Evaluate the ratio between the help desk staff and customer service needs. Depending on company size, according to Coastal Technologies, you can start with a ratio of 75 to 100 customers per help desk representative. More help-desk workers may be required if you have a lot of customers and help desk experience is still low. A tech staffers may be required if their expertise is high.
Hire help desk representatives with a combination of technical and customer service skills, to ensure technical problems of the staff and customers are solved in a calm and professional manner. The wrong help desk representatives can put off customers and impede the help desk's functioning by, for example, extensively disorganizing files and important documents.
Create a frequently asked questions list, or FAQ, to provide more time for core IT and customer service functions. Put together a team of staff and customers to come up with a list of these questions. Focus on the few problems that account for a sizable portion of the calls made to the desk. Post the list on the company website.
Simplify the help desk management software and infrastructure. Set up help desk software that is easy to use for all representatives. A complex IT infrastructure creates a backlog and requires a lot of resources to train the staff at the desk.
Differentiate low-priority and high priority concerns of the staff and customers. Train staff on time management strategies that will help them to carry out their work effectively.