Why Is the Help Desk So Slow? My Law Firm Needs a Faster Response

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Key Takeaways:

• Slow internal help desk response times hurt employee productivity and customer engagement.
• They want a frictionless experience, but 58% of workers say they deal with IT issues daily or multiple times weekly.
• Hybrid working adds complexity and 78% of workers complain that their organizations don’t provide enough support.
• The right MSP can offer the help you need, at the right price, with a response time of as little as five minutes.

Technology is wonderful – until it isn’t. Problems can crop up during a workday, from software snags to Wi-Fi wonkiness to hacking attempts. Issues are reported to your internal IT help desk. And then you wait.

You’re left asking, “Why is the help desk so slow? My law firm needs a faster response.” It’s a fair question with any number of answers. Perhaps you just had a growth spurt, and your IT staff was spread thin, and keeping up has become a Herculean task. 

It could be that you’ve already tried to address the problem by hiring an IT Managed Services Provider (MSP), but your law office isn’t getting the attention you need, and you’re certainly not getting what you’re paying for. You and your colleagues are frustrated. Your internal IT team needs support – but there’s an end in sight. It’s time to hire an MSP that understands your business needs. 

How a slow help desk hampers productivity

Productivity suffers if your employees don’t have the right tools. And so does employee morale. Low morale means a low level of engagement and enthusiasm. While other issues hinder productivity, a recent study showed that 95% of professionals say that IT issues affect them the most, and 78% said their organizations don’t adequately support IT within a hybrid work structure.

Solving problems as they come up is no longer enough

Today’s workers don’t even want to know there is a problem. They want issues addressed proactively. They want a frictionless, frustration-free digital environment, whether they’re in the office or working from a beach vacation. For most, this isn’t happening – 58% report they deal with IT issues daily or multiple times a week. 

As technology and how we work evolve rapidly, internal IT teams are expected to keep up when they simply can’t. Preemptive strikes against anticipated problems are impossible. Wait times continue to increase. Some of your best workers will abandon your organization for one with its digital act together.

The day-to-day, common problems that bog down your help desk

A slow help desk isn’t the fault of your IT team. They have a lot to juggle, and that strategic money-making project is just one of them. Let’s look at just a few issues they must deal with daily.

• Network printer problems: If turning the machine off and then on again doesn’t solve the problem, printer issues can be challenging.
• Slow-running computers: The issue of computer speed poses quite a problem. It could be something simple such as having too many windows open, or it could signal that a computer has been infected with a virus or malware. The first problem is easy to solve. The second? It could infect your entire network if it’s not caught in time.
• Slow internet: Law firms depend on internet connectivity to conduct research, send, and receive emails, electronic document signing, invoicing, and many other tasks, including accessing cloud software for day-to-day operations. 
• Lost data: Humans are fallible, and sometimes we accidentally delete important information. The help desk staff's job is to offer available options to recover the information. If that fallibility extends to clicking a phishing link in an email, that lost data could spell disaster if not dealt with promptly.

When someone calls the help desk with what they think is a small problem, it can have wide-ranging repercussions. By now, you’re probably wondering what an acceptable response time is. 

Help desk response – how long should it take?

Of course, an instant response is desirable. Unfortunately, it’s also not possible. However, the difference in response time between internal teams and the best MSPs is striking. While no formal studies exist, anecdotal evidence and common sense say the larger the organization, the longer an internal IT team takes to respond. Employees in a medium-sized company wait four to eight hours or more.

This isn’t the fault of your internal team. They receive an endless stream of requests. As a result, prioritizing becomes difficult, communication becomes patchy, and any expectations of a quick fix are usually dashed.

In contrast, when you partner with an MSP for help desk services, you should expect an average response time of one minute and ten seconds, with 98% of tickets being responded to within 5 minutes. 

How the right MSP solves help desk issues (and saves you money)

When you partner with a great MSP, your law firm grows and prospers, whether you use the additional help to augment your existing IT team or completely outsource your help desk.

You need a help desk that offers a single point of contact 24/7. This means you get the assistance your firm needs to run smoothly and keep productivity, employee morale, and engagement high. 

Prompt problem resolution also impacts your clients, who no longer must wait so long for a response from your staff. This boosts customer satisfaction, which enhances your firm’s reputation and leads to repeat business and referrals. 

Hiring an MSP for help desk support allows you to scale as your firm grows without hiring hard-to-find IT help at increasingly larger salaries. But what about cybersecurity? You need a specialist available since a single data breach can cost you big. 

But you must hire the right MSP – one who is invested in your success and providing the speedy service you need so you never again have to ask, “Why is the help desk so slow?”

Endsight boasts a 98.8% customer satisfaction rating, and we respond over the phone in five minutes. In addition to stellar support desk services, we offer complete technical support solutions to create optimal IT management, enhanced cybersecurity, and human-friendly support for small and medium-sized firms. Reach out today.