Help desk software tracks customer questions and feedback to improve customer service. Explore the real-life case studies illustrating how help desk software has been beneficial to businesses:
Help desk case studies
Company | Industry | Key challenge | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
Eurail | Transportation | Complex customer service | First response time decreased to ~3 hrs (95% faster) |
Grove Collaborative | Retail | Lack of insights about ticket intent | Chat volumes dropped by 80+% |
Premier Financial Bancorp, Inc. | Financial services | Low IT technician productivity | Centralized IT purchase management |
Brastel | Telecommunications | High ticket resolution time | Ticket resolution time decreased from 23 minutes to 15 minutes |
Lulea University of Technology | Education | High ticket volumes | Automated ticket routing and prioritization |
Kern High School District | Education | Limited internal collaboration | Streamlined agent onboarding |
Keiwit | Engineering and construction | Lack of ticket visibility | Automated ticket routing and prioritization |
Stuart | Logistics and supply chain | Growing user base | The support team spent 88 hours less on ticket resolution per week |
PacSun | Clothing retail | Lack of omnichannel support | Centralized omnichannel communication channels |
Eurail
Eurail is a rail pass provider that allows travelers to use trains across 33 European countries. Founded in 1959 and headquartered in Utrecht, it serves international passengers by providing access to a wide rail network and some shipping lines.
Challenges
Eurail’s customer service team faced a surge in support requests linked to the company’s previous policy that prevented customers from transferring rail passes between mobile devices.
When travelers lost or upgraded their phones, they had no way to transfer their pass and had to rely on support to fix the issue.
- Thousands of transfer requests arrived each week.
- Agents also had to activate tickets manually in the backend, adding more workload during peak seasons.
These repetitive tasks strained a team that varies between 50 and 110 employees, depending on the season.
Solutions and outcome
Eurail worked with Zendesk to redesign the process and allow customers to transfer their passes independently. This removed the need for manual intervention and automated the ticket transfer workflow.
The results include:
- Fewer incoming inquiries, giving agents time to handle more complex cases.
- A customer satisfaction score of about 80 percent.
- A first response time of roughly 3 hours, improving speed by about 95%.1
Grove Collaborative
Grove Collaborative is a retail company that offers more than 2,000 household, wellness, and personal care products to over 1 million customers. Founded in 2012 and based in San Francisco, it manages high-volume customer interactions across multiple channels.
Challenges
Grove’s support team needed AI capabilities to identify ticket intent and route issues effectively.
- The absence of AI features slowed down and made triage inconsistent.
- Operational efficiency was a concern because the team had limited resources.
- Live chat volumes were unpredictable. Website issues could trigger sudden spikes, making staffing difficult.
Solutions and outcome
Grove collaborated with Zendesk to implement tools that introduced automation, improved visibility, and shifted customers toward self-service.
- Chatbots surfaced relevant help center articles while customers waited, enabling quick resolution of simple requests such as return labels or order updates.
- Messaging across email, mobile app, web, social channels, and phone reduced chat volume by more than 80%.
- Conversation history remained visible even after disconnections, preventing repeated explanations.
- The move from live chat to messaging lowered the number of agents required to manage daily demand.2
Premier Financial Bancorp, Inc.
Figure 1: ManageEngine Service Desk help desk dashboard.
Premier Financial Bancorp, Inc. is a financial services company in the United States. Founded in 1991 and headquartered in Huntington, West Virginia, it employs more than 350 people.
Challenges
Its IT help desk struggled with both workload and system limitations.
- Technicians spent much of their time answering calls rather than resolving tickets, reducing overall productivity.
- The help desk lacked a structured knowledge base, so technicians had to search for solutions to problems that had already been solved, slowing issue resolution.
Solutions and outcome
The company introduced a unified help desk platform that combined ticketing, purchase management, and a customer-facing portal.
- The ticketing system enabled real-time tracking, templates for recurring requests, and complete visibility into request histories.
- Centralized purchase and contract modules helped teams manage IT assets across multiple locations.
- A self-service portal enabled customers to submit requests directly, reducing call volume and allowing technicians to spend more time on problem-solving.3
Brastel
Brastel is a telecommunications company based in Tokyo that provides international calling and reimbursement services to both businesses and individuals. Founded in 1996, it employs more than 150 people.
Challenges
Brastel’s support team faced rising demand and outdated systems.
- Agents needed up to 33 minutes to resolve a single ticket, slowing overall throughput.
- The team received more than 100 tickets each day, creating heavy pressure on a 20-person staff.
- The legacy call-center model was no longer adequate, as customers expected faster, more flexible support options.
Solutions and outcome
Brastel adopted HelpDesk, which enabled faster communication and more organized operations.
- Live chat provided real-time interaction, improving coordination and response speed.
- All social media channels were consolidated into one platform, allowing agents to manage messages without switching tools.
