Tier-1 tickets resolved, the rest routed
AssistBPO's outsourced help desk staffs your level-1 queue with a named, employed help desk technician who resolves password resets, how-to questions and access requests, triages the rest and escalates by your runbook. Tickets are worked inside your own tool, in your hours, with a backup trained on the same runbook and a team lead scoring quality.
- Front desk & phones
- Employed, screened, managed
What is an outsourced help desk?
An outsourced help desk is a support queue staffed by an external team that handles first-line requests from employees or customers: password resets, account access, how-to questions, known-error fixes and ticket triage. Anything beyond the runbook is escalated to the in-house or MSP engineers with the diagnostics already gathered. AssistBPO staffs it with dedicated technicians, not a rotating pool.
· Reviewed by Issabela Masters
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Help desk: what we do and how it runs
An outsourced help desk is a support queue staffed by an external team that handles first-line requests from employees or customers: password resets, account access, how-to questions, known-error fixes and ticket triage. Anything beyond the runbook is escalated to the in-house or MSP engineers with the diagnostics already gathered. AssistBPO staffs it with dedicated technicians, not a rotating pool.
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What it is
An outsourced help desk is a support queue staffed by an external team that handles first-line requests from employees or customers: password resets, account access, how-to questions, known-error fixes and ticket triage. Anything beyond the runbook is escalated to the in-house or MSP engineers with the diagnostics already gathered. AssistBPO staffs it with dedicated technicians, not a rotating pool.
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What you get
Level-1 tickets resolved by phone, chat and email inside your own help desk tool
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How it runs
Password resets, how-to, access and triage handled; the rest routed by your runbook
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Match
The discovery call covers your ticket volume by channel and hour, the systems your users run, your runbook and what level 1 may and may not touch. Within 72 hours we propose a named help desk technician with the right stack experience, Microsoft 365, Google Workspace or your product, plus a trained backup.
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A named assistant, a backup and a team lead
In your hours, inside your tools, with a reply from a person within 1 business day. Call +1-657-777-0006 or ask for a staffing plan.
Get a staffing plan 06 / 06
Who is the help desk for?
- IT providers and MSPs
- Level-1 cover for your client tickets so your engineers stop doing password resets and your after-hours queue is not a voicemail box.
- SaaS and software companies
- First-line product support from your knowledge base: login issues, billing questions, how-to answers, bugs reproduced and logged for the engineering team.
- Internal IT for growing companies
- A help desk for 50 to 500 employees: onboarding accounts, device questions, Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace issues, and a clean ticket record for audits.
- Schools, nonprofits and clinics
- Staff and student support on shared systems, handled with patience, documented in the ticket and escalated when a device or server needs an engineer.
What does the help desk service include?
These 12 tasks are what AssistBPO's help desk handles as standard for a business that lives on its phones.
- Ticket intake by phone, chat, email and portal in your help desk tool
- Password resets and account unlocks by your identity procedure
- Access requests processed against your approval matrix
- How-to answers from your knowledge base, with the article linked
- Known-error fixes run from your runbook step by step
- Ticket triage: category, priority and owner set on every ticket
- Escalation to level 2 with diagnostics, screenshots and steps already tried
- Follow-up and closure confirmation with the user
- Knowledge base articles drafted for repeat questions
- Employee onboarding and offboarding tickets worked through your checklist
- Daily queue report: opened, resolved, escalated, aging
- Monthly QA scorecard on resolution accuracy and ticket hygiene
Deliverables and KPIs
AssistBPO reports 6 measures on the help desk: what lands on your desk, what we count, and how often you see the number.
| Deliverable | KPI we report | Cadence |
|---|---|---|
| Tickets resolved at level 1 | First-contact resolution rate | Daily |
| Tickets triaged | Category, priority and owner set on every ticket | Per ticket |
| Escalations with complete diagnostics | Escalations returned for missing information | Weekly review |
| Response and resolution times | Time to first response, time to resolve, against the targets you set | Daily and weekly |
| Knowledge base growth | Articles drafted from repeat tickets | Weekly |
| QA scorecard | Accuracy, ticket notes, user satisfaction | Monthly |
KPIs are what we measure and report, agreed per engagement in the weekly review. Service-level commitments are set in your agreement, not on this page.
How does the help desk work?
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Match
The discovery call covers your ticket volume by channel and hour, the systems your users run, your runbook and what level 1 may and may not touch. Within 72 hours we propose a named help desk technician with the right stack experience, Microsoft 365, Google Workspace or your product, plus a trained backup.
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Onboard
We turn your runbook and knowledge base into a level-1 playbook: identity verification steps, the fixes the technician may run, the approval matrix for access and the escalation paths with what each level-2 owner needs. The technician gets a named agent seat in your help desk tool and shadows your queue for a week.
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Daily rhythm
The technician opens the shift with the aging report, works the queue by priority through your hours across phone, chat and email, escalates with full diagnostics and closes the loop with each user. The end-of-day report shows opened, resolved, escalated and anything waiting on your team.
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Weekly review
Twenty minutes with the team lead on first-contact resolution, escalations that could have been level 1, repeat tickets that need an article or a fix and next week's changes. Each month the team lead scores a sample of tickets and calls on the QA scorecard.
