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Help Desk Vs Service Desk – Know the difference

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You may need troubleshooting, additional service, or information for your IT setup. Moreover, you will want to ensure the best support experience for your end-users. One thing that will come to your mind may be help desk outsourcing. But the service providers offer two options; help desk and service desk.

For a layman, these are synonymous. However, you have to choose anyone. In all cases, it is crucial to know the difference between the help desk and the service desk.

In simple words, a help desk focuses on resolving issues. On the other hand, a service desk resolves problems as well as handles service requests. 

In this post, we’ll discuss the difference between the help desk and the service desk. The blog also sheds light on the benefits of help desk outsourcing for your business. So be with us to know everything about these IT support solutions.

What is a Help Desk?

A help desk is meant for resolving IT-related issues for end-users. It tracks the incidents that the users report and follows them until fixed. The primary features of a service desk are as follows.

·     Work as a single point of contact.

·     Track issues in a software solution and follow to resolve them.

·     Provide automatic tracking, escalating, and providing notifications.

·     Support service requests and service level agreements.

·     Offer limited integration with IT service management practices 

·     Effectively manage basic IT requests.  

What is a Service Desk?

A service desk is a broader approach to IT services incorporating a business goal. It integrates the help desk features with a strategic method to offer the best IT management practices. The key features of a service desk are as follows.

  • ·     Service desks focus on the overall business needs. 
  • ·     It supports ITSM strategy, service design, and service transition.
  • ·     Service desks work on total service orientation to provide an overall improvement
  • It prevents the recurrence of problems by automating the service.
  • The service desk maintains a knowledge base for future reference. 

Help Desk vs. Service Desk: What’s the Difference?

Both aim to provide support to the end-users. Still, there are some significant differences between the help desk and the service desk that we have explained below.

1. The help desk came to the scene to help businesses improve their end-user support experience. 

On the other hand, the service desk is a more strategic version of the help desk. It predominantly focuses on meeting business purposes.

2. A help desk works on the model of break-fixing or incident management. It offers customer-centric support when an issue occurs.

A service desk helps businesses cater to all requests, including new services, information, and break-fixing. For instance, an employee can raise a request for a new laptop at the service desk. 

3. Help desks offer assistance when an incident arises, and the support team needs to fix it. For example, the developers and technicians work together when a website is down and resolve it.

A service desk, on the other hand, follows a visionary procedure to make long-term decisions. It improves the quality of the IT services desk in your business. 

Despite the difference between the help desk and the service desk, contemporary processes can serve both purposes. The best example is help desk outsourcing. It can help your business manage both incidents and service requests from the same support desk.  

How does help desk outsourcing benefit your business? 

For a better end-user experience, you do not need to employ both the help desk and the service desk. Successful businesses enjoy the benefits of both by hiring proficient help desk outsourcing.  

So, you do not require multiple service desk options. An efficient help desk support team can meet all IT needs. They provide users with immediate support in resolving issues. It results in more effective business practices initiating the growth of the business. 

Help desk outsourcing is advantageous for businesses that provide customer-centric services and IT functionality. The outsourced team analyzes different components of IT processes. Thus, they manage specific needs and issues on software. 

You can ensure comprehensive IT support by embedding help desk support within a service desk. It will cover all aspects of business operations. 

The business needs and user expectations specify IT protocols and procedures in your company. Outsourced services will provide consultancy and services tailored to meet your business goals. 

A dynamic help desk outsourcing team can simplify your business needs by providing secure IT Management Services. It will take your business operation to the next level. 

How to select the best help desk Outsourcing provider?

Choosing the right agency for your business can be difficult, especially when hiring an IT help desk. However, you can follow the below points while choosing your ideal help desk outsourcing. 

1. Know your business requirements

When choosing a help desk, you need to consider the factors like price, ROI, scalability, user-friendliness, etc. However, the most crucial one is your team’s goals and objectives. So before approaching an agency, prepare a questionnaire.  

You can ask about the expectations of the users, customer service metrics, crucial features, etc. Once you get answers to these questions, you can select an agency that matches your business goal. 

2. Focus on Scalability

You are working hard to be bigger. Your audience may also turn larger in the future. So, when you decide on a support team, ensure that it can scale with your growing business. 

Ask your vendor if they can handle an increase in support cases in the future. You can also review their customer success stories and past services. 

3. Check Vendor’s Reliability and Support

You will find numerous companies selling help desk solutions. How will you define the reliable one who will be available whenever you need help?

Whenever there is a software issue, your end-users suffer. You cannot overcome these aspects completely. However, with the right help desk outsourcing, you can ensure resolving any issue at the earliest. 

So, select a vendor who offers 24×7 support via multiple communication channels. For more valuable information, you can read The ROI of help desk outsourcing.

Conclusion

Despite the differences, the end goal of both the help desk and service desk remains the same. Both aim to improve the ‘end-user support experience’. 

A service desk includes the features of the help desk. However, it goes beyond a help desk by focusing on the overall business growth. You can hire professional help desk outsourcing for a complete support solution.

FAQ

  1. What is the function of a help desk?

A help desk resolves IT-related issues for end-users. It offers assistance when an issue arises, and the support team needs to fix it.

  1. How to define a service desk?

A service desk offers IT services with a business goal. It includes the help desk features with a strategic method to offer the best IT management practices.

  1. Are the help desk and service desk the same?

The end goal of the help desk and the service desk are the same. Both provide end-user support. However, a service desk goes beyond a help desk by focusing on overall business growth.

  1. Does the help desk provide customer service?

An internal help desk support team solves IT issues for employees in an organization. They provide support in installing updates or fixing software issues.

On the other hand, the external help desk team focuses on serving customers by providing them with IT-related support.

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