How to Set Up a Slack Help Desk and Improve Efficiency

Slack is changing how companies communicate with their employees and help their customers. 

Why? Because it's where people already chat and work. It's quick, works on phones, and is great for solving problems together.

Many companies still use old-style portal-based help desk systems. But people are turning to Slack for help anyway. They want updates, talk, and teamwork all in one place. Slack gives them that. 

With email, you might not want to send a short message. But on Slack, chats happen in real time, in short bursts. The pace of collaboration and automation (due to embedded Slack apps) is miles ahead of emails and portals.

The results are amazing. Almost 8 out of 10 big companies are using Slack to help their customers better. This means work flows smoother, and both customers and employees are happier. 

Want to know how you can use Slack to set up your help desk? We've got you covered.

Challenges with traditional help desks

Traditional help desk software presents numerous challenges that can significantly impact organizational efficiency and user satisfaction.

• Long wait times are a primary concern, with users often experiencing hold times of 30 minutes or more during peak periods and email responses taking days. These lags are particularly problematic for time-sensitive matters, often resulting in user dissatisfaction and unresolved difficulties.
• The repetitive nature of information gathering causes users to provide the same details multiple times, especially when transferred between departments. The redundancy can extend resolution times and give the impression of a disorganized support system.
• A lack of self-service portals is a missed opportunity, as support requests could potentially be resolved without direct intervention. The absence of comprehensive knowledge bases, poor search functionality, and user-friendly guides forces users to contact support for even simple issues.
• Complex ticketing systems can be a barrier to efficient support, with users struggling to navigate multiple screens or forms to submit a ticket. Vague status updates and lack of integration with other systems create data silos and incomplete information.

Source: Higher Logic

In addition to the above, difficulty prioritizing issues, lack of personalization and multi-channel support, and unclear escalation processes further compound these challenges. These issues can lead to subjective decision-making, irrelevant suggestions, and outdated information for users seeking support.

Benefits of operating a help desk within Slack

Operating a help desk within Slack offers numerous benefits that significantly enhance an organization's support infrastructure and overall efficiency:

Improved communication

You can jump on queries when they pop up and organize conversations using the Threads feature. You can also create a to-do list within the app using its Lists feature. With Slack, support teams can cut through the noise and get straight to solving problems, making them and their users happier.

Increased efficiency

Slack's centralized approach means you have all your essential information, resources, and team members at your fingertips. It also offers hundreds of integrations with other third-party tools and can help you automate tedious tasks like ticket creation, looking up answers, scheduling meetings, etc.

Boosted team productivity

Support staff can focus better and solve problems faster because they're not constantly switching between their help desk software and Slack tools. They can handle all user queries and boost productivity through Slack. Team members naturally learn from each other by seeing how their colleagues handle various issues. When a complex issue arises, it's easy to bring in experts quickly, which helps maintain high-quality support.

Increased transparency

Everyone on the team can see the entire conversation history, which keeps everyone in the loop. The open approach has a few benefits:

• It keeps people accountable for their work.
• If a problem needs to be passed up the chain, it's easy to do.
• Managers can monitor how the team is performing without constantly asking for updates.

How to set up a help desk using Slack’s native functionality

Setting up a help desk using Slack's native functionalities is possible, though it may not be as feature-rich as dedicated help desk software. Here's a concise guide:

1. Create a dedicated Slack Connect channel

• It's a single place for all support chats.
• You know exactly where to go when they need help.
• Support staff can easily keep track of all issues in one spot. 
• It keeps other channels clean and prevents support requests from cluttering up general discussion areas.

2. Use Slack workflows

1. • A form for users to fill out with details about their issue
   • Automated responses to acknowledge receipt of the ticket
   • Notifications to support staff about new tickets
   • Assignment of tickets to specific team members
   • Status updates as the ticket progresses through the support process

3. Implement slash commands

1. • /remind to set reminders
   • /search to search messages and files
   • /join, /leave, /invite, /remove to manage channels
   • /mute to mute channels
   • /open to jump to a channel

4. Set up channel-specific notifications

1. • Support staff can be on alert for the help desk channel, even if they've muted other chats.
   • When a new help ticket pops up, your team knows right away.
   • You can customize alerts based on keywords or specific users. So, if the stakeholders need help, you can ensure that notification stands out.
   • Team members can focus on their work without constant interruptions but still stay responsive to support needs.

5. Use Slack's built-in apps

1. • The Simple Poll app makes it easier to collect user insights. You can quickly gauge support satisfaction or prioritize issues that need attention.
   • By integrating with platforms like ClickUp or Asana, you can effortlessly track support requests. Team members can easily assign themselves to tasks as needed.
   • Knowledge bases like Confluence or Notion make your info instantly accessible, helping you give quick, spot-on answers to user questions.

6. Create status emoji

1. • 🆕: New ticket
   • 🏃‍♂️: In progress
   • ⏳: Waiting for user response
   • ✅: Resolved

7. Set up user groups

• @tier1support: For first-line support staff
• @tier2support: For more advanced issues
• @developers: For issues requiring developer intervention

Limitations of Slack’s native functionality

Below are some limitations of using native Slack functionality to set up a help desk.