- Resolution time decreased from 23 minutes to 15 minutes.
- Response time also declined significantly, improving the overall customer experience.4
Lulea University of Technology
Lulea University of Technology is a Swedish institution that conducts research in partnership with companies such as Shell, Scania, Airbus, and IBM. Founded in 1971, it employs more than 1,500 people.
Challenges
The university’s IT team faced growing demand and limited oversight.
- Support requests came from both employees and students, resulting in high ticket volume.
- Limited visibility made it difficult to track service requests and produce custom reports.
- The team needed a help desk tool that aligned with ITIL practices and integrated with other ITIL processes.
Solutions and outcome
Lulea evaluated ITIL-ready help desk systems to strengthen its service management capabilities.
- Automated prioritization routed tickets to the right technicians, improving response handling.
- Both end users and technicians gained clearer visibility into ticket status, which supported collaboration and made tracking easier.
- A historical timeline of each ticket allowed technical teams to review past interactions and resolve issues with better context.5
Kern High School District
Kern High School District in Bakersfield, California, serves about 45,000 students through its high schools, technical institutes, and adult education programs. Founded in 1893, it employs more than 1,700 people.
Challenges
The district needed stronger coordination and clearer insight across multiple internal support functions.
- Collaboration among teams such as customer service, payroll, administration, and IT was limited, leading to fragmented support processes.
- Service managers lacked the visibility needed to monitor agent performance and identify trends to inform decisions.
- Onboarding new agents was time-consuming, and managers aimed to shorten the ramp-up period.
Solutions and outcome
Freshdesk helped the district improve efficiency and visibility across departments.
- Automated routing sent each query to the correct agent group, reducing manual work and delays.
- The new platform supported faster onboarding by making navigation and workflows easier to learn.
- Analytics-enabled managers to evaluate team capacity and performance using metrics such as lost business hours, cost per ticket, first-call resolution rate, and ticket volume trends.6
Keiwit
Figure 2: Freshdesk ticketing dashboard.
Kiewit is an engineering and construction company based in Omaha that delivers large-scale infrastructure, mineral processing, and mining contract services. Founded in 1884, it employs more than 28,000 people.
Challenges
Kiewit needed to replace its customer support platform due to ongoing downtime and maintenance expenses.
- Ticket volumes increased alongside business complexity, making tracking and response management difficult.
- The team lacked visibility into time spent on each query, which affected hourly billing accuracy.
- Manual workflows slowed resolution and added unnecessary effort.
Solutions and outcome
Kiewit implemented a new service desk to support secure and continuous operations. The system went live in two weeks, including integrations and agent training.
- Automated routing and prioritization helped manage higher volumes without increasing staff during peak periods.
- Reporting and visualization tools were integrated with Power BI and Tableau, enabling detailed insights into customer invoices and operational analysis.7
Most common help desk tickets
1. Password reset requests
There are a few reasons why your help desk receives a password reset request:
- Forgotten password: Password change requests are among the most common help desk ticket categories. 35% of internet users change their passwords around once per month.8
- Account security issues: A bank director was deceived by voice cloning seeking financial transfers.9 Users who are targeted by cyber attack vectors will request a password change.
- Data leakage: Hacker posts 10 billion passwords on crime forum.10 Several people who think their data has been stolen might send tickets to help desk agents.
Password reset requests are among the most common help desk tickets. And, a single password reset can cost up to $70.11 Organizations can implement help desk software to manage passwords by:
- Enabling self-service password resets
- Leveraging multi-factor authentication (MFA) integration
Real-life example: Vivint Solar, a leading solar energy supplier claims that they reduced password reset requests by ~90%, resulting in over $500,000 in IT savings.12
2. License and subscription management tickets
Employees toggle between applications approximately 1,200 times per day.13 Companies with multiple software applications may have several subscription licenses to manage. Thus, employees in such companies commonly generate support tickets for license & subscription renewals and authorizations.
Example: Customers can send renewal requests for expired CRM subscriptions; however, they will be put on hold while they wait for a response from customer service professionals. Companies can prevent bottlenecks with AI help desk software by automating operations such as renewals and licensing.
3. Access and permissions requests
40% of business-critical data is trapped in data silos.14 Employees find it difficult to obtain critical information from coworkers and perform their most productive tasks, hence sending access and permission requests to help desk teams.
Companies could solve this problem by implementing shared drives, knowledge bases, and project management software to make information more accessible and shareable among team members. A typical solution to access and permission requests would involve:
Example: A new employee needs access to specific folders on the company’s shared drive. They submit a ticket requesting permission. The IT team:
- Verify if the access request is authorized.
- Adjust the user’s permissions or grant access to the requested resources.
- Confirm that the user can access the needed files or applications.
