10 AI Tricks to Revolutionize & Automate Help Desk Management

With customers demanding faster turnarounds and competitors exploiting marginal gains across a spectrum of areas, the ability to automate help desk management can be a decisive factor in standing out against the crowd. 

This is mainly due to the vast array of AI-driven help desk solutions on offer today. Managers who embrace AI tools for help desk management enjoy efficiency boosts across a range of processes and workflows that add up to make a big impact in the eyes of their customers. 

But even if you're unlikely to spend your weekends scanning tech forums for the latest breakthroughs, you can still boost your help desk management with AI solutions, and at Bitrix24, we're here to get you started. 

From automated chatbots and smart suggestions to sentiment analysis and predictive analytics, we're going to introduce you to a wealth of techniques and strategies that you can easily merge into your customer support workflows. So, if you're looking for more effective internal practices and happier customers, join us as we dive into our 10 AI tricks to revolutionize and automate help desk management. 

1. Chatbots online at all times: Streamline and expand your service

Automated chatbots have long been on the wish list of customer service managers and after a bumpy start, they're now an incredible use of AI for more efficient interactions. 

More than just digital assistants, chatbots automate help desks by acting as the first line of communication with your customers, giving immediate responses to their queries. While previous iterations of chatbots worked by offering multiple choice options to guide customers through pre-prepared workflows, AI advancements in help desk operations have introduced neuro-linguistic programming to provide a real-life conversation with your chatbot responding, adapting, and verifying customer requests in real-timereal time. Machine learning techniques program bots to continuously learn from interactions, training data, and user feedback to provide a more efficient user experience. 

Another important impact of automated chatbots is how they allow you to extend your help desk management to 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This round-the-clock availability significantly reduces wait times and enhances customer satisfaction — two crucial positive impacts of AI in customer support. As well as keeping your service running non-stop, automated chatbots can run a huge range of queries simultaneously, again reducing wait times while relieving pressure on your human staff. 

2. Automated ticket prioritization: Filter requests to reduce your workload

AI technology in service management has effectively removed the manual task of sorting, prioritizing, and routing your support tickets, cutting admin tasks out of your workflows and finding solutions for your customers more effectively. 

When you automate help desk platforms with AI ticketing, you introduce a level of intelligence and precision to ticket handling. Artificial intelligence accurately analyzes the content and context of each ticket far quicker than a human can, assessing and ranking the urgency of each issue. These kinds of innovative AI help desk strategies not only accelerate but also enhance your decision-making process. 

By offsetting the human work involved in these mundane and repetitive (but essential!) tasks, you free staff up to concentrate on the human side of your help desk. Whether dealing with internal tech requests or customer service requests, efficiency is paramount, so the more elements you can leave to trusted algorithms, the better.

3. Easy-access knowledge bases: Empower customers with information

Knowledge bases have long been a useful strategy for allowing users to find answers to their queries. When designed well, help desks provide the double benefits of solving problems quickly and requiring zero real-time effort from your team. 

Implementing AI in help desk systems turbocharges your knowledge base, transforming them from static repositories of information into dynamic, interactive platforms. With autofill search bars, additional recommended solutions, and personalized assistance, knowledge bases become far more effective in answering specific user questions. 

This is largely due to advances in machine learning. Rather than creating a knowledge base and updating it periodically, machine learning technology makes constant adjustments based on user behavior. For example, if there is a surge in traffic for a certain article, the knowledge base can place it on the homepage and alert the product team that there might be a fault. 

For organizations aiming to automate help desks with AI, implementing self-service knowledge bases is a strategic move that fosters customer autonomy, while ensuring that support agents are more available to handle complex issues that require human intervention. Striking the balance between automated and human support is a cornerstone of effective AI-driven help desk solutions, making self-service knowledge bases an essential tool in modern customer support strategies.

4. Sentiment analysis: Implement emotional intelligence in your customer support

Now we’re entering the sci-fi sphere of enhancing help desk efficiency with AI. Sentiment analysis is a form of artificial intelligence that focuses less on what you’re providing and more on how you’re providing it. 

It’s important to remember that while you’re adopting AI advancements in help desk operations, your users are still human. And for those humans, there are few things more frustrating than wooden responses that don’t take their grievances into account. 

Sentiment analysis allows you to automate help desk processes by detecting and analyzing the emotional tone in customer interactions. Based on tried-and-tested best practices as well as on insights learned through machine learning, you can use AI in customer support to respond in a more empathetic way. 

Outside of AI-generated responses, sentiment analysis can also flag up particularly unhappy customers, allowing your team to focus more resources on them. Well-timed discounts and guarantees can quickly defuse a tense situation, and early warning signs put you in the best position for effective intervention. 

5. Instant agent routing: Get your customers to the right person in no time

We’ve all been on the receiving end of poorly designed customer service routing. You bounce from one unhelpful agent to another with lengthy gaps of tinny, repetitive music in between, losing hope and patience every minute. 

To combat this pain point, companies that enhance their help desk management with AI offer a far more effective service by immediately directing customer queries to the most suitable agent based on their expertise and availability. If the right agent has marked themselves as unavailable on their calendar, the task passes to the next best person. 

Smart assignment is a fully customizable art. Depending on your business, you can prioritize skill sets, language proficiency, or even whether an agent has interacted with the customer in the past. However you choose to automate help desk workflows, the result is the same: Your users find solutions more quickly and your team focuses on what it’s supposed to do, rather than the inefficient work of transferring calls around the office.

