FREEDOM FROM HELP DESK DEPENDENCY
“It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.” – Upton Sinclair.
What if your business could significantly reduce its Tier-1 ticket load while increasing overall customer satisfaction? How much would that impact your margin? We’re looking to talk with MSPs and IT Teams about a self-help tool that we created as an internal tool to reduce the volume from some of our biggest Help Desk clients.
My IT support journey started in the mid-2000s when I worked for an IT Managed Services Provider in Boston, MA. It was an exciting time to adopt tools like Kaseya and ConnectWise to manage over a thousand end-users. The business grew exponentially as the model became adopted by companies worldwide. Later, tools like Datto RMM and AutoTask did the job for thousands of Providers, but they failed to drive efficacy with the front-line by empowering the end-users.
IT Providers get so caught up in these tools’ perceived power that they don’t see how they make users Help Desk dependent. Users want fast, actionable answers, not phone numbers or external providers who retain all power and knowledge in distant portals spread out all over the digital realm.
Dreaming beyond RMM
Nowadays, there’s CentraStage, Kaseya, Atera, Pulseway, NinjaRMM, SolarWinds, and many other carbon copy tools in the market. At this point, adding another tool would be highly redundant. You’ve seen consolidation with companies like Connectwise, Datto, and others buying up products left and right. The question is, what’s next? How is any of this bringing the answers closer to the end-user?
Aside from prevention, how are these tools driving end-user, front-line efficacy? Or…how do you get people to stop calling you with stupid questions? It’s REALLY cool that you can run a script to repair Office, but why can’t they kick it off without calling you in the first place? You’re supposed to be in a proactive business model that’s always searching for better ways to do things.
Lost in translation
With so many benefits of the Provider’s tool, it was hard to tell clients what it did for the users! We could push almost any program to a desktop with a click or two; all they had to do was ask us first. Their employees often fumbled to locate the IT processes, loathed tickets by email, and made very little use of ‘self-service’ portals. We could send them Knowledge Base articles, but they had to ask for them. It was the same for most scenarios.
We could help, but you had to stop what you were doing, pick up the phone, and ask Tier-1. These users were Help Desk dependent, and our business flourished by enabling us to do more with our shiny tools. Meanwhile, end-users accomplished very little without engaging the IT Team. Why didn’t they have more power to act?
We began to ask ourselves, why does Self-Help have to be both served and consumed in the cloud? Why can’t it be integrated into a desktop interface for better context with fewer barriers? Need a link? Application? Set of Instructions? KB Article? A few clicks, a few answers, and your users are back on the grind out of escalation mode.
Did these other vendors miss the boat?
Kaseya’s website indicates that it can help you “serve your customers more effectively.” But, what about letting customers serve themselves? You can “drive customer satisfaction by preventing problems before they arise.” Great. But, how does it help them when the problems do arise? Also, you’ll be able to “Stop spending time on repetitive, manual tasks.” But, what if users want to spend less time calling you or opening tickets for the same kind of repetitive Tier-1 questions?
Or do we have a faster boat?
If you want to “Maximize your efficiency” as they say, picture a world where end-users are empowered to:
- Engage with a customized Troubleshooting Wizard that’s made specifically for their environment. These ‘playbooks’ are created by the Help Desk to map out common escalation paths and guide the user to problem resolution. This includes running a custom PowerShell/batch script, removing/reinstalling applications, visiting links, or viewing links to known IT articles after answering a few questions about the nature of the request.
- Access IT Documentation from cloud sources Sharepoint, IT Glue, Bloomfire, and a local documentation database right from the PC. Links to training material get grouped into categories. It’s a hit with onboarding!
- Install Trusted Applications from a library of tools without calling the Help Desk. Need a new version of Flash? Skype? Deploy Office? Set up a new PC? Click a button. No admin rights are needed!
- Verify Outages with the companies on-prem/cloud tools. A live Status Page helps the user understand if O365 is down or if it’s just them. This can be the difference between getting flooded with hundreds of calls vs. dozens. Hook right into StatusPage.io, or we’ll let you create one right in the portal.
- Manage Tickets from tools like Autotask, Connectwise, Service Now, and others right from the desktop. No fumbling for web portals, credentials, or ticket processes!
Full speed ahead Scotty
Desktop self-service occurs on a single pane of glass right on the managed agent: no logins, passwords, or barriers to entry. Users have the tool running in the system tray, hit F1, and immediately interact with IT.
You already trust the Desktop, so why create more barriers with distant web portals? How many of your clients have truly adopted these distant self-service portals? The reality is that they can’t remember the location, name, URL, or user/password of the process. So they pick up the phone and call you.
Instead, they can now fix it themselves. FixFinder makes it easy for them.
How FixFinder was born
The early versions of FixFinder focused on syncing documentation from Sharepoint and Bloomfire. We connected multiple repositories while maintaining a seamless end-user experience. Then we created capabilities for a Status Page, Ticketing, and Troubleshooting. Users can install applications, run scripts that repair Office, receive alerts for outages, and open tickets with IT Support—all from a single program.
Now, FixFinder is ready for companies all around the world. Our goal is to provide a self-help suite of products that create efficacies for both providers and end-users. Our tool’s ROI comes from its ability to integrate all of the tools a user needs to interact with its provider.
By creating a real front line at the user’s desktop, you can free up your 1st tier. Now, you work with users who meet you halfway after researching fixes in the self-help tool.
