What is an enterprise helpdesk?

Have you ever had those days where it seems like you’re stuck in a whirlwind of customer inquiries, and your support teams are drowning in tickets? As your organization grows, so does the wave of customer support requests and troubleshooting requirements. Soon enough, you’re looking at a ceiling-high pile of queries.

For large enterprises, this is a regular scenario. Alongside the endless customer support requests come increased employee support requirements. It can be a challenge to keep up with tickets, which negatively impacts your business and makes it harder to provide customers with smooth user experiences.

This is where enterprise help desk software comes in. Tailored to meet these challenges and streamline support requests, enterprise support software includes tools like in-depth data analysis, AI-driven automation, omnichannel support, self-service features, and more. Ultimately, it makes it easier for companies to improve operations, streamline tasks, enhance employee and customer experiences, and sustainably work towards growth and expansion.

In this article, we explore enterprise help desks, their key features, benefits, and examples. By investing in these tools, enterprises can meet customer expectations and experience smoother internal operations.

What is an enterprise helpdesk?

Enterprise help desks are software systems that help enterprises offer customers quick solutions to technical issues, business-related inquiries, products, or services. They are multi-channel helpdesks that offer enterprise-level customer support and can cover emails, phone calls, live chats, and more. You could picture them as centralized hubs for customer care. Specifically designed for larger organizations and businesses, they are equipped to handle more complex support requirements and large volumes of inquiries.

In short, they are comprehensive support platforms that provide organizations with support related to external customers and internal employees. They differ from general help desk tools when it comes to scale. Enterprise help desks are designed for large organizations and manage the support requirements of corporations with more than 1000+ employees.They find use in several industries, especially those where quality employee and customer service assistance is non-negotiable. They are most popular among departments like customer service, human resources, IT, etc.

Installing enterprise support software isn’t enough, though—enterprise support adoption is equally important. Enterprise support adoption is the process by which large organizations integrate support solutions, ensuring they are efficiently installed and utilized across the organization. This process involves employee training integration with existing systems, monitoring success and productivity, and more

What does an enterprise help desk do?

Since larger organizations deal with customer inquiries and internal issues at a larger scale, they require stronger support systems to support teams, offer 24x7 support, create a reliable and efficient support infrastructure, and lower costs. An enterprise help desk comes with a comprehensive suite of essential functions. Some of the most important ones include:

1. Offers a single point of contact

Customers may struggle to know who to contact for support when dealing with large enterprises. Enterprise support software provides internal and external customers with a single point of contact for any potential challenges. It is also a centralized point of contact within the organization and offers employees support.

2. Customer support and feedback

Clients can use the help desk’s self-service features or contact a help desk agent with any inquiries related to products and services. Self-service options are also provided, which can reduce ticket volumes and empower customers to resolve specific issues independently.

The platform can also measure customer satisfaction by collecting feedback to improve processes and expand knowledge bases. It handles reporting and analytics, which allows enterprises to understand how effective their support operations are using first reply times, employee/customer satisfaction scores, and other metrics.

3. Streamline workflows

The right enterprise help desk allows organizations to be well-run, centralize knowledge resources, and streamline workflows to save time. Customers can have their issues resolved quicker and more efficiently.

This is often done through AI and help desk automation, which provides end-to-end services and can assist agents in real time. Companies can utilize integrations to connect all of their systems, reduce the chance of data silos and customize enterprise support software.

4. Security

Security is one of the most important aspects when dealing with sensitive customer information. Enterprise help desks provide security and privacy protocols while following compliance regulations. The privacy of customer data is also prioritized.

5. Omnichannel communiction

Another major upside to enterprise help desks is their omnichannel communication features. These features integrate various communication channels, like email, social media, phone, live chat, and messaging, into a single interface. Customers can seek support via their preferred mode of contact, allowing for seamless interactions across many touchpoints.

6. Reporting and analytics

Enterprise help desks are often equipped with reporting and analytics features, allowing organizations to track performance metrics like customer satisfaction, support costs, and more. They can monitor performance, provide real-time insights, and identify areas that require improvement. These valuable insights allow companies to improve the quality of their products and customer support by giving insights into their operations and identifying trends, enhancing customer experiences.

