What does a help desk associate do?
A help desk associate provides technical assistance and support to customers, ensuring efficiency and customer satisfaction. They may provide services through calls and correspondence or by face-to-face interactions. It is their duty to answer inquiries, troubleshoot problems, provide step by step solutions, discuss product specifications, and recommend other services when necessary. Aside from assisting customers, a help desk associate may also perform clerical support tasks such as filing and organizing documents, coordinating with staff, and maintaining records in adherence to the company's policies and regulations.
Help desk associate responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real help desk associate resumes:
- Manage and troubleshooting of VOIP systems, setup of new IP phones and configuring PBX.
- Work with domains and network protocols such as TCP/IP, DHCP and SNMP.
- Answer respondent questions about the study as well as use computer to troubleshoot respondent technical issues with survey/website.
- Receive inbound calls from doctors pharmacy technicians concerning medication refills for patients.
- Apply computer images (OS & software) to PCs.
- Implement and maintain DHCP, GPOs, file permissions, and shares.
- Support hundreds of programs across multiple OS platforms.
- Assist customers in the installation and troubleshooting of homegrown VPN.
- Learned programs such as Quickfil, SalesForce, SharePoint to help staff with issues.
- Check if employees are included in appropriate groups for access (FTP, VPN).
- Maintain and implement all desktop, lan printers as well as order supplies for all printers.
- Act as liaison between customer and technician to schedule a home visit to further troubleshoot the issue.
- Provide safe transportation for voluntary or court order mental health patients to designate institution.
- Create a SharePoint document repository for all legacy system information, configuration, and associate processes.
- Evaluate network utilization and redesign the county wide-area network by replacing existing network infrastructure with network switches and installing network cabling.
Help desk associate skills and personality traits
We calculated that 19% of Help Desk Associates are proficient in Customer Service, Troubleshoot, and Escalate. They’re also known for soft skills such as Customer-service skills, Listening skills, and Speaking skills.
We break down the percentage of Help Desk Associates that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Customer Service, 19%
Promoted to Priority Customer Service Team responsible for resolving escalated problem resolution for key account loan portfolios.
- Troubleshoot, 6%
Utilized Ghost software to remotely access user's PC to troubleshoot issues with bank software and Windows applications.
- Escalate, 5%
Escalate issues to the proper department and follow up with all tasks until completed.
- Technical Support, 5%
Provided technical support via telephone and face-to-face communications for more than 9k end-users.
- Phone Calls, 4%
Placed follow-up phone calls to clients requesting project work for clarification and information enhancement.
- Help Desk, 3%
Help desk support consultant assisting Physicians and Medical facilities with access to Medicare and Medicaid applications.
Most help desk associates use their skills in "customer service," "troubleshoot," and "escalate" to do their jobs. You can find more detail on essential help desk associate responsibilities here:
Customer-service skills. The most essential soft skill for a help desk associate to carry out their responsibilities is customer-service skills. This skill is important for the role because "computer support specialists must be patient and sympathetic." Additionally, a help desk associate resume shows how their duties depend on customer-service skills: "provided customer support for billing issues, damaged products, product rental and return issues. "
Listening skills. Many help desk associate duties rely on listening skills. "support workers must be able to understand the problems that their customers are describing and know when to ask questions to clarify the situation.," so a help desk associate will need this skill often in their role. This resume example is just one of many ways help desk associate responsibilities rely on listening skills: "worked and communicated directly with network, server and e-mail teams regarding user accounts and other related issues. "
Speaking skills. help desk associates are also known for speaking skills, which are critical to their duties. You can see how this skill relates to help desk associate responsibilities, because "support workers must describe the solutions to computer problems in a way that a nontechnical person can understand." A help desk associate resume example shows how speaking skills is used in the workplace: "addressed issues for user accounts such as being locked our or other minor issues related to the lotus notes platform. "
Writing skills. help desk associate responsibilities often require "writing skills." The duties that rely on this skill are shown by the fact that "strong writing skills are useful for preparing instructions and email responses for employees and customers, as well as for real-time web chat interactions." This resume example shows what help desk associates do with writing skills on a typical day: "assisted with technical writing scripts and updating the knowledge base website using sql and access. "
Problem-solving skills. Another common skill required for help desk associate responsibilities is "problem-solving skills." This skill comes up in the duties of help desk associates all the time, as "support workers must identify both simple and complex computer problems, analyze them, and solve them." An excerpt from a real help desk associate resume shows how this skill is central to what a help desk associate does: "resolved computer hardware and software questions involving pcs, ms office products, networking, communications, and printing"
The three companies that hire the most help desk associates are:
- Charles Schwab32 help desk associates jobs
- KPMG LLP12 help desk associates jobs
- Andersen5 help desk associates jobs
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Compare different help desk associates
Help desk associate vs. Information systems technician
An information systems technician is responsible for maintaining the efficiency of various network systems' performance. Information systems technicians provide network troubleshooting, upgrading systems for optimization, maintaining the security of databases, managing the interaction of networks, and inspecting and troubleshooting system inconsistencies. Additional duties include creating network designs based on clients' specifications, configuring software and hardware applications, and creating reports on system issues and resolutions. An information systems technician must have excellent knowledge of information systems procedures, programming languages, detecting malfunctions, and making resolutions promptly.
