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The differences between help desk managers and desk managers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. While it typically takes 1-2 years to become a help desk manager, becoming a desk manager takes usually requires 4-6 years. Additionally, a help desk manager has an average salary of $96,278, which is higher than the $75,140 average annual salary of a desk manager.
The top three skills for a help desk manager include customer service, technical support and help desk. The most important skills for a desk manager are CRM, sales process, and quality customer service.
| Help Desk Manager | Desk Manager | |
| Yearly salary | $96,278 | $75,140 |
| Hourly rate | $46.29 | $36.12 |
| Growth rate | 10% | - |
| Number of jobs | 75,971 | 45,871 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 62% | Bachelor's Degree, 65% |
| Average age | 42 | 47 |
| Years of experience | 2 | 6 |
A help desk manager oversees and coordinates the daily performance of help desk teams, ensuring clients get to receive optimal support and services. They are in charge of setting goals and guidelines, establishing budgets and timelines, performing assessments and inspections, and monitoring the progress of operations, resolving issues or conflicts should any arise. There are also instances when a help desk manager must facilitate the communication between internal and external parties, recruit and train new members of the workforce, and implement policies and procedures to optimize operations.
A desk manager's responsibilities focus on facilitating communication and performing organizational support tasks to maintain the smooth flow of operations at offices. Although the extent of their duties primarily depends on their company or employment industry, it usually includes handling calls and correspondence, answering inquiries, resolving issues and concerns, forwarding calls and messages, arranging appointments and schedules, organizing files, and overseeing various communication materials. In some offices, a desk manager manages different teams, supervising their performance while enforcing company standards and policies.
Help desk managers and desk managers have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Help Desk Manager | Desk Manager | |
| Average salary | $96,278 | $75,140 |
| Salary range | Between $74,000 And $125,000 | Between $44,000 And $127,000 |
| Highest paying City | Berkeley, CA | Eureka, CA |
| Highest paying state | New Jersey | New York |
| Best paying company | Meta | ServiceNow |
| Best paying industry | Technology | - |
There are a few differences between a help desk manager and a desk manager in terms of educational background:
| Help Desk Manager | Desk Manager | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 62% | Bachelor's Degree, 65% |
| Most common major | Business | Business |
| Most common college | Stanford University | California State University - Bakersfield |
Here are the differences between help desk managers' and desk managers' demographics:
| Help Desk Manager | Desk Manager | |
| Average age | 42 | 47 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 70.3% Female, 29.7% | Male, 54.9% Female, 45.1% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 12.5% Unknown, 5.4% Hispanic or Latino, 15.9% Asian, 10.5% White, 55.3% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.4% | Black or African American, 9.7% Unknown, 4.7% Hispanic or Latino, 18.0% Asian, 5.3% White, 61.6% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.6% |
| LGBT Percentage | 11% | 8% |