Entry Software Corporation

Entry

Blog

5 Reasons Why Your Small Business Needs Customer Tracking Software

by

It’s time you retired your old paper system of managing your customer information or manually inputting everything on a spreadsheet. Perhaps the hesitation to transition to customer tracking software has to do with the fear of it costing too much. However, when you consider the benefits, you will recognize why utilizing customer tracking software will not only save you money in the long run but also help you nurture customer relationships and increase sales. With customer tracking software, you’ll be able to collect valuable customer feedback, prioritize the most important requests, track your team’s productivity, and gain a better understanding of your business. Here are five reasons why your small business would benefit from customer tracking software:

1.    Centralization of Your Customer Support Requests & Questions

Customer tracking software keeps you and your team well-organized by having a centralized location for all your customer information. With customer tracking software, everything your team needs to know to respond to a customer’s inquiry is in one place. You no longer have to CC anyone on an email or search through threads looking for answers. This will save you and your team a great deal of time, particularly if answering customer questions takes up a good portion of your day. This also ensures that nothing falls through the cracks.

2.    Customers Can Track Open Issues

The last thing you want to do is make an already frustrated customer even angrier by making them wait for a response. What will only worsen the situation is if the people on your team don’t know whether or not the message has even been read or responded to. Because customer tracking software lets you update the status of a case, your clients don’t have to wait in the dark or worse, feel ignored. Solutions like TeamHeadquarters have an integrated Customer Self-Service Portal enables customers to create tickets, attach documents and prepare updates as they also maintain a tight line of communications with the service staff. If you have a large staff that is dedicated to handling customer inquiries and issues, you’ll want to track their progress to ensure their productivity. While there are several methods to do so, customer tracking software has a productivity tracking feature that allows team members to enter notes about their progress on specific issues.

4.    Prioritize the Most Important Requests

Frustrated employees who may feel overwhelmed by too many issues will inevitably drop the ball which could lead to tickets getting lost, ignored or forgotten. With customer tracking software, you can prioritize your workflow so that the most time-sensitive cases are handled first, and cases that can wait will have a lower priority assigned. Employees will avoid getting inundated because they will know which ones to prioritize.

5.    Improved Collaboration

Collaboration can be challenging when email is the primary channel used for communication. The right customer tracking software will allow your staff to work with one another more harmoniously, resulting in a stronger team that is quicker to respond to your customers’ inquiries and concerns. To test which customer tracking software is right for you, try an all-in-one solution like TeamHeadquarters which is all about managing All Work in a unified simple-to-use application. Click here for a free demo.

5 Reasons to Switch to Cloud-based Help Desk Solution

by


Many companies who aren’t yet on the cloud are already considering making the move. This isn’t because it is the latest trend and everyone is simply jumping on the bandwagon. Companies are making the transition because they are recognizing the many benefits of migrating to a cloud-based help desk solution.

[Read more…] about 5 Reasons to Switch to Cloud-based Help Desk Solution

Hiring a Help Desk Technician

by

 

Finding the right people is critical when you need to fill IT customer support and help desk positions. Only someone who is knowledgeable and skilled will be capable of interacting with both your customers and your internal team. 

Here are some tips for hiring the right help desk technician for your organization:

An Accurate and Specific Job Description

To attract the right candidate, you need to be specific about the job requirements such as skills, experience, and education. It’s tempting to list higher levels of experience and training, but you risk losing out on interviewing prospects who may have an adequate amount of talent yet don’t meet your exaggerated criteria.

On the other hand, lowering your standards too much may mean having too many people apply for the position. To avoid this, create a job description with requirements that are somewhere in the middle and realistic to what your organization’s actual needs are. Remember that those who come with the highest levels of experience and education will also be the ones who demand the biggest salaries.

Key Responsibilities

The following are the basic requirements of help desk technicians. Anything more that you add to your job description will be unique to the needs of your organization and be focused more on company culture.

