Conversational Employee Helpdesk 101

Seasoned IT leaders will agree with us when we say that providing support to in-house employees is exhausting. There are countless instances when employees reach out to IT support teams for minor queries like - “I can’t open my laptop”, “I am blocked from my account”, “I need access to JIRA” and so on. Having a comprehensive knowledge base doesn’t help either.

All these back-and-forth queries and endless resolutions result in declining productivity for both employees and IT support teams.

Adequate employee support is essential for the smooth functioning of any organization. However, no one talks about the heavy-lifting IT support teams have to do regularly. There are times when IT support teams would need to respond to 100s of emails in a single day. Self-service employee helpdesks don’t make this any better either.

That’s where the concept of conversational employee helpdesk systems powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI) come in. Just like ChatGPT, conversational helpdesks provide instant support to employees based on their queries and empower them with round-the-clock assistance.

In this guide, we will explore the role of conversational employee helpdesk systems, their key features, best practices, and common challenges faced during their implementation.

Let’s begin.

Understanding the role of AI in conversational employee helpdesks

A conversational employee helpdesk leverages the power of generative AI to provide personalized support to employees. These systems utilize Natural Language Processing (NLP) algorithms to understand and interpret the queries and requests of employees.

Such systems simulate human-like conversations, allowing employees to ask questions and seek assistance just as they would with a support representative. The integration of AI technology enables these systems to handle a wide range of support tasks, including troubleshooting, software updates, and access to resources.

• Chatbot-based conversational employee helpdesk systems utilize pre-programmed responses to provide automated assistance.
• GenAI-based conversational employee support systems leverage advanced AI algorithms to learn and adapt based on employee interactions, constantly improving their ability to understand and respond to queries. You can integrate these bots with your existing workplace communication tools like Slack or Teams to provide timely support to employees without burning out your IT support teams.

Key features of conversational employee helpdesk systems

A study by McKinsey shows that generative AI has the potential to automate plenty of manual tasks that are now absorbing up to 70% of the working hours of an employee. A conversational employee support platform can capitalize on the following features to change how employee helpdesks are functioning today:

These include:

• Chatbots for Automated Assistance: Chatbots act as virtual assistants, providing employees with instant responses to common queries and automating routine tasks. This saves time and ensures that employees receive prompt assistance, and urgent tasks are not delayed.
• Personalized User Experiences: A conversational employee helpdesk system utilizes GenAI algorithms to provide contextual support based on individual employee preferences, employment history, and relevant use cases.
• Integration with Existing Systems: These systems seamlessly integrate with existing organizational systems and databases like Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Notion, allowing employees to quickly access relevant information and resources.

Additionally, these systems automate backend workflows, streamlining processes and reducing the manual effort required for issue resolution. To develop a streamlined design, you can convert IT, HR, Finance, and teams' tasks into on-demand services offered to everyone in your company and create a breathing space for your support teams.

• Analytics and Reporting Capabilities: These systems provide valuable insights into employee queries, interactions, and support trends, enabling organizations to identify areas for improvement and optimize their support processes.

Implementing a conversational employee support system

The adoption of technical automation is at its peak and workplaces are also going to be part of this automation wave. The same McKinsey study shows that 50% of today’s workplace activities can be automated between 2030 to 2060.

So to stay adaptive to the changing market trends and to evolve your workplace with time, investing in a GenAI-based employee helpdesk sounds like a good plan.

But the question is, how can you implement such a system?

It all comes down to how you assess your team members’ needs, which support desk you select, and to what extent you can customize the responses.

Step 1: Assessing your organization's support needs

Understand the specific support requirements of your organization, including the types of queries and requests support teams frequently encounter.

For example, in the case of an IT support desk, support team members can come across questions/concerns like:

• I can’t log in to my workplace account
• I don’t have access to Notion or Sharepoint
• My laptop screen is flickering and I am unable to work

On the contrary, for an HR support helpdesk, the possible concerns can be:

• I can’t download my last month’s payslip
• I can’t access my tax statements

So if you are unaware of the type of support your team requires, you cannot drill down to the appropriate conversational helpdesk platform.

Step 2: Choosing the right conversational employee support platform

Evaluate different conversational helpdesks based on their features, scalability, integration capabilities, and ease of customization.

Before picking up the appropriate employee helpdesk solution, make sure to find the answers to the following questions:

• Does this platform meet my organization’s and employees’ needs?
• Does it integrate with my workspace and other tools I use?
• Is it easy to use, and is the learning curve steep?
• Does it require additional training for employees to understand how it functions?

Step 3: Customizing the chatbot for your organization

Tailor the chatbot's responses, tone, and branding to align with your organization's culture and employee expectations. Ensure that the chatbot is empathetic to employees, adopts a solution-driven approach, and simplifies employees’ lives with quick responses.

