Definition of help desk

The first meaning of the term desk mentioned in the dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) refers to a piece of furniture composed of a horizontal table and legs that support it. The concept, however, can also be used to refer to a set of individuals brought together for a certain purpose.

Help, on the other hand, it is a collaboration or an assistance. It is an aid that is provided so that someone can solve a problem or fulfill a goal.

The idea of help desk mentions the service that, by appealing to human and technological resources, allows solve problems and incidents and carry out different procedures and procedures. This benefit is provided by numerous state agencies, organizations and Business.

Also called service table, customer care Center, User Support Center or in English, help desk, the help desk aims to provide answers to requests or queries related to its scope of action. The care can be provided in person in an office or through Internet or telephony.

In the field of computing and the technology, the help desk provides technical support. The user, when encountering a difficulty in making use of a system or product, can contact the help desk for a specialist to provide cooperation.

It is common for the help desk, once the request has been processed, to provide a number so that the user can keep track of the operation that he performed. Thus, if you communicate again on the same subject, you have to mention the number in question.

This number is usually called incident number, and it is very useful to avoid detailing the entire problem every time the user communicates with the help desk. In the best of cases, the first person who attends you will record the case in the database and between that moment and the next communication the team of technicians will have tried to provide a solution. In practice, many times we are forced to repeat history several times until we are taken seriously.

The help desk should be a service so that the user can find solutions to those problems that require a level of knowledge higher than his own or tools that he does not have. Unfortunately, it is not uncommon for absurd and useless responses to arise from a query, treating the user as an irresponsible person or without any type of technical preparation, causing deep indignation in him and generating a waste of time and energy.

For example: if a user communicates through a specialized forum with the developers of a computer to indicate that he cannot use an external monitor with the resolution that the company promises despite having followed all the indications properly, and receives in response Questions like “should you buy the right cable” or “have you made sure you’ve updated your operating system?” community.

One of the great evils of the help desk is hiring people with an insufficient degree of preparation, with the aim of reducing the salary budget. In many cases, finding a trained employee for a satisfactory response can take several phone calls or Internet contacts, depending on the case. Apparently, the reasoning of many companies is based on the idea that most customers do not have technical knowledge or that their problems they are generally basic, and that is why a generic answer is sufficient.