Help Desk Statistics and Trends for 2022
Help desks are a vital tool for companies to make a good impression on customers when its most important: when things aren’t smooth sailing. Your product or service can be sensational, but everything made by, run by, or sold by humans will go wrong.
Enter your help desk system and software.
Help desk tools have to be as changeable and responsive as the industries they serve, which is to say, most of them. As a result, the most up-to-date information is essential for buyers, sellers, and employees in the sector. We have compiled some of the most important stats for you, in the following categories:
- Industry stats
- Customer Service Usage
- Impact of Help Desks
- Inside Perspective on Customer Service
- The Impact of Covid-19 on Customer Expectations
- Overall Customer Expectations
We also touch on some essential trends to be aware of, including:
First, here are the stats
Top 26 Help Desk Statistics
Help Desk High-Level Stats
- Only 28% of customer experience teams offer a knowledge base. (Salesforce 2020)
- The help desk software market share is projected to reach $11 billion by 2023. (Transparency Market Research, 2021)
- The help desk software market share is projected to reach a revised size of $21.8 Billion by 2027. (Businesswire 2020)
Customer Service Usage
- Average ticket volume has risen by 16% since the pandemic. (Zendesk 2021)
- Help desk software use is up 11 points from 2020, to 53% among customer service teams. (Hubspot 2022)
- 60% of high-growth customer service teams use a help desk, significantly higher than slower-growing teams. (Hubspot 2022)
- Over the course of the pandemic, channel preferences have also fluctuated. Globally, help desk interactions increased on WhatsApp 111%, SMS (15%), social media (11%), and chat (10%). (Zendesk 2021)
Help Desk Impacts
- Help desk users report a satisfaction rate of about 83%. This is lower than direct talking at 91% and chat at 85%. (Zendesk 2020)
- 91% of customer service teams agreed with the statement “our help desk system increases productivity”. (Hubspot 2022)
- Only 36% of consumers feel like a unique individual when engaging with customer service. (Gladly 2020)
- 79% of consumers say personalized customer service is more important than personalized marketing. (Gladly 2020)
- 86% of customers say they expect to be able to move from channel to channel but still have seamless conversations with agents. (Gladly, 2020)
- 46% of shoppers say that being able to interact on their preferred channel is an important aspect of the personalized help desk experience. (Aspect 2020)
Inside Perspective on Customer Service
- Only 50% of customer service leaders have enabled their service teams with a help desk, knowledge base, and shared email capabilities. (Hubspot 2022)
- 93% of customer support teams say that the expectations of consumers today are higher than ever. (HubSpot, 2020)
- 40% of customer service leaders say that their company views customer service as an expense instead of a driver for growth, an increase of almost 25% in one year alone. (Hubspot 2022)
- 95% of customer service leaders agree that a CRM platform is an effective way to increase productivity. (Hubspot 2022)
Pandemic Impact on Customer Expectations
- 72% of B2B buyers say the pandemic has increased their customer service expectations. (Salesforce 2020)
- 55% of B2C customers say the pandemic has increased their customer service expectations. (Salesforce 2020)
Customer Perceptions
- 80% of customers would switch companies after more than one bad customer service experience. (Salesforce 2020)
- 52% of customers expect offers to always be personalized — up from 49% in 2019. (Salesforce 2020)
- 66% of customers expect companies to understand their unique needs and expectations, yet 66% say they’re generally treated like numbers. (Salesforce 2020)
- Only 48% of customers say they generally trust companies. (Salesforce 2020)
- 62% of customers say their experiences with one industry influence their expectations of others. (Salesforce 2020)
- 91% of customers say they’re more likely to make another purchase after a great service experience. (Salesforce 2020)
- 54% of customers say it generally feels like sales, service, and marketing don’t share information. (Salesforce 2020)
3 Important Trends in Help Desk and Customer Service
A Greater Focus on User and Employee Experience
Anyone who has had to interact with customer service knows how important the person on the other end is. Much like an argument in a good relationship, it should be you two versus the problem, not each other. Help desk employees tend to quit because of bad experiences with customers. Customers hate bad customer service.
As a result, an essential trend in the help desk industry is steering towards improving the experience for everyone involved. Help desks themselves are fantastic for this. They can reduce wait times, which lead to flared tempers. Help desks also empower your staff with the info they need. This reduces the dreaded “can I transfer you/put you on hold?” line we have all experienced. Just as importantly, it enables your staff to feel more comfortable, as they have the repository of info they need.
This trend is not going to go away. Staff are now looking out for themselves. They expect better training, ways to reduce burnout, and better conditions. Ultimately, this can lead to a better experience for staff and customers alike.
Help Desks are Getting Ahead of Problems
What could be better than solving problems before the head of steam is built up and shooting out of people’s ears? Help desks and customer service as a whole is increasingly trying to become far more proactive.
This is done in a variety of ways. Customer surveys can be used to find disgruntled users before their moment of “ugh, ill reach out”. Knowledge bases and self-service articles allow more common issues to be fixed by users themselves. This can reduce the load on your staff and reduce their task repetition.
Another major trend in this area of customer service is honesty. Admitting mistakes is a fantastic way of keeping trust. This is highly valued, especially among younger generations. This trend is another that can hopefully improve experiences for all involved.
Automation is Here to Stay
Suprise, automation is a trend. There is hardly an industry where this is not the case. The interesting parts of automation in the help desk sector are rather unique.
The trend of automation in help desk software is not simply robocallers and receivers. In fact, these are unpopular. In this sector, automation is being used to improve the processes themselves, and tailor the experience for customers.
Automatic ticket routing is a fantastic example of this. Traditionally, this required an operator or sitting through a long list of options then never quite fit your needs. AI improvements and voice recognition are helping with this.
Tickets are being automatically boosted where needed, and answers that can be filled with knowledge bases are being allowed to do so. The latter might make it so you never have to speak to an employee at all.
Finally, canned responses are becoming better. They serve as an acknowledgment that you haven’t been forgotten and can provide estimates or helpful info, including self-service options
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Sources:
- 2020 Customer Expectations Report (Gladly 2020)
- Consumer Index Report 2020 (Aspect 2020)
- Helpdesk Automation – Global Market Trajectory & Analytics (Businesswire 2020)
- Help Desk Solutions Market (Transparency Market Research, 2021)
- State of the Connected Customer (Salesforce 2020)
- The State of Customer Service in 2020 (Hubspot 2020)
- Zendesk Customer Satisfaction Report 2020 (Zendesk 2020)
- Zendesk Customer Experience Trends Report 2020 (Zendesk 2021)