Have you ever overheard people having heated discussions about the differences between help desks, service desks, and IT service management (ITSM)? Surprisingly, we have. Some argue that help desk is an outdated term referring to an IT-centric support capability born in the late 1980s (think mainframes), with little attention to the end user. They may say service desk was coined to describe a new focus on serving end-users in a timely manner.

We are happy to announce our participation in Season of Docs 2019! This is the inauguration year for the exciting new program. Season of Docs is Google’s annual program that fosters collaboration between open source projects and technical writers. Season of Docs is a unique program that pairs technical writers with open source mentors to introduce the technical writer to an open source community and provide guidance while the writer works on a real world open source project.

Customer support teams are built on the basis of collaboration — we are the connectors between our customers and our team members and yet oftentimes support can feel segregated from the rest of the company. This feeling can have many causes: the usual perception of the team as a “cost center”, lack of understanding of the nature of the work that support does and, worst of all, the lack of connection and collaboration within the support team itself.

The digitally conscious customer of today needs immediate responses. A key factor in staying ahead of the competition is the ability to provide proactive customer support to your customers. Live chat support came to the rescue and enabled agents to respond to customers as swiftly as they could. But this was not good enough. It is almost impossible for live agents to be available all the time for the omnipresent customer.

If you’ve ever worked in or been a part of the customer support industry, you’ve likely seen or directly experienced “contents” or “games” like the scenarios listed above. The more formal definition – gamification – is essentially a tactic used by the customer support industry to incentivize agents to reach specific (yet often arbitrary) goals put in place by leadership.

Wire, the world’s most secure workplace collaboration platform, announces that EY France, a key territory for the global leader in assurance, tax, transaction and advisory services, are using its platform to enhance the security of its communications both internally and with third parties.

Helpdesks are one of the most integral tools for delivering a better support experience for your customers due to their ability to organize and streamline communication. But that’s not the only factor which makes them important. They also reflect the brand and values of your company. Today, users look for personalized customer experiences.

In an important client meeting? Going on vacation? Or simply deeply concentrated on a project that needs finalizing? We all have reasons to turn to the trusty mute settings from time to time. But instead of scrolling through each conversation to see which one is “mute-worthy” why not just have a global mute setting when you need some peace and quiet. Why not set a status to let your colleagues know you are unavailable and at the same time set everything on full or partial mute.

As the executive team reviews productivity, profiabilty and collaboration in the organization, email is at the center point of most interactions. But is it the right choice for the future? Email has already been dubbed a productivity-killer and dead by many. Add to that an excess of vulnerabilites but maybe there is another angle - vulnerability that should make organizations consider if email shall be the primary communications tool.

Keeping an eye on your day-to-day customer service operations means measuring the right metrics—that is, knowing which ones are setting your business up for both immediate and long-term success. Whether your company’s customer service is used as a means to drive overall revenue or is focused on helping customers fully understand your products or services, the tracked metrics should pertain to specific strategies designed to achieve your company’s overall goals.