How AI Chatbots Can Reduce the Costs of 1st Line Help Desk Support

In today’s fast-paced economy, your business relies on technology and you know the importance of providing timely and effective support to your customers and teams. However, you also know how expensive and challenging it can be to maintain a 1st line help desk team that can handle all the questions and issues that arise.

According to a report by MetricNet, the average cost per ticket for 1st line help desk support in 2020 was $22.23, which is an increase of 6.5% from 2019. The report also found that the average resolution time for 1st line tickets was 8.6 hours, which means that many customers and employees have to wait a long time to get their problems solved.

One of the main reasons for the high costs and low efficiency of 1st line help desk support is the high volume and variety of tickets that they have to deal with. Many of these tickets are simple and repetitive, such as password resets, software installation, or basic troubleshooting. These tickets can take up a lot of time and resources from the 1st line help desk agents, who could be better utilized for more complex and critical issues.

This is where Smithers can make a difference. Smithers is our AI chatbot that uses natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning (ML) to understand and respond to questions and requests over the phone or within online chat sessions. Smithers will provide 24/7 support, handle multiple conversations at once, and learn from previous interactions to improve its performance.

With Smithers you can simplify and lower the total cost of ownership (TCO) of your 1st line help desk support in these ways:

•  Reduce the number of tickets: Smithers can resolve many of the simple and repetitive tickets that would otherwise go to the 1st line help desk agents, such as password resets, software installation, or basic troubleshooting. This can reduce the workload and stress of your human agents, as well as the costs associated with hiring, training, and retaining them.

•  Integrate complex data requirements: Depending on the complexity of your environments and needed workflows, Smithers can be up and supporting your business within as little as 5 minutes. And you have the ability to make Smithers even more intelligent by integrating your own data (structured and unstructured) to get more engrained with the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) of your infrastructure.

•  Reduce the resolution time: Smithers can provide instant and accurate answers to many of the common queries and issues that your customers and employees face. This can improve customer satisfaction and employee productivity, as well as reduce the escalation rate to the 2nd or 3rd line support.

•  Reduce human errors: Smithers can follow your standardized procedures and protocols to ensure consistent and reliable service delivery. It can also avoid mistakes that human agents might make due to fatigue, distraction, or lack of knowledge. So no more tickets getting routed to the wrong queue or team which increases resolution times and creates more customer frustration.

•  Reduce the maintenance costs: Smithers is cloud-based so it’s scalable, secure, and reliable. You don't have to worry about installing, updating, or repairing hardware or software for the chatbots your deploy with Smithers. You only pay for what you use, and you can easily adjust your capacity according to your needs.

 Smithers is not meant to replace your human agents, but rather to complement them and enhance their capabilities. By using Smithers as the first point of contact for your IT support, you can free up your human agents to focus on more complex and critical issues that require human empathy, creativity, and judgment. You can also provide them with more training and development opportunities to improve their skills and motivation.

If you want to learn more about how Smithers can reduce your costs and improve the efficiency of your 1st line help desk support, try calling Smithers at 302-691-9217. Or visit our website at www.meetSmithers.com. Try out Smithers free for 7 days to see how it can drastically improve your support times!