1.1 Introduction
Online customer help desks and service desks need to quickly, and accurately, respond to a seemingly constant stream of end-user and business-process-affecting IT issues. The complexity of modern organization and the need to make continual cost savings, also means that help desk effectiveness and efficiency rests heavily on using fit-for-purpose help desk software to support help desk staff and their IT service management (ITSM) processes. The help desk software ensures that all issues are ticketed and monitored such that tickets are never left unattended (with delays and service level breaches), forgotten, or lost. Customer Help desk software facilitates this through prioritization, categorization, automated routing, service level management, and escalation capabilities.
As a prelude to other parts of this study, this chapter will discuss the background upon which this study was initiated, the statement of problems that led to this study, the Aim and Objectives of the study. Others are Significance of the study, Scope of work, Limitations of the Study and Definition of technical terms.
1.2 Background of Study
Customer care is a crucial element of business success. Every time an individual have contact with their customers an individual have an opportunity to improve their reputation with them and increase the likelihood of further sales. From your telephone manner to the efficiency of their order-fulfillment systems, almost every aspect of business affects the way your customers view their business. There are also specific programmes an individual can put in place to increase their level of customer care. This guide outlines what customer care involves. It explains how an individual can use customer contact, feedback and loyalty schemes to retain existing customers, increase their sales to them and even win new customers. It also covers how to prepare for receiving a customer complaint.
Customer care involves putting systems in place to maximize your customers’ satisfaction with their business. It should be a prime consideration for every business, sales and profitability depends on keeping their customers happy. Customer care is more directly important in some roles than others. For receptionists, sales staff and other employees in customer-facing roles, customer care should be a core element of their job description and training, and a core criterion when an individual is recruiting.
The challenges encountered that led to the execution of the research work is that, the difficulties people face in transferring information/data, unwillingness attitude of some Swiss Bakey Staff when checking their customers’ information, fragile nature of customers’ information and important nature of customers’ information in the business world. The need arise for the development of an online help desk to alleviate these problems. Campus Online Customer service may be provided by a person or by automated means called self-service. Examples of self service are Internet sites. However, In the Internet era, a challenge has been to maintain and/or enhance the personal experience while making use of the efficiencies of online commerce.
1.3 Statement of Problem
Investigation revealed that challenges of the existing Online Customer Help Desk Information System which is stated as follows:
- Unwillingness attitude of some Swiss Bakey Staff when checking their customers’ information.
- Difficulties people encountered when checking their customers information.
- Fragile nature of customers’ information.
- Time wasted in manual processing of customers’ information.
- Important nature of customers’ information in the business world. The need arise for the development of an online help desk to alleviate these problems.
1.4 Aim and Objectives of the Study
The aim of the study is to design and implement an Online Customer Help Desk Information System. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows to develop an application software that will:
- Maintain an efficient system of collection, sorting and delivery of customers’ information.
- Promote, and provide adequate and efficiently Online Customer Help Desk Information System
- Save the time wasted with manual method of checking customers’ information.
- Demonstrate increased motivation to the Swiss Bakey workers.
- Replace the manual method of documenting campus desk information and the error involved in checking customers’ information.
1.5 Significance of Study
The study offers numerous benefits to the Swiss Bakey and to any organization that deals on customers’ information. Manual method of checking customers’ information will no longer be there again because it will be done by the computer with the help of the computerized ONLINE CUSTOMER HELP DESK. Because of the easy to use nature of the ONLINE CUSTOMER HELP DESK, any organization can easily buy it to make use of them.
This study will be of immense benefit to other researchers who intend to know more on this study and can also be used by non-researchers to build more on their research work. This study contributes to knowledge and could serve as a guide for other study.
1.6 Scope of Study
The scope of the research is focused on the Design and Implementation of an Online Customer Help Desk Information System using Swiss Bakey in Kakuri District, Kaduna State as a case study.
1.7 Limitations of the Study
During the course of this study, many things militated against its completion, some of which are:
- Time Constraint: The time frame given to accomplish this project was very short due to school academic calendar and it was carried out under pressure which made the researcher not to implement some necessary features.
- Establishment Policies: Establishment policies posed a serious limitation as most staffs are not ready to release information needed for this project work. There were lots of information needed from the staffs of this institution to enhance the study which took them time to release or they did not release at all for security purposes, hence the scope was reduced.
- Research material: availability of research material is a major setback to the scope of the study.
- Frequent power failure: This made the researcher append more money on fuel to ensure sustainable power.
- Financial Constraint: Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet).
1.8 Definition of Terms
Business: Is a legally recognized organization designed to provide goods, services, or both to consumers or tertiary business in exchange for money.
Computer: A computer is a programmable machine that receives input, stores and manipulates data, and provides output in a useful format.
Customer: A customer (also known as a client, buyer, or purchaser) is usually used to refer to a current or potential buyer or user of the products of an individual or organization, called the supplier, seller, or vendor.
Database: A database is a system intended to organize, store, and retrieve large amounts of data easily.
Report: Reports are often used to display the result of an experiment, investigation, or inquiry.
Order: Confirmed request by one party to another to buy, sell, deliver, or receive goods or services under specified terms and conditions.
Staff: A set of people, such as the employees or volunteers, within an organization
Registration: This means to keep records received from the management for reference purposes.
Management: It is the co-ordination of all the resources of an Organization through the process of planning, Organization, directing and controlling