Best practices for optimizing your conversational employee helpdesk

Think of ChatGPT for a second. Any idea why this tool became so popular within just a few months?

According to Adam Conner, Vice President for Technology Policy at the Centre for American Progress, ChatGPT’s immense success is its ability to simplify things and make them accessible to all user groups.

A conversational employee support platform follows a similar approach. The idea behind this GenAI-driven platform is to simplify things for employees without overwhelming IT support executives.

To maximize the effectiveness of your conversational employee helpdesk system, deploy the following best practices:

Designing effective conversation flows

Create conversation flows that are intuitive, user-friendly, and capable of guiding employees to the right solutions.

To make your workflows count, make sure to look for the following features:

• Custom workflows - Use a conversational employee helpdesk tool to create customized (2-step or multi-step) workflows within minutes.
• Automated requests - You should be able to add the conversational platform to all requests from auto-assigning tasks to support admins, prioritizing the tasks, to categorizing them for faster resolution.
• Extended workflows - A conversational employee helpdesk also helps you integrate with third-party applications like Slack and Microsoft Teams to extend your workflows to the place where employees live and breathe.

Monitoring and analyzing user interactions

Regularly review and analyze employee interactions to identify common pain points, improvement areas, and automation opportunities. A great way to achieve this is by:

• Managing requests across teams - Analyze all requests and make sure that each employee gets your attention, and none of the requests, irrespective of their urgency levels, don’t go unnoticed.
• Automate responses and route to human agents when needed - While a conversational employee helpdesk is responsible for resolving employees’ requests, it can also route complicated requests to human agents to ensure accurate resolution.
• Be instantaneous with your responses - Your conversational helpdesk should have built-in SLAs. For example, generic IT support requests will take one hour to solve, while complicated IT requests can take a day. This way, you can ensure timely responses to customers’ queries.

Continuous improvement

Continuously update and refine your conversational employee helpdesk system based on employee feedback and evolving support needs. A great way to make this happen is by creating personalized journeys.

To scale your employee support systems, you can create customized journeys like employee onboarding, training, compliance, and performance feedback journeys.

Common challenges and solutions in conversational employee helpdesk implementation

Implementing an organization's conversational employee support platform is not a one-person job! There are several challenges involved in the process, including data-related and privacy issues, or even handling employees who are resistant to leaving behind the old-school support platforms.

So if you are planning to adopt a GenAI employee support system, following are some challenges you might face, along with their corresponding solutions.

Ensuring data privacy and security

Any GenAI platform deals with a large volume of datasets to get trained with time and for making intelligent decisions. These could easily lead to storage issues. Additionally, the scope of data breaches is way too high as you deal with confidential employee datasets like personal details, financial details, etc.

Therefore, businesses must implement robust security measures to protect employee data and ensure compliance with privacy regulations. Opting for an accurate data management environment can ensure proper handling of sensitive data. Additionally, it will help you access siloed data easily for the AI and ML use cases.

Overcoming employee resistance to change

Employees are familiar with using conventional helpdesk and support processes to get their queries resolved. So when they are exposed to a new way of seeking support, they might not be able to quickly adapt to it.

It is imperative to communicate the benefits of the conversational employee helpdesk system to employees. Provide training and support during the transition phase and address any concerns or misconceptions they might have to simplify the process.

Dealing with language and cultural differences

A significant percentage of workplaces are now remotely operating with a diverse and distributed workforce. Hence, your responses must be personalized for employees of all backgrounds and ethnicities.

Customize the conversational employee helpdesk system to accommodate your organization's different languages and cultural nuances. Ensure that no disrespectful words or phrases within the responses might offend a particular community.

Lack of expertise, governance, and compliance

In the initial days, employees may need help to learn the nitty gritty of the conversational support platform. And if not managed well, this might result in delays, back-and-forth communication, and burned-out employees.

Invest in training and development for employees responsible for managing the conversational employee helpdesk system. Establish clear governance guidelines and ensure compliance with relevant regulations.

Final thoughts

Conversational employee helpdesk systems like Atomicwork can transform how employee support is delivered. By implementing such tools, organizations can enhance employee support, improve productivity, and streamline support processes.

Some of the biggest benefits of these tools include:

• Unparalleled IT and HR support
• Automated and streamlined workflows
• Instant, personalized query resolutions

As technology continues to evolve, the future of employee support lies in the seamless integration of AI, automation, and personalized experiences. By taking the first steps towards implementing a conversational employee support platform, organizations can ensure that their employees receive the assistance they need when they need it, fostering a positive and productive work environment.

To explore how Atomicwork can help streamline and enhance your organization’s employee support, schedule a demo today!