There are some key differences in the responsibilities of each position. For example, help desk associate responsibilities require skills like "escalate," "remedy," "customer satisfaction," and "lan." Meanwhile a typical information systems technician has skills in areas such as "user support," "tcp/ip," "lan," and "microsoft windows." This difference in skills reveals the differences in what each career does.
Information systems technicians earn the highest salaries when working in the government industry, with an average yearly salary of $63,116. On the other hand, help desk associates are paid more in the professional industry with an average salary of $47,306.information systems technicians tend to reach similar levels of education than help desk associates. In fact, information systems technicians are 1.6% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.2% less likely to have a Doctoral Degree.Help desk associate vs. Information technology/support technician
An information technology (IT) support technician is an individual who is responsible for providing support and troubleshoots software and hardware problems faced by customers. As for larger organizations that have their own IT department, technicians must work together internally with their IT staff members. IT support technicians are involved in inspecting and resolving minor local area network and wireless network issues, which include TCP/IP, DHCP, and VPN. They are also required to obtain an associate's degree in computer science or related field.
Each career also uses different skills, according to real help desk associate resumes. While help desk associate responsibilities can utilize skills like "escalate," "technical support," "help desk," and "level support," information technology/support technicians use skills like "user support," "database," "switches," and "android."
Information technology/support technicians earn a lower average salary than help desk associates. But information technology/support technicians earn the highest pay in the technology industry, with an average salary of $53,210. Additionally, help desk associates earn the highest salaries in the professional with average pay of $47,306 annually.In general, information technology/support technicians achieve similar levels of education than help desk associates. They're 1.0% more likely to obtain a Master's Degree while being 0.2% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.What technology do you think will become more important and prevalent for help desk associates in the next 3-5 years?
Ming Chow
Associate Teaching Professor, Tufts University
References:
1. cybersecurity
2. cybersecurity
Help desk associate vs. Software support technician
A software support technician is responsible for resolving software application issues, diagnosing related system failures, and writing resolution reports for reference. Software support technicians must be highly-familiarized with the system's infrastructure and interface to immediately diagnose malfunctions and identify maintenance techniques to prevent the reoccurrence of downtimes and delays. They also assist the system engineers in the configuration and optimization of networks, including the installment of upgrades and patch updates. A software support technician must have excellent organizational and communication skills, especially in navigating computer tools and applications to create support tickets and fix the customers' issues efficiently.
There are many key differences between these two careers, including some of the skills required to perform responsibilities within each role. For example, a help desk associate is likely to be skilled in "escalate," "technical support," "help desk," and "remedy," while a typical software support technician is skilled in "java," "database," "sql server," and "sccm."
Software support technicians earn the highest salary when working in the finance industry, where they receive an average salary of $86,283. Comparatively, help desk associates have the highest earning potential in the professional industry, with an average salary of $47,306.Most software support technicians achieve a similar degree level compared to help desk associates. For example, they're 4.5% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree, and 0.1% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Help desk associate vs. Desktop support consultant
The duties of a desk support consultant vary on their line of work or industry of employment. Most of their responsibilities are likely to revolve around reaching out to clients through calls and correspondence, answering inquiries, troubleshooting, and providing corrective measures, all to attain customer satisfaction. Moreover, a desk support consultant may devise strategies to better communicate with clients, produce progress reports, and maintain accurate records of all transactions. Furthermore, it is essential to adhere to all policies and regulations at all times.
Even though a few skill sets overlap between help desk associates and desktop support consultants, there are some differences that are important to note. For one, a help desk associate might have more use for skills like "escalate," "phone calls," "help desk," and "customer satisfaction." Meanwhile, some responsibilities of desktop support consultants require skills like "desktop support," "pc," "sccm," and "user support. "
Desktop support consultants enjoy the best pay in the finance industry, with an average salary of $51,314. For comparison, help desk associates earn the highest salary in the professional industry.In general, desktop support consultants hold similar degree levels compared to help desk associates. Desktop support consultants are 2.8% more likely to earn their Master's Degree and 0.1% less likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.Types of help desk associate
Updated January 8, 2025
