such, attention emerges
from the body of work as a necessary attribute towards the success of most help desk activities.
Another important feature of a well-managed help desk is the level of organization of
tools and equipment at the desk. Mortensen and Hazel define a standard for organization in an
office that places office tools and equipment in an organized fashion as well as defining the
optimal placement of the help desk (Marcella & Middleton, 1996). This organization not only
creates a conducive environment for the staff and clientele but also ensures the help desk is
identifiable by all customers coming into the business premises. This also helps in the recovery
of items and information at the desk and in the organization as a whole as the locations of all
items can be easily identified (Czegel, 2015).
Conclusion
In the management of a help desk, key features that contribute to the success of the set-up
include the level of attention paid to traffic by the help desk officers/operators as well as the
arrangement and alignment of office tools, equipment and furniture. In conjunction, the two
attributes work together to enhance the customer experience at the help desk by affording them
adequate assistance within the least time. This means that customers can find the help desk easily
and are spotted as soon as they approach hence initiating assistive communication effectively.

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References
Czegel, B. (2015). Help desk practitioner's handbook. John Wiley & Sons.
Marcella, R., & Middleton, I. (1996). The role of the help desk in the strategic management of
information systems. OCLC Systems & Services: International digital library
perspectives, 12(4), 4-19.
Mehrabian, A. (2017). Nonverbal communication. Routledge.
Mortensen, K. & Hazel, S. (2014) Moving into Interaction - Social Practices for Initiating
Encounters at a Help Desk. Journal of Pragmatics. 62, 46-67.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2013.11.009