Are your IT Support requests scattered emails and ad hoc direct messages? Are your support agents bogged down with tier 1 issues? Are your agents bombarded with basic, repetitive questions? If your answer is an astounding yes to any of the above use cases, you have come to the right place.
In this blog, we’ll look at the pain points of email exchange and “Direct Messages” when providing IT Support, how self-service can help you break free from back and forth waiting, and how you can leverage HappyFox Assist AI in Slack to transform your IT Support practices.
Pain Points of IT Support over Emails & Ad Hoc DMs
While requesting technical support over email has been people’s first choice, email support systems have not been meeting the expectations. Studies show that over 62% of support messages get lost due to sheer volume. And if Support teams do respond by email, they do not respond quickly enough.
A large and Unmanageable Influx of Email and Support Requests
In today’s day and age, the concept of empty inboxes seems like a dystopian future. Email tech support can require an endless chain of CCs and FWDs. These CCs and FWDs soon add up, and your agents’ inbox can get chaotic real fast. Even with a powerful communication tool like Slack, Support agents can be decelerated by individual unstructured direct messages and slack notifications.
Hindered Cross-collaboration within departments and teams
Collaboration can get tricky when it comes to emails and DMs. Employees with IT Support needs have no visibility into their requests, and neither do the agent managers have any idea what someone is working on at any given time. The continuous cycle of follow-up is tiresome not just for the support team members but also employees.
Answering Repetitive Questions
A common grievance amongst IT teams is that they find themselves answering the same questions over and over. Sure, these easy and low-value queries may not take a lot of time, but it definitely adds up, and soon the agents’ productivity hits rock bottom.
Lack of insight into performance goals
Another common pain point amongst IT Support managers is that they cannot track their agents’ performance goals over an email exchange. Personal messages, ad hoc emails, or going to the IT support’s desk to fix something ends up leaving absolutely no trail. This means there is no way to report on those tasks.
Ineffective use of IT/technology
These days, the adoption of IT is indispensable. Success in modernizing IT requires people to use the emerging technology and products actively and be its brand ambassadors. When people opt for traditional methods of seeking support through emails, they are losing the opportunity to learn a newer, better, faster, more comprehensive, and efficient system.
Benefits of IT Self-Service Through HappyFox Assist AI
Created with an idea for people to communicate within groups and in personal one-on-one discussions (corporate Direct Messaging or simply “DM”s), HappyFox Assist AI combines and harnesses the power of communication platforms like Slack and artificial intelligence.
Assist AI is an AI-powered self-service and Conversational Ticketing solution available for Slack. With the ability to connect your ticketing system and Knowledge Base, Assist AI – Slack integration aims to empower your employees with self-service, reduce ticket volume, increase agent productivity, and employee engagement. Let’s look at some of the main benefits of adopting Assist AI.
Increased Ticket Deflections
Self-service allows employees to access help without much agent intervention. Assist AI uses Natural Language Processing (NLP) to converse with humans in natural language, allowing live human agents to focus on bigger and more complex issues. When you multiply these deflections over time, you see hundreds and hundreds of tier-1 support tickets deflected, allowing your agents not to waste time on the low-hanging fruit. With a 40-60% deflection, you are looking at decreased operational costs and improved employee experience.
Improved Agent Productivity with reduced interruptions
With a dedicated public and private channel that allows visitors to get help quickly from admin-owned FAQs, your support agents can focus on more complex and vital tasks, utilizing your agent’s precious time better and improving team communication. With Assist AI, agents can respond directly in Slack. Less context-switching leads to improved agent productivity and CSAT score.
Create a Ticket from any Message
Each conversation, every message trail from Slack workspace can be a ticket in your HappyFox or Zendesk Helpdesk software. Now you know precisely what “DM”s are related to tech support, resulting in improved business process compliance. With Assist AI, turning a real-time message in your slack channel into a new ticket is as simple as adding an emoji 🎫
Constantly Evolving
Using Machine Learning and a robust feedback mechanism, Assist AI learns and adapts from every feedback and every user conversation. This enables Assist AI to grow and evolve to answer queries more efficiently and accurately with every end-user interaction and iteration.
24×7 Availability
Your agents need breaks. But self-service portals don’t. Assist AI doesn’t. Available round the clock, Assist AI is ready to serve employees at all times. No matter what time zone your employees are in, real-time ticket notifications and answers, these AI-backed digital agents can offer their employees 24×7 support without increasing the staff headcount.
Report and Improve
Since every user interaction with Assist AI is a recorded audit trail, you never have to worry about lost data. This audit trail gives managers to dive deeper into their agents’ conversations and to report and improve on their performance.
Promote a culture of Self-reliance and policy adherence within your organization
It is rightly said, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime!”. Promoting a self-reliance culture enables and empowers your employees to not depend on the IT support team for trivial issues. It encourages them to find answers on their own and leverage the truly built systems for them.
Conclusion
As the 21st-century workplace continues to evolve, so does the need for something more manageable. That is why Self Service is considered a lifesaver when it comes to IT support. Because today’s employees demand convenience, providing them with a self-service portal has proven to save time for agents and accelerate overall employee productivity.
With the paradigm shift in the way we work and collaborate, communication software like Slack and Microsoft Teams has proven to be a blessing. If your team is looking for ways to reduce ad-hoc IT support messages and improve business performance, speak to one of our product specialists today to get a personal tour of Assist AI.
