But I ALREADY have an Online Help Desk. Why Do I need a Toll-Free Number?

The online help desk is a very useful and valuable tool. This tool allows users to explain their issues, receive a ticket, and receive a response within twelve to eighteen hours. A help desk allows for direct responses to different types of questions and allows for customers to specify what category their needs fall under. However, it should not serve as a replacement to a toll free number. If you’re asking, why do I need a toll free number when my help desk serves my customers? You’re missing an opportunity to step up your service. There are still customers who prefer to pick up a phone and dial.

An effective help desk can provide a single point of contact through which users can gain troubleshooting assistance, receive answers to the questions, solve known problems and even re-open a specific ticket should a particular problem re-occur. Most help desk systems function through the use of a “local bug tracker”, which reports from outside users as well as internally. Over the years it has become an effective means of solving issues within business functions.

But when it comes to communication, no matter how big or how small your business, a help desk is in no way a replacement for a toll free number. Unlike a help desk, a toll free number provides a direct voice conversation between both parties. For many customers voicing their specific needs is still the way to reach out for help. Here are a few advantages that having a toll free number possesses:

Navigating the Directory of a Larger Company: Often, you can get a direct connection by dialing a toll free number extension. Calling one’s extension can serve to skip the automated voice systems and all the “please press 1”‘s of the world.

Redirecting Nightmares:  Who’s to say your ticket won’t end up in the wrong department, or worse, in “cyber space” where no one can answer them? While some companies with high customer service ratings do everything they can to answer a customer’s queries within a specific window of time, some help desks systems can accidentally throw your case in an empty department. A toll-free number can directly connect you to the line you need, and spare you from ever having to deal with another HAL 9000.

Accessibility, Accessibility, Accessibility: When it comes to calling upon customer service, customers are often troubled by having to classify the category their specific issue falls under. By dialing up a toll free number, you can clarify your issue with a voice on the end. To this day there is still no greater convenience in customer service than engaging in conversion.

A help desk allows for direct responses to different types of questions and allows for customers to specify what category their needs fall under. However, it should not serve as a replacement to a toll free number. Custom Toll Free offers a varitey of options to help streamline your toll free service with your help desk operations.