You’ve probably heard the term customers service desk or help desk but might not know what their key differences are. In this article, we’ll help you clear up any confusion by listing the key features of each term, as well as explaining why companies need both types of desks for today’s evolving technology landscape.

Without further ado, here are the differences between a help desk and a service desk.

Difference Between Help Desk and Service Desk (Quick Take)

Help desks and service desks may sound similar, but they serve two very different purposes. 84% of consumers are prepared to pay more for excellent service. This is where a help desk comes in.

A help desk is more of a corporate communications tool, while the purpose of a service desk is to provide technical support to users — engage when they need it, but not constantly. Help desks assist users of a company’s product or service, while service desks give technical support to users.

A help desk is thought of as a corporate communications tool or customer service tool used to handle incidents and problems that involve multiple users, but the name has morphed into a catch-all term for any kind of problem that involves people.

Many times you’ll hear users described as “having an issue” or a “problem,” which is often considered an issue that can be handled by a help desk.

A service desk helps users with specific issues or problems related to their product, software, hardware, and technology. It assigns the user to a technician who will have the ability to solve their problem quickly, efficiently, and effectively.

Essentially, help desks are geared towards solving everyday user problems that are usually much more common and general.

Meanwhile, service desks are reserved for solving more complex and specific issues for end users that arise such as requests for new services.

Difference Between Help Desk and Service Desk (In Detail)

Now that you’re familiar with the differences between help desks and service desks, let’s explore each of these differences in more depth:

• ITIL is a best practice framework for ITSM that was created to promote the notion of “management information technology as a service.” The service desk emerged from the IT help desk and was built on the premise of “managing information technology as a service.”
• The help desk was born from IT centricity (mainframe computing), but the services desk was born from IT service centricity (cloud computing).
• Many may argue that a help desk assists, while a service desk delivers service, i.e. that with a service desk, the emphasis is on providing a service to end-users while maintaining some form of customer support.
• A help desk handles break-fix (ITIL calls this problem management), whereas a service desk handles service requests (new service requests) and information inquiries (such as “how do I do X?”). There is no reason why a support desk cannot provide these additional services (other than keeping up with trends in information technology trends).
• A help desk was an add-on to current IT operations, but a service desk is part of the system designed around “the service lifecycle.” That’s probably why ITIL uses a service desk instead of a help desk.
• According to individuals who are familiar with ITIL terminology, a help desk is tactical, but a service desk is strategic. This will, of course, differ from one organization to the next.
• Some may consider a help desk to be a subset of service desk capabilities or its scope to be limited by phrases like “the transition of help desk to the service desk.”

Of course, a help desk is a service desk, and businesses may call its IT support capability anything they like. According to history, they were extensively used interchangeably throughout the 2000s. However, keep in mind that the majority of “service desks” are ITIL-based help desks.

What Is a Help Desk?

A help desk is a person, team, or external service that an IT user contacts for assistance with an issue. When it comes to the help desk, it might be as simple as a desk at which someone answers the phone.

Alternatively, it might be a global organization that gets aid requests from all around the world by online or in-person submissions. It is usual practice to outsource the operation of the support desk to a professional.

In most organizations, users are referred to as “customers.” Customers can use a call center to make purchases, track shipments, or get help with things, for example.

What Is a Service Desk?

A service desk is defined as a single point of contact between users and a service provider, and it generally handles everything from requests to problem resolution.

ITSM operations are typically integrated by service desks. A service desk, for example, frequently manages service requests, incidents, knowledge, self-service, and reporting. Methods for problem and change management are typically intertwined.

An IT service desk assists clients with issue resolution or service request management by providing data on the team and tool efficacy. Service desks might be larger or smaller, but they must be robust, service-focused, and customer-centric.

Uses of a Help Desk

A help desk’s primary purpose is to minimize the length of time that IT services and operations are unavailable, allowing them to be available for much longer periods of time.

These systems are built with the end-user in mind, ensuring that technical issues and customer problems are addressed and resolved as soon as feasible. Issues may also be easily prioritized by category, allowing IT personnel to work on many projects at once.

When appropriate, a help desk might design tickets to capture more detailed data and categorize problems for easier retrieval and reference. Based on the examination of the tickets, such systems can automatically assign worries to them.

These can be assigned to suitable staff members who may have greater expertise in dealing with certain difficulties than others.

Uses of a Service Desk

Taking a broad approach to information technology management, service desks are responsible for establishing, implementing, and monitoring the organization’s (or multiple organizations’) technology strategies, as well as addressing business technology needs within their own purview to make sure that the business processes run as smoothly and technologically soundly as possible.

While a standard help desk may answer inquiries about products and services, a service desk can also handle a broader variety of technology-related duties, such as the following:

• Engagement in asset management is likely to involve techniques for asset discovery as well as the integration of a configuration management system with the asset management system (CMDB).
• Ensure compliance with service level agreements (SLAs) across all enterprises within its scope.
• Managing critical ITSM duties, such as organizational change management, configuration management, and other related tasks — in order to ensure the continuing progress of technology use inside the business is a top priority.
• Serving as the single point of contact for all information technology functions inside a company. This might involve engagement with other departments within an organization as well as interactions with end-users.
• The management of an entry-level ticketing management system.

Features of a Help Desk

There are three essential elements that most help desk practices and systems share: communication channels, ticket administration, and reporting and analytics.

But how exactly does a support desk software program function? It is dependent on the number of features it provides and the number of consumers that will utilize it.

