Overcoming Common Help Desk Complaints

Whether you are working as an IT Administrator in-house, or as an MSP providing a Help Desk capability for a client, the same Help Desk tickets crop up again and again.

Not a day goes by that the Help Desk doesn’t see the same tickets arise: ‘I can’t print’, ‘my computer is running slowly’, ‘my email is down’.

It is far too time consuming to resolve these tickets with manual intervention time and time again, so businesses need to look for a way to automate these solutions. To do this, you need to closely look at the most common calls that occur and determine how to avoid them in the future, or at the very least, expedite the resolution.

A great example is the ‘my computer is running slowly’ complaint. The Help Desk should look to implement an ongoing automated maintenance policy on the end user’s machine to ensure it’s running in optimum condition. Based on the user’s performance needs, the Help Desk might determine that the maintenance policy needs to be more robust.

Another issue to consider is if there is an end user training issue. Does a training program need to be provided and if so, what specific problems need to be addressed?

‘I can’t email’ or ‘I can’t print’ are common issues that can be resolved through a self-healing automation policy, which is typically implemented via the MSP’s remote monitoring and management (RMM) platform, or the IT Administrators monitoring dashboard.

Once the initial reactive issue has been rectified, from there the Help Desk can look at the sub-categories that may have led to the issue occurring in the first place. If the print spooler is commonly filling up – why is this happening? Understanding root cause is critical and will save hours of time in the future.

In order to identify and resolve the most common Help Desk complaints, a two-pronged approach must be taken. Firstly, the Help Desk needs to quickly and efficiently resolve the issue at hand and get the end user back to work and productive. Secondly, the Help Desk technician needs to take time out to investigate the issue in detail, so as to identify why these complaints are occurring time and time again.

Understanding the resulting factors that led to the problem arising in the first place will create more efficiency for the Help Desk and the end user alike; allowing the most appropriate automation and self-healing technologies to be identified and implemented.

David Weeks, Channel Strategies Manager, N-able by SolarWinds.