From the many points of contact between companies and clients, the IT help desk is the number one opportunity to inspire long-term loyalty in customers. Customer service representatives have clients on the phone at their most vulnerable moments, when the product has failed to work and they must ask for help. These reps have the power to ease frustration, quickly solve problems, rescue customer data and overall turn a tenuous situation into one of customer relief and happiness. Customers who receive high quality, fast, and friendly technical support will stay forever because they know any problems that occur will be easily solved by company experts. To achieve this ideal standard of service, your help desk team needs to adopt the right attitude, and implement the customer satisfaction method.

Start with Positive Listening

Usually, by the time someone calls for tech-support, there has already been some long frustrating journey. They have gone through the trouble of identifying the issue, have probably tried to fix it themselves, and have finally accepted that they need assistance. Remember that their negative feelings are about the problem and stay positive and friendly as they explain their experience with the technical issue. You will probably need to pick out the relevant technical data from their personal account, so let them finish and consider taking notes when you hear a detail that could aid in the solution.

Understand the Customer’s Point of View

Many people are aware that their mistake caused the problem, and should be reassured that technical mistakes are easy to make. Explain to them why they made the mistake and try telling a few stories about other issues caused by similar mistakes. This assures the customer that they’re not alone in their technical challenges and a few funny accounts of other bugs can do a lot to alleviate tension. While your official duty is to fix the bug, easing customer worries and cheering them up after a challenging technical experience is a valuable service any help desk agent can provide.

Explain the Problem & Teach the Solution

The chance is high that your customer is interested in what went wrong and how it was fixed and in most cases it’s safe to explain it to them. When you understand the problem, lay it out for the customer in a way they can understand. Whether it was a slipped decimal point, missed semicolon or an accidentally mismanaged email, it is interesting information and can help them prevent the same issue in the future. If the solution takes a little bit of time to implement, you can use that phone-time to explain what you’re doing to the customer. You may be surprised at their enthusiasm to learn your methods and repair procedures, and the involvement will make the customer feel more deeply included by the company as a whole, building connection, and loyalty.

Build a Reputation

High-quality customer service is rare enough, but help desk agents that can simultaneously solve problems and cheer up their customers will become legendary. When people share their tech support horror stories, your customers will feel compelled to chime in with their unusual tale of when the tech support agent made them laugh and taught them something cool. When you offer excellent help desk service, your company’s reputation for customer care will skyrocket.

Optimized your help desk methods are an important key to long-term customer retention and loyalty. Any company with a help desk can benefit significantly by training agents to be positive, assuring, and informative with every customer that calls in. If you have a help desk or are preparing to set one up for your company, contact us to speak to one of our IT experts.