Key features of an enterprise help desk

Enterprise help desks are a must for large organizations. They come equipped with a powerful range of incident management tools. Some of the critical features of an enterprise help desk are:

1. Omnichannel support

One of the most attractive features of an enterprise help desk is its omnichannel support features. Users can access assistance and support through several channels, including AI chatbots, mobile phones, email, web portals, and social media. This increases accessibility, and users can choose the channel that best suits their requirements. Switching between communication channels is also, as a result, simpler.

2. Ticketing management

Help desk ticketing systems are a necessity for large enterprises. Proper ticketing management can streamline workflows, improve operations, and simplify logging and resolving issues. Issues are often marked with unique identifiers and differentiated based on urgency and category.

This ensures that all urgent matters are resolved as soon as possible and that other issues are resolved promptly and efficiently. Ticketing management features include ticket assignment, escalation protocols, and integration with different knowledge and management systems.

3. Self-service features

Another standout feature of enterprise help desks is their self-service capabilities. They come with extensive knowledge bases, FAQs, step-by-step guides, AI chatbots, and intelligent search functions to guide users. This allows users to resolve common and minor issues independently without escalating the problem to IT support teams.

This allows for quicker resolutions and reduces the burden on IT support teams. Self-service capabilities assist users in resolving common issues independently, reducing the burden on IT support teams and speeding up problem resolution. Organizations can reserve time, effort, and resources.

4. Reporting and analytics

Reporting and analytics provide enterprises with insights into their IT help desk solutions’ performance, efficiency, and operations gaps. Reporting tools create detailed reports regarding key metrics, such as ticket volumes, resolution speeds, and customer satisfaction.

This data can be analyzed to monitor and track performance, and identify areas for improvement. The findings can also be shared with key stakeholders, improving transparency and streamlining communication.

Enterprise help desk vs. Traditional help desk

While enterprise help desks are often confused with traditional help desks, they differ on several points. These include:

7 benefits of an enterprise help desk

Improve efficiency and save time and resources

The overarching goal of an enterprise help desk is to improve organizational efficiency. It allows large companies to handle larger ticket volumes, AI-driven features, self-support capabilities, reporting and analytics, automate routine tasks, and more. This saves time and allows IT support staff to focus on more complex and more urgent issues. Additionally, help desks enable employees and customers to receive tailored and personalized assistance.

Improve customer satisfaction using omnichannel support features

Enterprise help desks are equipped with multi-channel support features. Customers can also choose the communication channel that is most convenient for them. Additionally, AI tools ensure quicker response times, give agents context for more personalized responses, and more. This helps enterprises to keep up with customer demands and increases user experience and satisfaction.

Create consistency to streamline processes

Businesses can leverage enterprise help desks to standardize their process, making service more consistent for customers and employees. Tools such as self-service, omnichannel support, knowledge base articles, and AI chatbots ensure consistent information is provided in response to common questions.

Scale your software to handle larger ticket volumes

Built for large-scale corporations, enterprise help deals allow teams to deliver better support experiences despite large ticket volumes. This is done by leveraging AI tools, automation, categorization prioritization, and self-service.

Automate tasks to enhance productivity

Manually handling every customer complaint or support request is impossible, especially when tickets come in large volumes. Automating routine tasks, such as creating tickets, categorization, prioritization, and assignments, allows IT teams to address critical issues. This enhances productivity and minimizes human error.

Enhance collaboration between teams for better problem-solving

Collaboration between different teams is crucial when trying to resolve customer and employee issues. Enterprise help desks help improve communication and collaboration with integrated tools like video calls, messaging features, and collaborative workspaces. This ensures information and knowledge are shared effectively, leading to better problem-solving. It also strengthens inter-departmental collaboration and workplace relationships.

4 examples of enterprise help desk

1. DevRev

DevRev is a leading AI-native software solution. Its dedicated Support application features an advanced ticket support system that helps streamline and improve customer service interactions and ticket resolution. DevRev prioritizes user experience and workflow optimization, and its Support app is a scalable and cost-effective solution for large enterprises.

