I have a question for help desk supervisors: Is it better for a single person to handle an issue from beginning to full resolution or is it better to hand the client around to service agents that are best qualified to deal with the issue?

Here’s a little background as to why I am asking. I was recently in a meeting where one of the attendees was raving about how wonderful a particular company was. When asked why he thought the company was so great, his reply was, “No matter what I call to ask or I need help with, the person who picks up my phone call (in two rings or less – Always) is able to solve my issue and stays with me until it is solved.” This person works a one-man answer station for a small company, so he added, “That takes a tremendous amount of cross-training.”

Another person in the meeting piped up with, “I worked for a company that sold that kind of help desk agent as a ‘premium service’ and charge almost double what we charged for the normal help desk agent. For our company, each help desk agent had an area of expertise and when someone called with an issue, they were transferred to the agent that specialized in that situation — unless the company upgraded to the premium service which entailed much more training for each agent.”

So, what do you think? What does your company do? What would you like to do in an ideal setting?