Service Desk vs. Help Desk

Understanding the difference between a service desk and a help desk can help your nursing home or senior living center find better ways to support customers and clients. Whether you want to provide support with IT issues or fix an immediate problem for a client, reaching out to customers effectively can make a big difference. Learn the similarities and differences between service and help desks and why you might choose either option for your business. 

What is a Service Desk?

A service desk provides support for any of your facility’s IT issues. A service desk acts as a singular contact point for both the user and the service provider. 

The service desk handles many different processes including — password resets, answering functionality questions, updating subscriptions and tracking feature requests. By engaging in various IT functions like incident, knowledge and service request management, reporting and self-service, a service desk keeps IT team members accountable for their support. The goal is to provide timely service with fast response times and appropriate concern for the customer’s issue. 

What is a Help Desk?

A help desk diagnoses common problems and fixes immediate issues such as — IT problems, slow software, glitches, black screens or connection issues. Help desk services support problems that can be solved quickly and easily. 

A help desk allows IT members to respond on a case-by-case basis and submit issue requests for problems that can’t immediately be solved. Help desks are internal contact points for any technical issues within the senior living facility. 

Importance of Service and Help Desks

Service and help desks help senior living facilities in many ways. Here are a few reasons service and help desks 

• Decision-making: Help and service desks give helpful tools to IT professionals for resolving problems and answering questions.
• Satisfaction: Both tools improve end user satisfaction by meeting specific technology needs. 
• Time: Service and help desks save time by centralizing all technological and facility IT information in one platform. The workspace is streamlined, and team members can answer questions quickly and efficiently. 
• Collaboration:
• Self-service:
• Automation: Service and help desks eliminate the need for manual tasks by automating services and processes. You can spend less time on paper filing or writing and more time on essential IT support. 

4. Collaboration

• Help desks and service desks improve collaboration within an organization. For example, these tools make it easy to keep track of requests and conversations on a unified platform. When everyone can access data in one place, it encourages teams to share information and collaborate.

5. Self-Service

• Service and help desks empower end users to utilize self-service via a help center that contains informational articles and FAQ pages. The tools can also support employees with chatbots that can surface the most relevant help center content.

6. Automation

• Eliminating manual tasks with automated customer service is another big benefit of help desks and service desks. These tools allow you to automate certain processes for your team, enabling them to spend less time on menial tasks and provide quicker support.

Differences Between Service and Help Desks

Many nursing homes or senior living centers wonder about the differences between service and help desks. Why choose one or the other? The main difference lies in the desk’s purpose and who it supports. 

For example, service desks are a place where employees can find information when an IT issue needs resolving. Service desks support company technology with relevant information.

In comparison, help desks answer questions for both employees and customers. Help desks provide IT solutions during outages or resolve end-user problems.

Similarities Between Service and Help Desks

While service and help desks have many distinct differences, they also share similarities in helping resolve technological issues. Some similarities between service and help desks include the following:

• Manual task elimination: Service and help desks eliminate the need for manual tasks through online platforms. They increase efficiency by eliminating the need for physical paper filing, mailing or handwriting of information. 
• Data-based decisions: Service and help desks help employees make technological decisions based on data and analytics rather than guesswork. Data-based decisions increase company credibility. 
• Self-service: Most of the features of the service and help desk come with self-service abilities, making it easy for employees and clients to handle.
• Streamlined collaboration: Service and help desks save user time through organized and efficient collaboration between users and the company.
• Quick support: The faster a service or help desk can solve an IT problem, the more satisfied users will be.
• Improved satisfaction: Both service and help desks improve satisfaction by answering questions and resolving issues.

What To Look For When Choosing Between Service and Help Desks

When choosing between a service and a help desk, you might want to consider a few features. Prioritize what features you need and which ones are optional. Here are a few things to keep in mind.

Automated Chats

Many senior living or nursing homes might want to keep up with the number of questions about their technology. To increase response times, consider finding a service or help desk with the addition of Automated chatbots. Chat technology offers 24/7 support and resolves low-priority items so your IT team can focus on larger issues.

Online Knowledge Bases

A knowledge base is an online library with information about the technology, services and departments within your company. Consider whether or not you want to include a knowledge base with your help and service desk tools. It might help you increase credibility with clients and create a space where employees can easily access company information. The knowledge base often includes articles, user guides, FAQ sections and informative articles related to your technology.

Reporting and Analytics

Reporting and analytic capabilities help your company understand the quality of your current IT support system. Reports allow you to see inside customer service practices through tangible metrics and numbers. You can see where you have room for improvement, or where you are succeeding. For example, some nursing homes might want to check for busy hours, average response times, staff CSAT ratings or resolution times. The more you check on your reports the more you can improve your IT processes.

Community Forums

Some service and help desks might include community forums where clients can find answers to questions from other users. If the issue is common, it might be helpful to post client resolutions so you can reduce response time. Community forums can be placed internally and externally. Internal forums create a space where employees can ask questions about the senior home’s current technology. External forums allow employees and customers to ask questions about common nursing home technology issues. 

Find Reliable IT Support From Prelude Services

At Prelude Services we offer reliable IT planning, security, support and management services to healthcare providers. Whether you work in a senior living facility, with long-term care homes or in an affordable housing community, our services can help you secure your IT software and improve data security. Many of those who work with seniors need to protect important and private information. Prelude Services can manage your information technology needs and provide support where you need it most. Contact us today to speak to a representative!