  • Provide technical assistance and support for incoming queries and issues related to software, hardware, and computer systems
  • Respond to customer queries over the phone or via email
  • Performing remote troubleshooting through diagnostic techniques and relevant questions
  • Determining the suitable solution based on the concern and details provided by customers
  • Walk the customer through the problem-solving process
  • Provide specific information on IT products or services
  • Record events, problems, and resolution in logs
  • Follow-up and update the customer regarding status and information when needed

Education, Experience, and Training

  • Bachelor’s degree (preferred) unless adequate training and experience will suffice
  • Working knowledge of fundamental operations of relevant software, hardware, and other equipment
  • Knowledge of relevant call tracking applications
  • Experienced in customer service practices
  • Trained in troubleshooting and providing help desk support

Interview Tips

When hiring the right help desk technician, pay particular attention to their communication skills. They may have all the technical education and experience but lack in communication skills. Because they will have direct contact with your customers, they need to communicate effectively to understand the problem and explain the solution whether over the phone or via email.

Help desk technicians should be customer-oriented and patient enough to deal with the most demanding customers. The right candidate must be able to prove their problem-solving skills, have attention to detail, and be a team player.

When hiring the right help desk technician for your organization, look for someone who meets the technical criteria and use your interview skills and trust your gut when it comes to determining if they have the right attitude for customer support.

TeamHeadquarters service and help desk provide your IT services team with a secure, role-managed ticketing system that includes an easy-to-use, responsive interface. The help desk technician you hire will perform at their best to provide excellent service to your customers and your internal team when they have a reliable system in place.

For a free demo of TeamHeadquarters, click here.

The Roles and Responsibilities of Project Management

by

The project manager is responsible and accountable for the delivery of the project. As the individual responsible for delivery, they must have an excellent business mindset and be highly skilled in project management.

There are eight fundamental project manager roles and responsibilities:

1.    Planning of Activities and Resources

Most projects fail because of poor time management. Proper planning is necessary for completing any project on-time. The first thing a project manager needs to do is define the project and prepare available resources.

The project manager should create a clear document to use as a guide for project execution and control. Because projects can be unpredictable, the project manager should be prepared for potential setbacks and be able to adjust the plan accordingly.

2.    Organize and Motivate the Project Team

A good project manager focuses the efforts of their teams. They are in charge of developing a plan that will support the team in reaching their individual goals and ultimately achieve the project goals. They guide the team members, monitor their progress, motivate and coach them.

3.    Strong Time Management Skills

Whether a project has succeeded or failed depends largely on whether it was delivered on time. On-time completion of the project is essential to success. A project manager should be able to estimate achievable deadlines based on resources and effectively communicate schedules to their team.

4.    Estimate Cost and Budget Plan

A project manager’s goal is to ensure that the project is closed within budget. A good project manager will regularly review the budget plan and estimate to avoid budget overruns. A project that has gone over-budget is often considered a failure.

5.    Ensure Client Satisfaction

A project’s success relies a great deal on client satisfaction. Every project manager sets out to minimize any setbacks and will want to avoid involving their client unless absolutely necessary. However, it is still essential to maintain regularly scheduled communication to keep the client in the loop.

6.    Identify and Manage Potential Risks

The more complex a project is, the more likely the project manager is to face complications and threats that don’t fit into the initial plan. The project manager should recognize and evaluate the potential risks and develop suitable strategies on how to either minimize their impact on the entire project or avoid the risks entirely.

Related to:
4 Key Project Leadership Responsibilities Part 1
4 Key Project Leadership Responsibilities Pat 2

7.    Monitor Progress

The goal for every team is that the project will go smoothly and without incident. However, if things don’t go according to the plan, the project manager needs to manage and analyze the team as individuals and as a whole and take necessary corrective measures.

8.    Manage and Document Reports

An experienced project manager should keep good documentation of the project. Project development relies on project documentation so there is a record of the project, those involved, development, budget, timeline and any corrective measures that may have taken place.

Because planning, organizing, leading, and controlling are crucial aspects of project management, the most successful project managers rely on project management software. With solutions like TeamHeadquarters, project managers can, for the first time, see a full picture of resource availability across all work (not just projects) and trends before they assign them to tasks.

The results are better projects, more productive teams, and happier customers.

If your organization is looking for the best project management software to complement the efforts of your project managers, click here for your free demo.