The following are the most critical characteristics of support desk software:

* Point of Contact - This feature allows consumers to contact you. Call, mail, chats, social media, self-service, and community are some examples. Multi-channel systems vary in their availability. * Escalation - The best help desk ticketing systems allow operators to escalate problematic tickets to higher-ups. So, rather than escalating the ticket further up, a smart escalation empowers supervisors to handle issues within their jurisdiction. This speeds up the resolution and keeps busy managers happy. * Automation - The program automates monotonous, predictable, or normal processes like answering client inquiries and generating daily reports. Automation may do anything from convert emails to tickets to assigning them to the relevant people. Tickets pending or resolved are also reported to management. * Dashboard - An excellent dashboard displays the most important information at first look. Calls and tickets might be pending, urgent, or brand new. Supervisors and managers should be able to examine weekly or monthly resolution rates in addition to agent performance. * Customer Satisfaction Surveys - This is closely related to analytics, but with the express objective of linking consumer satisfaction to sales trends. Use the tool to see whether the number of complaints is connected to the trajectory of your sales.

Features of a Service Desk

IT service desks serve a variety of functions inside a company, necessitating the development of a variety of applications that go beyond typical technical assistance and administration.

As a result, IT service desk technology is likely to offer the following key features in a help desk software:

* Managing Tickets - Allows for the automatic prioritizing, assignment, and monitoring of events and concerns that are reported through a variety of channels, resulting in quicker resolution. * Managing SLAs - It assists in prioritizing tickets based on service level agreements (SLAs) and determining if escalation or timelines should be used to create management rules. * Knowledge Base and Customer Support - Building a self-service database of information, FAQs, and guidelines will speed up issue response. IT users with typical questions and concerns are referred to the knowledge base. * Full-Service Catalog - A centralized place that provides information about the services provided to different business units. A form is also available in the catalog, via which consumers may file a ticket.

Which Software Are Used for Help Desk

There are multiple help desk software and tools on the market. Here, we’ve listed some of the best options:

* Zoho Desk - This software is a good choice for growing firms that need to keep their customers delighted. The only drawback is the high learning curve required to get started, which detracts from an otherwise amazing set of features and cheap cost. * Freshdesk - When it comes to helping desk solutions for small and medium-sized businesses, Freshdesk is the gold standard. Editors’ Choice is a no-brainer thanks to many price options and a consistent user experience. * Halo ITSM - Businesses may acquire an ITIL-compliant help desk with all of the functionality they want and more with HaloITSM. It also includes a long list of integrations and is reasonably priced. * HappyFox - With Slack and Microsoft Teams connectivity, HappyFox has become one of the greatest ticket management systems we’ve encountered. * Vivantio - Best in Show awardee For ITIL-compliant service desks, Vivantio sets the bar high. This is a solution that is worth looking at due to its high level of functionality and low cost.

Which Software Are Used for Service Desk

Service desk tools are a dime a dozen. To help you make the best choices, we’ve wrapped up the best choices below:

* Atlassian JIRA - Atlassian’s main product, JIRA IT Service Management, is a cloud-based service desk software for development, IT, HR, legal, and other internal support teams. Integrations with knowledge management and tickets through discussion are also possible. You must have a Confluence subscription to use the knowledge base integration. * Help Scout - While Help Scout’s service desk software is capable of supporting 500+ agents, it is also suitable for small enterprises. Help Scout is a good service desk alternative with native knowledge bases, extensive reporting, ticket management, and plenty of connectors. * Zendesk - Zendesk is a powerful help desk software that also functions as a full — desk. Zendesk is proud of not claiming ITIL conformance. We are ITIL natives and would never design a service desk management solution that did not empower ITIL service teams. * Vision Helpdesk - Vision Helpdesk service desk software enables your support staff to organize, schedule, and deliver services to your customers at your convenience. Transformation, safety, and managed services are just a few of the service desk tasks that have been automated. * Salesforce CRM - Salesforce, it turns out, provides a robust service desk software platform in addition to their CRM. The Salesforce Service Cloud includes native productivity tools, an omnichannel dashboard, and a centralized view of customer interactions and issues.

Cost of Help Desk Software

A good help desk software will cost you roughly $82/month + $14/agent. Businesses require satisfied customers. Customer satisfaction leads to repeat purchases. Customers that are dissatisfied with your products or services can be detrimental to your business, especially if they become public.

The increased volume raises consumer concerns. Your employees must be able to respond quickly to product issues and how-to questions. Customers can get in touch with you by email, phone, social media, or chat.

It is great to get help desk software that can easily fulfill your clients’ preferred form of communication. Fortunately, powerful omnichannel customer experience solutions are available.

Cost of Service Desk Software

To summarize, a professional service desk gets back what it puts in. Consider what features you’ll need and how many active support staff members you’ll need to determine costs.

A well-functioning service desk saves your firm time. Usually, time is money. That’s a positive thing if your help desk saves your team time.

Customers that are responsive spend 20-40% more money with companies who give excellent customer service. A social media reaction from your help desk is also a big plus. When asked what components are essential for total customer satisfaction, 82% responded a service desk and 44% indicated desktop support.

On average, service desk software costs more than help desk software. For example, if you choose JIRA, it should cost you around $172 a year.

Conclusion

When choosing the right help desk software and service desk software, you need to consider your needs. You don’t have to choose a solution that’s irrelevant to your business. Market research is vital for choosing the best service desk technology for all of your needs.

The mistake many business owners make is that they need assistance from technical professionals and then hire an expensive service desk employee who helps them with their IT problems.