A service desk is a centralised point of contact for users to request assistance, report incidents, or seek information. Essentially, it exists to efficiently and effectively address the needs of users, ensuring services are delivered and supported in a timely manner.
Why is it helpful?
As well as streamlining communications, a centralised service desk also supports consistency and knowledge sharing.
What we can offer
SmartPA can act as a ‘service desk’ for a specific aspect or area of your admin function (such as travel and expenses for example), either for a client department or company-wide. This service will allow your PAs to ‘offload’ tasks and/or can be a standalone function for leaders to access directly (e.g. travel).
Some clients use this service as a shared/ pooled support for a wider team that don’t have existing admin support. This can cater for a range of specific tasks, such as document formatting, purchase order processing, expenses, or minutes etc. Typically, clients use support in this way for middle managers who don’t have PAs, or fee earners whose time needs to be optimised.
Clients can also choose to outsource a specific business function – for example managing the admin process for new starts and leavers.
A service desk can also be used for ticketing systems, and business queries, acting as your ‘front line’ solution.
Key Benefits:
A service desk is helpful for many reasons, and its role extends beyond just providing technical support. For example:
Centralised Point of Contact:
This helps streamline communication and ensures users have a consistent and reliable place to go for help.
Efficient Problem Resolution:
When users encounter issues or incidents, the service desk facilitates a systematic approach to problem resolution, logging, categorising, prioritising, and finally resolving or escalating issues based on predefined procedures.
Improved User Productivity:
Quick and effective support from the service desk minimises users’ downtime, contributing to increased productivity across the organisation.
Knowledge Management:
Service desks often maintain a knowledge base that contains solutions to common issues, FAQs, and best practices. This knowledge base not only assists service desk agents in resolving issues quickly but also empowers users to find solutions independently, reducing the dependency on support.
Proactive Communication:
The service desk communicates with users about the status of their requests or incidents, helping manage user expectations, and keeping them informed on progress.
Service Level Management:
The service desk monitors and ensures compliance with service level agreements (SLAs). This includes response times, resolution times, and overall service quality, contributing to a higher level of customer satisfaction.
Continuous Improvement:
Service desks play a role in identifying trends, recurring issues and areas for improvement. This feedback loop helps organisations enhance their services, making them more efficient and aligned with user needs.
-1.jpg?width=1240&height=827&name=DSC_2358-scaled%20(2)-1.jpg)
