How Telephone Integration benefits our Helpdesk

At DMS Navigator, we write and deliver computer solutions for dealerships to build consistent, integrated business processes, invoicing, stock control, accounting and more.

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It won't be too much surprise that we are also a strong user of technology to ensure that we deliver consistent high quality services to our users.

One of the most important tools we use is our Customer Service System - a product from Zendesk - which allows us to capture helpdesk tickets via a web portal, email and also by telephone.

We've used this tool for several years and it helps ensure that we are able to provide high quality support, and report on our Service Levels in detail.

Whilst a high level of tickets arriving were coming in by email or our web portal, there were still a high number of inbound telephone calls. We also have a policy of telephoning every customer once during the lifetime of a ticket - no matter how it arrived into the system.

When Zendesk receives an email or web portal ticket, it can match this automatically against the customer via the email address. Updates to a ticket are automatically added to the ticket and the Support Consultant is notified to review the reply.

However, when the phone rings, this could be an incoming call for a new ticket, a contact relating to an existing ticket or perhaps a follow up call to a previous ticket.

Our original helpdesk installation had no telephony integrated. This meant that when the phone rang, we had to go through a process of identifying the caller, finding out whether they wanted to create a new ticket or wanted to discuss an existing ticket and then often had to transfer the call to the correct Consultant. This is inefficient and isn't the best way to deliver customer service.

About 18 months ago, we installed the Zendesk virtual phone system. This is a phone system integrated into Zendesk which allows a headset to be plugged into the PC.

This has revolutionised the way we use the telephone in our Helpdesk. When the phone rings, if there is an open call for that customer, the call is routed automatically to the Support Consultant who is handling that call if they are available, and as the phone rings, the ticket details are displayed. If there is no open ticket, then the customer details and their historical tickets are displayed so they can be accessed or a new ticket created in a single click.

Even better, the call recording facility automatically saves the call record onto the ticket. We use this to Quality Assure sample calls and also it's useful to be able to listen back if we need to transfer the call to our Second line helpdesk.

Finally, from within a ticket, a Consultant can dial a customer by clicking a single button in a ticket.