Editing Help desk

{{Short description|Resource providing support for organization's products and services}}
{{for|Wikipedia's help desk|Wikipedia:Help desk|selfref=y}}
[[File:ITS Help Desk.jpg|thumb|A help desk at Penn State university]]
{{E-commerce}}
A '''help desk''' is a department or person that provides assistance and information, usually for electronic or computer problems.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/help%20desk|title=Help Desk|work=[[Merriam-Webster]].com Dictionary|date=16 November 2021}}</ref> In the mid-1990s, research by Iain Middleton of [[Robert Gordon University]]<ref>Middleton, I ''"Key Factors in Help Desk Success (An analysis of areas critical to help desk development and functionality.)"'' British Library R&D Report 6247, The British Library 1996</ref> studied the value of an organization's help desks. It found that value was derived not only from a reactive response to user issues, but also from the help desk's unique position of communicating daily with numerous customers or employees. Information gained in areas such as technical problems, user preferences, and satisfaction can be valuable for the planning and development work of other information technology units.

A main function of the help desk is to separate issues from defects. Many issues can be solved at the help desk level such as password resets and simple misunderstandings. Some issues will be the result of actual product defect which should be forwarded to a development team for resolution.

Large help desks have a person or team responsible for managing the incoming requests, called "issues"; they are commonly called queue managers or queue supervisors. The queue manager is responsible for the issue [[Queue area|queues]], which can be set up in various ways depending on the help desk size or structure. Typically, large help desks have several teams that are experienced in working on different issues. The queue manager will assign an issue to one of the specialized teams based on the type of issue raised. Some help desks may have telephone systems with [[Automatic call distributor|ACD splits]] ensuring that calls about specific topics are put through to analysts with the requisite experience or knowledge.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.calvin.edu/it/about/student_jobs/HelpDesk+Technician.pdf|title=Students – Information technology – Calvin College|website=Calvin College|access-date=23 March 2018}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Service desk]]
* [[Call center]]
* [[Customer service]]
* [[Comparison of issue-tracking systems]]
* [[Comparison of help desk issue tracking software]] 
* [[Technical support]]
* [[Help desk software]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Help Desk}}
[[Category:Help desk| ]]
[[Category:Computer telephony integration]]
[[Category:Customer service]] 
[[Category:Outsourcing]] 
[[Category:Telephony]]