Help Desk vs Technical Support: What is the Difference?

Help Desk vs Technical Support: What is the Difference?

In daily life, we are seeing people throw around the words help desk and technical support almost as if they are the same. However, did you know that there’s a sharp line of difference between the help desk and technical support?

In a business organization, both the IT help desk and technical support have an important role to play. While a help desk is more inclined towards addressing customer issues and requests and improving their experience, technical support aims to resolve issues faced by the customers.

An IT help desk is a central point of contact for customers regarding any issue related to the products or services of a company. It is focused on offering customers direct assistance which can be guidance or information that can help them solve their issues.

Technical support, on the other hand, focuses on offering support to customers on technical queries and problems. A tech support team primarily focuses on providing technical customer service.

Any issue reported by the customer that requires a high level of technical expertise and is beyond the capability of the help desk is escalated up to the tech support team. While it is not necessary for the help desk team to be technically sound, tech support professionals need to have sufficient technical knowledge.

In times when outsourced IT support services have become common, it is important for business organizations to understand the responsibilities of a help desk and a tech support team.

Difference Between Help Desk and Technical Support:

As already iterated, there are many differences between the help desk and technical support. Here is an elaboration of a few:

Different Goals:

Both the help desk support team and technical support team have different goals. As the IT help desk is usually the first point of contact for customers, it takes on a more customer-centric approach:

• The main goal here is to cater to the customer requirements and boost the customer satisfaction rate.
• Help desk executives take a more proactive approach to support and initiate communication with customers.
• They offer support for general issues and escalate technical issues to the tech support team.

The tech support team on the other hand aims to provide technical assistance to the customers. They must:

• Help customers resolve technical issues of products and services.
• Identify the root cause of technical problems and solve them as quickly as possible.
• Aim for success in the first-attempt resolution and the customers need not contact them again.

Different Approach While Interacting with Customers:

Both the help desk team and the tech support team have different approaches while interacting with customers:

• Help desk executives must listen to customers with empathy and prioritize them.
• They need to assure the customers that the team is there for them and that they matter to the company.
• Help desk agents usually do not fix an issue but recommend a possible solution to it.

Tech support agents are focused on taking the problems head-on. They aim to:

• Help customers fix the issue they are facing.
• Resolve the issue in a quick time.
• Find an accurate solution to the problem.

Different Perspectives:                                                       

IT helpdesk and tech support teams operate with different perspectives:

• IT helpdesk is designed to take a holistic approach to solve customer problems.
• Helpdesk agents have a broad knowledge of service-related matters.
• They need not have in-depth knowledge about their functioning.

The tech support team on the other hand tries to:

• Resolve issues using a target-specific approach.
• Offer specialized solutions for technical issues.

Importance of Help Desk:

• It handles issues that do not require deep technical assistance.
• It is the first point of contact for customers to businesses.
• Help desk agents take care of issues from the general category.
• An efficient help desk system improves the customer experience and reduces inconsistency while delivering customer service.

Importance of Technical Support:

• Anything that requires technical assistance or software-related support is handled by the tech support team.
• It stands different from a general help desk as it requires support professionals to possess in-depth knowledge which is crucial to assist.
• Tickets related to IT, hardware and software issues are handled.

Closing Thoughts:

Customer support will always be the top priority for businesses as it is the perception of customers and their reviews that can affect a business drastically in both the ways. So, the demand for an outsourced help desk and technical support company will keep on increasing.

If you are looking for an outsourced IT support service provider, we at Sapizon Technologies are an ideal choice. We are considered as one of the top IT support companies going around. Our team of support professionals possesses multi-domain expertise and the essential skillset to deliver quality services.