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Why chatbots are better than traditional portals for employee service

Service desks act as the one-point support for all the employees of an organization. While traditional portals are still in use, there are a lot of problems that tag along with it.

Let's take a look at the problems:

Numerous requests: In traditional service desks, the volume of tickets raised is not only huge but it is also noticed that the type of requests is similar. Addressing these queries and requests can turn out to be costly for the organization. This is because the more time the service desk staff dedicates to answering the phone or sifting through requests sent by email or even in person, the cost goes on increasing based on the number of requests and that they pay lesser attention to ironing out issues that already exist.

Phone calls for an end-user are particularly frustrating because if the staff is busy resolving another user's issues, then the remaining users are put on a queue. This can result in long resolution times for a simple issue as well.

Recurring tickets: It is seen that most tickets that come through the portal have already had previous occurrences. Since there is no record of it, service desk staff need to address each recurring ticket as a fresh ticket. This results in the Service Desk staff wasting their time on repetitive and mundane tasks while they can be focussing on more compelling and challenging tasks.

Miscommunication: Sometimes, there is miscommunication that takes place between the team handling the issue and the team handling the service desk. But what needs to be kept in mind is that no matter how bad the issue is, the teams involved in the tickets' resolution must and should identify the issue and communicate with the recovery team.

Employees and users do not have all day waiting for a response from the team handling the incident. So, if an update and a workaround are provided at the earliest, it would ease the tensions of the end-user.

These are a few of the pain points employees face when making use of the traditional Service desk.

So why chatbots?

A chatbot is capable of providing a smooth overall service to an employee. In a nutshell, it helps reduce waiting times – with simple queries getting immediate responses. Plus, problems are routed to the right people every time. All this amounts to great user satisfaction.

Adopting self-service: Self-Service Portals are the key to providing cost-effective support. This reduces the overall volume of calls to a service desk hence reducing the number of tickets registered. Chatbots can provide simple solutions to employees' queries.

There are hindrances one must need to address while dealing with self-service. This can be regarding the poor design, limited availability of resources, and the lack of personal touch.

Chatbots need to be built in such a way they address the above hindrances and this can ensure that employees don't call or send emails to the service desk staff regarding issues despite the existence of the bot.

Assistance available 24/7: Unlike humans, chatbots do not take a break. This assures that employees can have access to personalized assistance and answers to their queries round the clock without having to depend on the service desk staff.

Chatbots can ensure the solutions are delivered quickly because a record of all the occurrences of an event is recorded and the chatbot makes use of AI to understand the resemblance between different events and can provide relevant solutions quickly.

Automation of tasks: It is seen that most resources are spent on executing service requests, closing incident tickets, and delivering changes. Chatbots can help organizations automate all these tasks, driving formidable change and reigning in the benefits of a more efficient helpdesk.

Alerts: Employees like to be kept updated on the status of their ticket and sometimes in traditional service desks, there is a chance of human error as sometimes agents might forget to update the status leading to a gap in the communication. The bot works as the first-line agent to address repeated concerns of the employees. If there is a requirement for human intervention, then it transfers the issue to a live agent.

Increased employee and customer satisfaction: Chatbots enable service desk agents to take up strategic and challenging tasks instead of wasting their time on repetitive and mundane tasks.

Employees making use of the service desk are satisfied as chatbots cut down on the waiting and response time thus leading to an increase in customer satisfaction. As continuous assistance is always available, accurate responses to their queries are always provided.

Chatbots when used and implemented the right way can benefit an organization and can go a long way in saving costs. Here are some pros and cons of using chatbots at the service desk.

Summary:

Chatbots are the next big thing in the service desk industry. The benefits of using chatbots are plenty but read here on why chatbots lead to a better employee experience.