Limited ticketing capabilities

• No built-in ticket numbering system: While Slack excels in many areas, it falls short when automatically assigning unique identifiers to support requests. The oversight can create quite a headache for support teams, particularly when juggling multiple similar issues or trying to keep tabs on long-running problems.
• Lack of formal ticket status tracking: You can get creative with custom emojis or some manual updates, but there's no built-in system to smoothly transition tickets through stages like "New," "In Progress," "Pending," or "Resolved." Users often find themselves asking where they are with any issue and struggle to get a bird's-eye view of the support status at any moment.
• No automated ticket assignment or routing: Slack doesn't have a system to automatically send support requests to the right person or someone who is free at the moment. This means you might have to wait longer for help, and some support staff might end up with too much work while others don't.

Absence of a dedicated knowledge base

• No centralized repository for FAQs or solutions: Slack doesn't have a good way to keep track of common questions and answers. There's no built-in place to store all the information people often ask about, making it hard for the support team and customers to find quick answers when needed.
• Difficulty organizing and searching for previous solutions: Slack has a search tool, but it's not great at finding what you need when there are tons of messages. As a result, support staff waste time looking for answers they know exist, and they might end up answering the same question over and over.

Reporting and analytics constraints

Slack doesn't automatically track important numbers that show how well the team is doing. For example, how quickly they answer questions, how many problems they solve, or how long it takes to fix issues. Therefore, team leaders can't see how their support staff performs and find it tough to spot where the team needs to improve.

Workflow management issues

Slack can do some basic tasks in order but can't handle complicated jobs requiring many steps. For example, it can't set up a workflow of approvals, like "first the team leader checks, then the manager." For proper workflow management, Slack's tools are too simple. Here's what Slack can't do well:

• Create advanced workflows that depend on each other
• Automatically assign different parts of a job to different people
• Change the workflow based on certain conditions

Scalability concerns

When more people ask for help, it becomes harder to keep track of everything in Slack, which can lead to problems like missing some requests or taking longer to respond. Slack's channel-based structure may not be ideal for organizations with multiple departments or complex hierarchies, which can make managing support across different teams or locations challenging.

Absence of SLA management

Slack doesn't have tools to set and track response times. This is a problem because you don't know if you're meeting your promised service levels. Without SLA management, it's hard to ensure good service and keep users happy.

Notification management

When many people ask for help, Slack sends too many alerts, making it easy to miss important messages or take too long to answer because there's just so much coming in all the time. You can't set different alert levels for different types of problems. Simply put, you can't ensure the most critical issues get noticed first, which is crucial when dealing with various help requests.

Why set up a Slack-based help desk?

Setting up a Slack-based help desk can bring a host of benefits to organizations. 

Smooth integration

These help desks work seamlessly with Slack, making them easy to set up and use. They respect your existing Slack permissions and can be tailored to specific channels or workspaces. As your team grows, the system grows with you, and they can start using it right away without disrupting their usual work routine.

Smart ticket handling

A Slack-first help desk automatically creates tickets from Slack conversations and allows you to assign them directly within Slack. You can customize ticket fields, set priorities, and even route tickets automatically based on specific words so that issues are dealt with efficiently by the right people.

Source: ClearFeed

Automated workflows

You can set up custom workflows for various support scenarios, create rules for automation, and use a chatbot for initial problem solving. You can use Slack for the automation of different processes, such as responses to common questions, speed up response times, and ensure consistent handling of support requests.

Source: ClearFeed

Enhanced collaboration

A Slack-first help desk includes features for internal notes and private comments. It allows multiple team members to work on a ticket simultaneously, uses @mentions for team communication, and solves complex issues faster.

Comprehensive reporting

The help desk provides detailed metrics, customizable reports, and a real-time dashboard of support activities. You can also access and export historical data to improve your support strategies and team performance.

Integrated knowledge base

A Slack-first help desk works with existing knowledge bases, automatically suggests relevant articles, and makes creating new content easy. Your support team and customers can quickly find the information they need, potentially reducing the number of support tickets.

Source: ClearFeed

Robust SLA management

A Slack help desk app includes advanced SLA tracking, allows customized SLAs for different types of tickets or users, and sends alerts before SLAs are breached. This can help you maintain high service standards and ensure timely responses.

Source: ClearFeed

Comprehensive user satisfaction measurement

Some advanced tools can help you measure user satisfaction, customize surveys, and view detailed feedback data. You can improve your service quality and customer relationships based on direct feedback.

Adapting to your new help desk

We've shown you how to set up a help desk using Slack and boost your team's ability to handle questions and solve problems for users and coworkers alike. 

As you start using it, remember that it might take a bit to get everything running smoothly. Check in with your team and users regularly to see how they find the new system. Their input will be key to improving it.

Using Slack as a help desk isn't just about new software — it's about changing how your whole team tackles support and problem solving. Give it a try and see how it changes your support process. With some practice and tweaking, you should notice your team handling support requests faster and more effectively.

Why settle for default? Customize your Slack workspace with curated themes and exclusive codes!

Edited by Jigmee Bhutia