4. Email-related tickets
The number of email users is set to top ~4.5 billion worldwide in 2024, making it one of the most popular digital communication tools.15 However, email providers may struggle to implement user education and technical support on a large scale.
This results in a large volume of help requests for issues like:
- Server failures restrict users from sending and receiving emails.
- Difficulty synchronizing data from an email account to a new device.
- Failed to log onto an email server.
Example: A user is unable to send emails and continues to receive the “Mailbox full” error. They file a ticket with the help desk. To remedy the issue, the support team either deletes old emails or increases the mailbox quota.
5. Device onboarding tickets
Device onboarding challenges occur when new users fail to configure their devices. Companies with remote or hybrid work environments commonly face challenges, in which employees spend their first day waiting for tickets to be resolved.
Example: HR submits a ticket to the IT department requesting the setup of a new employee’s workstation, including email, access to required systems, and hardware setup.
6. 3rd-party SaaS installation and update errors
Some common problems for software installation and update errors might include:
- An incompatible program on the PC is stopping the upgrade from completing.
- A cleanup procedure from a previous installation attempt is still in progress, and a system restart is required to continue upgrading.
- A required file for the update is likely missing.
Example: Assume a team member has to update a CRM tool for a project. However, they receive an error code while trying to update the software. The team member submits a ticket requesting the new CRM version on their work computer.
Solution: The IT team can ask the team member to:
- Make sure that their device has enough space.
- Try restarting the computer and then downloading the update again.
- Remove temporary files and cache.
- Restore and repair system files from the command prompt.
7. Hardware issues
Hardware failures occur when a computer’s physical components fail, preventing it from performing the intended functions. This can occur due to:
Hardware issues can have many causes, including:
- Overheating
- Faulty cables
- Hardware conflict
- Outdated drivers
Example: An employee’s laptop overheats and shuts down routinely. They send a ticket outlining the problem. The IT department sets aside time to investigate the laptop, concludes that the cooling fan is faulty, and fixes it.
In hardware instances, the IT help desk team may ask the user to bring the device to the maintenance department. Then the IT team may:
- Verify system errors: Launch “Event Viewer”. This will display a list of system problems to help detect probable hardware failures.
- Monitor for overheating: Use a hardware monitoring tool to monitor the temperatures of your computer’s components.
- Listen for unusual noises
8. Blue screen
The blue screen is a critical system crash error displayed by Microsoft Windows. Users commonly send tickets to IT teams for the blue screen of death. IT teams can
- Boot the machine in safe mode or,
- Check the hard drive for issues.
9. Data recovery requests
A data management administrator typically can recover deleted items from the cloud within a specific time frame after a user empties their trash.
Example: An employee accidentally deletes an important file in Google Drive and submits a ticket for data recovery. The data team retrieves the file from a recent backup and restores it to the employee’s computer.
10. Network connectivity problems
According to an Opengear report from 2023, ~90% of organizations encounter network outages at least once each quarter.16 Customers will contact help desks if they encounter problems such as slow, unreliable, or limited network connectivity.
Example: A customer support agent reports that they cannot connect to the company’s VPN from home. The IT team can check:
- VPN server status
- VPN protocol and ports
- Check the firewall blocking
- Ask to restart your VPN app
11. System performance issues
Users commonly contact the customer support team with Complaints about slow or unresponsive computers, lagging applications, or frequent crashes.
Example: An employee’s computer is running unusually slowly, causing delays in their work. They submit a ticket reporting the issue. The IT help desk can ask:
- Make sure you have the latest updates on the OS and device drivers
- Restart your PC and open only the apps you need
- Check for low disk space and free up space
- Check for and remove viruses and malware
12. Mobile device complications
Mobile device complications tickets are for issues with phones and computers. These issues can range from basic troubleshooting to asking for assistance from the device’s official vendor. Addressing these tickets frequently involves inspecting the device for hardware or software faults, providing instructions on how to use it, and receiving direct help from the vendor.
Reference Links
Cem's work has been cited by leading global publications including Business Insider, Forbes, Washington Post, global firms like Deloitte, HPE and NGOs like World Economic Forum and supranational organizations like European Commission. You can see more reputable companies and resources that referenced AIMultiple.
Throughout his career, Cem served as a tech consultant, tech buyer and tech entrepreneur. He advised enterprises on their technology decisions at McKinsey & Company and Altman Solon for more than a decade. He also published a McKinsey report on digitalization.
He led technology strategy and procurement of a telco while reporting to the CEO. He has also led commercial growth of deep tech company Hypatos that reached a 7 digit annual recurring revenue and a 9 digit valuation from 0 within 2 years. Cem's work in Hypatos was covered by leading technology publications like TechCrunch and Business Insider.
Cem regularly speaks at international technology conferences. He graduated from Bogazici University as a computer engineer and holds an MBA from Columbia Business School.
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