6. Smart suggestions and recommendations: Offer proactive support based on past interactions

Search engines have been using smart suggestions and recommendations for years now, and the same technology is being used to automate help desk operations. By enhancing help desk efficiency with AI suggestions and recommendations, you achieve the overall goal of increasing the speed and accuracy of responses, ensuring your users get the most effective solution as quickly as possible. 

The algorithms behind smart suggestions work on comprehensive data sets to identify exactly what the query is asking and what the best solution is. For example, AI technology in service management can diagnose that a fuse has blown on a customer’s plug, and immediately link to a page to buy a new one. 

During live interactions on a chatbot, AI systems can suggest pages from your knowledge base, rather than immediately adding another ticket to your team’s workload. Program your chatbot to ask users whether their suggestion was helpful, and over time, the technology will become increasingly accurate. 

7. Language localization: Automate help desk functions in your user’s tongue

Despite laughable results when they were first launched, automated translations have now become an expected element of modern products, services, and subscriptions. By automating your help desk with AI, you don’t need to pay a team to translate every word of your e-commerce platform whenever you update your inventory. Instead, integrated translation tools allow your users to choose whichever language they feel most comfortable in and instantly get a near-perfect localization of your page. 

Most of the big names from the tech world offer real-time multilingual chatbots to their international audience. Even if you’re still a small business working on a local level, this low-investment use of AI for improved customer service removes blockers from your customer journey and prepares you for a more global reach. 

8. Real-time analytics and forecasting: Anticipating customer needs and preparing solutions

If your mission is to automate help desk operations, cutting time out of your analytics and forecasting should be high on your priority list. As a case in point, in the run-up to busy times of the year, you can immediately access the previous year’s activity and predict how much inventory to stock or how many extra hands you’ll need in your customer service center. 

Drawing on data from your customer relationship management (CRM) system, you can monitor purchase history to predict when each individual may need a new batch of your product. For example, if you sell coffee and a customer orders a bag every two weeks, you can send an automated, but personalized email reminder four days before they would normally buy. 

Although it relies heavily on non-human algorithms, implementing AI in help desk systems can paradoxically provide a more personal user experience. With real-time analytics and forecasting, you essentially create an ultra-observant, thoughtful personal assistant who wants to make sure your customers always have what they need when they need it. 

9. Voice recognition: Offering new channels for user interactions

Just as chatbots provide a new outlet for your customer service platform, voice recognition is now at a stage where you can confidently rely on it to streamline a series of processes. 

Most obviously, automating your help desk with AI-powered voice recognition gives a more convenient and accessible communication option. Many users find typing difficult for a wide variety of reasons, while others prefer to make their customer service calls when they’re driving. A hands-free alternative is among the most simple but effective AI tools for help desk management. 

Sure, humans have traditionally been on the company side of customer service phone lines, with each agent limited to a single call at a time. But when you automate help desk operations with AI voice recognition, you can handle multiple calls at the same time, offering empathetic support, suggesting solutions, and recording all the interactions in your CRM. 

10. Personalized responses: Tailor-made interactions for every customer

Last on our list is a scaled-up version of a strategy that many small businesses excel at: Personalized responses. When your customer base is in the double figures, it’s easy to call people by their names, refer to previous interactions, and make tailor-made solutions. 

As you begin to grow, if you don’t learn to automate help desk interactions, you gradually lose the ability to stay on top of those personal connections. AI advancements in help desk operations immediately gather data on customer profiles, previous interactions, and purchase history to provide a more thoughtful and engaging customer experience. 

By maintaining a close connection with your customers, you gain a reputation as a company that invests in its customer’s success. Personalization is a cornerstone strategy for guaranteeing customer loyalty and increasing your revenue stream. 

Bitrix24: Your all-in-one platform for innovative AI help desk strategies

As the capabilities of artificial intelligence continue to evolve, it’s important to remember that they’re not just flashy gimmicks. All your efforts to automate help desk operations result in increased customer retention and more efficient workflows. 

So, how do you implement these strategies and start making a tangible impact on your business? 

With Bitrix24, you get a full suite of tools and functionalities to make your help desk more efficient while prioritizing a customer-centric approach:

• A CRM to gather personal data, purchase history, and buyer behavior

• Task management software to manage workloads for your agents

• AI-powered telephony, chatbots, and more for 360-degree communication

• A website builder to publish a customer-facing knowledge bank

• Endless automationautomations and analytics to streamline every step of the way

FAQs

How does AI transform traditional help desk management?

AI transforms traditional help desk management by:

• Automating routine tasks 

• Expanding your availability through AI-powered chatbots and voice recognition

• Drawing on CRM data to provide personalized support

• Prioritizing and assigning tickets in an instant

• Offering predictive insights for data-driven strategies

What are the key benefits of integrating AI into help desk operations?

The key benefits of integrating AI into help desk operations are:

• Increased efficiency for internal workflows

• Reduced response times

• Predictive problem solving

• Personalized assistance for each individual

• Improved customer satisfaction

Can AI in help desks significantly improve customer satisfaction?

AI in help desks can significantly improve customer satisfaction by providing faster, more accurate, and personalized support. AI-driven tools like chatbots and intelligent ticket routing ensure prompt responses and efficient problem-solving, leading to a more positive customer experience and increased loyalty.

Is AI in help desk management cost-effective for small businesses?

Despite it being cutting-edge technology, AI in help desk management is increasingly cost-effective for small businesses. In addition to falling costs on the technology itself, AI allows teams to automate a whole host of tasks so leaders can condense their teams and save on payroll.