Key features:

• AI tools: DevRev is an AI-forward platform. Turing AI powers its intent-aware chatbot, which answers questions as accurately as possible without the need for human interference. It also leverages generative AI, processes natural language to understand intent, and allows for effortless ticket management.
• Automated responses: DevRev’s AgentOS is an AI platform that allows enterprises to automate responses. AgentOS draws from vast data and can utilize knowledge graphs to provide users with accurate responses.
• Ticket categorizing: DevRev’s enterprise support software comes with a unified ticket box, which makes it easier for companies to categorize and monitor the progress of different ongoing issues.
• Analytics dashboard: This enterprise support software has a customizable dashboard that visualizes and filters critical metrics. This valuable insight helps companies make data-driven decisions and improve services and products.
• Canned responses: Canned responses are prepared in advance to address FAQs without the need to write a new response every time. They can be used across various channels like email, social media, and website chats. Some common examples include greetings, closing messages, issue registration, etc. They save time and resources, allowing customers to receive information quickly.
• Summarization: DevRev presents a comprehensive summary of email threads rather than only displaying only the initial message for tickets. This speeds up the resolution process and makes it more streamlined and efficient.

2. Zoho Desk

Zoho Desk is a leading example of enterprise help desk software. It helps companies manage customer service and business operations using omnichannel communications and assign cases to the right support agent based on the department and team.

Key features

• AI tools: Zoho Desk utilizes AI tools to study data and analytics for customer insights and to track interactions.
• Automation: It automates routine tasks like ticket follow-ups.
• Omnichannel communication: Customers can receive assistance on their preferred channels, like chatbots, mobile phones, and email.

3. Help Scout

Help Desk provides enterprise help desk services with software for shared inboxes, help centers, and live chats. IT teams can leverage the platform to communicate effectively, manage customer issues, and provide prompt assistance for critical matters.

Key features

• Omnichannel communication: Customers can access assistance via multiple channels, including the website portal, email, telephone, or chat.
• Automation: Repetitive and routine tasks like responses can be automated.
• Integration: The software can be integrated smoothly with platforms like Jira and Hubspot.

4. Zendesk

Zendesk offers a Support Enterprise Plan that includes all the elements of its Suite Team, along with additional security protocols, workflow efficiencies and features to expand knowledge bases.

Key features

• AI tools: Zendesk offers AI-powered Content Cues. These allow enterprises to automatically generate relevant knowledge base articles by identifying common customer queries. Zendesk also provides HIPAA-enabled select services.
• Multi-channel communication: Customers can seek assistance on their preferred channels, including mobile phone, email, website portal, or chat.
• Automation: It automates repetitive tasks like ticket follow-ups.

Best practices for using an enterprise help desk

Whether companies are looking to optimize their existing support software or implement a new enterprise support software for the first time, certain factors must be kept in mind. These include:

• Leverage AI tools: Effective enterprise help desks offer AI tools, which can help companies provide prompt services, lower support costs, and automate workflows.
• Utilise feedback: Enterprise help desks are useful tools for collecting customer feedback. Companies should collect surveys and other forms of feedback to gain better insights into whether their support services are effective.
• Monitor KPIs: Most enterprise help desks have reporting and analytics features, which allow enterprises to identify and monitor critical metrics. These can be leveraged to improve support services.

Summing up

As enterprises expand, they encounter a variety of operational complexities. Naturally, they need the right tools to adapt and meet these challenges. The right enterprise help desk can help organizations reduce costs and optimize performance while focusing on growth and expansion.

DevRev is a leading AI-native solution that provides large enterprises with a unified platform to optimize their customer support services. It has a powerful range of offerings, including AI-powered analytics, an easy-to-use interface, ticket categorization, an automated response system, and much more. AgentOS also allows companies to automate communications, gain insights and analytics, and use knowledge graphs to generate accurate and specific responses.

DevRev is a user-first software solution that helps you support your customers while streamlining operations, improving products, and preventing future issues. To experience accurate, automated, and scaleable AI-driven solutions, try DevRev today!