Customer Support Information and Management

Question: Discuss about the Customer Support Information and Management. Answer: Help desk is one of the essential sections of the overall business. The help desk is the lifeline of the organisation as it handles the entire business from one section. The helpdesk streamlines the business operation by providing the much needed information all across the business that helps in making effective decisions. It is important to mention that Help desk has number of key roles to play in the daily operations of business. Especially in the hospitality sector the help desk works as the lifeline for the organisation as it represents the entire business in front of consumers hence it is important that the Help desk has the right balance for the consumers as well as the internal communication for the companies (Laudon Laudon, 2011). There are certain key features of a help desk which are extremely favorable for the business. The two key features of a help desk are: Help desk has historical incident database: This feature is extremely effective to ease the access to different kinds of information without any hiccups which lubricates the process of operation within the organisation and also supports customer management (Davenport Klahr, 1998). A helpdesk with effective knowledge base is likely to help address the issues of the consumers as well as support the organisational operation with the help of supply of effective information. This feature facilitates sharing of knowledge and this kind of database integrated in the system can reduce lead time and workload of the employees (Heras et al., 2009). Friendly user interface: This is another extremely important feature of a help desk. If a help desk is not user friendly it could have serious problems to communicate with the employees that would again hinder the service provision of the consumers. Effective user friendly interface will help to communicate effectively and provide better user experience which will facilitate the service provision for the consumers (Jntti, 2009). As stated by Chan et al., (1999) help desks are the computer aided systems which help the consumers and their response. The study has been done in wake of the technological transition phase where new technologies were coming in the market. During the late 90s there was technological explosion which clearly indicated that with the arrival or new hardware and software it was important for the companies to develop an extremely effective helpdesk which could help in supporting the consumers and lubricate the communication within the organisation as well. The help desks were in during that time but with the advent of new technologies it was important for the companies to come up with better technology which will help to meet the needs and the wants of the consumers (Davenport Klahr, 1998). Case based help desk system was a new concept at that point of time and hence there wasnt much buzz about building case based help desks. The study has discussed the technicalities of building case bas ed help desks. The main focus of the case based help desks is to focus on solving problems of the consumers. It is important to mention in the last few years with the increase in software and hardware products have forced to implement effective case based help desks which are extremely important to fix up queries of the consumers effectively. The present study has highlighted the need of case based help desk that would help to communicate with the consumers effectively (Chan et al., 1999). The consistency of the database system is extremely important as it will help to have continuous approach to develop the support system for the consumers, and it is important to note that in this case it has not been discussed. The correctness of the software is extremely important for the effective operation of the help desk system. For the effective operation of the help desk there are few things which could have been included are the use of database in the operation of the help desk system. The databases are extremely essential in addressing consumers which is clearly missing in the study. The study has not been able to discuss the role of database in Case Based Help desk. On the other hand it has not included the essential aspects of user friendly system. Since the study of about developing a CBHD for customer support it was important that the concept of user interface was discussed. Finally the need of quick access to metrics and statistics hasnt been addressed which is also a key part of the help desk (Czegel, 1998). Hence these three aspects could be integrated in the study. The ITIL or Information Technology Infrastructure Library is the series of works that helps in providing the best possible IT services. It includes the best practices to deliver world class IT services (Davenport Klahr, 1998). The major principles of ITIL are mainly based on providing the best possible service to the consumers and hence it is important to mention that it is largely effective in setting up an efficient help desk. One of the main principles of ITIL is effective service support. Effective service support helps the companies to focus on setting up their service desk which is proactive all the time to provide the best possible assistance to the consumers. The effective formation of service desk as per ITIL will include three key perspective process, people and tool. Process is the first and major part of service desk set up (McNaughton et al., 2010). It states that everyone should work following the same guidelines and same language which helps to design the set up. Ther e are key service desk processes which are service desk dashboard, service desk communication with consumers, promote and market service desk, managing cost and recovery process et cetera. Service desk is the first point of contact of the customers after entering the company. Thus, involving people in the service desk is another key aspect as in service desk efficient employees are required. Finally Service desk tool should be time sensitive, properly configured and consistent (Orand Villareal, 2011). For a vehicle breakdown service the helpdesk should be streamlined in such a way that it gets maximum number of calls. Based on this, the dashboard should be configured so as to develop the user experience and assure the best service possible. Along with this, for the breakdown service it is important for the help desk set up to develop the incident management in order to address multiple problems without any issues. This even helps in case of any technical glitch, where it becomes ea sier to recover the lost data and helps in a smooth flow of the business. References Chan, C., Geng, L. Chen, L. (1999). Development of an Intelligent Case-Based System for Help Desk Operations. Paper presented at 1999 IEEE Canadian Conference on Electrical and Computer Engineering. Alberta, Canada. DOI: 10.1109/CCECE.1999.808194 Czegel, B. (1998).Running an effective help desk. John Wiley Sons, Inc. Davenport, T. H., Klahr, P. (1998). Managing customer support knowledge. California management review,40(3), 195-208. Heras, S., Garca-Pardo, J. ., Ramos-Garijo, R., Palomares, A., Botti, V., Rebollo, M., Julin, V. (2009). Multi-domain case-based module for customer support.Expert Systems with Applications,36(3), 6866-6873. Jntti, M. (2009). Lessons learnt from the improvement of customer support processes: A case study on incident management. 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