Hours, coverage and models
AssistBPO staffs the help desk on 4 models. US Eastern to Pacific, UK and Australian Eastern hours from the group's two offices. Overnight queues are staffed from the second office in Pakistan.
- Dedicated help desk technician, 80 or 160 hours a month, in your hours
- Level-1 pod of 3 to 10 technicians with a lead for MSPs and larger queues
- After-hours and weekend queue cover as an add-on
- 24/7 help desk pod on request
See what is staffed in your zone on the coverage clock.
What are the terms on the help desk?
The card, the contract terms and the help desk's own numbers, in one place.
| Specification | What you get |
|---|---|
| Focus, 20 hours a week | $800 a month, 80 hours |
| Dedicated, 40 hours a week | $1,600 a month, 160 hours |
| Managed Pod, three seats or more | From $4,800 a month |
| Evening, weekend or overnight cover | Tier rate plus 20 percent |
| Desk | Front desk & phones |
| Standard schedule | Dedicated help desk technician, 80 or 160 hours a month, in your hours |
| Coverage | US Eastern to Pacific, UK and Australian Eastern hours from the group's two offices. |
| Tools | 10 platforms, including Zendesk, Freshdesk, Help Scout |
| KPIs reported | 6 measures: daily, weekly, monthly |
| Setup fee | None |
| Minimum term | Month to month, no lock-in |
| Notice | 30 days, to stop or to change hours |
| If the fit is wrong | Trained backup covers the desk the same day, re-match at no charge |
| Continuity | One named assistant, one named backup, one team lead |
| Who does the work | Employed by SS Support Network LLC, never freelancers or contractors |
These are rate-card starting points. What you pay depends on the hours, the desk and the coverage window, which is what the staffing plan sets. Rates improve as you add assistants. Your staffing plan states the rate for the number of seats you need. The rate card carries the other currencies, the add-ons and the six things that move a plan off it.
How much does a help desk cost?
Plans start at $400 a month for 40 hours, at $10 an hour, and rates improve as you add assistants. Get a staffing plan within 1 business day.
What moves the plan
- Hours a week and whether the desk is dedicated or shared
- Phones: live answering needs a receptionist profile and a backup
- Coverage zone: business hours, after-hours, weekends or 24/7
- Tools and access to set up
- One person or a pod with a lead
What the market publishes
Other providers' published ranges, by market, so you have something to hold this against. These are not AssistBPO prices.
| Market | Published range | Source |
|---|---|---|
| United States | US assistant pay averages $19.45 an hour on PayScale and $27.15 on Indeed; managed remote staff $640 to $2,400 a month full time | PayScale and Indeed via Wishup, Cherry Assistant and Zedtreeo, 2026 |
| United States | Offshore managed staff $7 to $15 an hour typical; premium US services such as Boldly from $2,600 for 40 hours | Wishup, VantaStaff and Staffify 2026 roundups |
| United Kingdom | Offshore full-time staff £900 to £2,000 a month against £3,000 to £5,000 for UK-based; employed average £15.33 an hour | PayScale and UK agency pricing pages, 2026 |
| Australia | Offshore managed staff A$8 to A$35 an hour; full-time offshore A$22,000 to A$35,000 a year against A$91,000 plus for a loaded local employee | Virtual Coworker, DotVA, Cloudstaff and Smart Staffing published rates, 2026 |
Security and compliance
- Identity verification on every reset and access request, by the procedure you approve
- Employed, background-checked technicians under NDA, with least-privilege admin roles you assign
- Managed devices with MFA, no local storage and screen-recorded sessions where you require them
- No shared admin passwords; access through named accounts that you can revoke instantly
- Incident and change tickets logged in your tool so audits show who did what and when
Full control list on the security page and country rules for calls, texts and email on the compliance page. Certifications are listed only when held.
Country rules for this service
AssistBPO makes outbound calls, texts and emails only with lawful consent and do-not-call scrubbing. Assistants never take card numbers. Country rules.
- US: GLBA safeguards and HIPAA minimum-necessary access where the help desk touches finance or healthcare systems
- UK and EU: UK GDPR data processing agreement with the international transfer addendum for user data in tickets
- All markets: access logged in your tool so audits show who changed what and when
Frequently asked questions
How much does an outsourced help desk cost?
Plans depend on hours, desks and coverage. Get a staffing plan within 1 business day. For orientation, published managed remote staffing runs $640 to $2,400 a month for a full-time person, and US assistant pay averages $19.45 an hour on PayScale (via Wishup and Cherry Assistant, 2026). AssistBPO prices a named technician or a pod for a block of hours rather than per ticket, so a bad patch day does not become an invoice surprise.
What can level 1 fix without escalating?
Whatever your runbook allows. The usual list is password resets and unlocks, MFA re-enrollment, mailbox and calendar permissions, software installs from your approved list, printer and VPN connection steps, account onboarding and offboarding, and known-error fixes with a documented procedure. Anything touching servers, network changes, security incidents or data restores goes to level 2 with the diagnostics attached. You can widen the list as trust builds.
How do you verify who is asking for a password reset?
By the procedure you approve in onboarding, applied every time. Common patterns are a callback to the number on file, a manager confirmation in Teams or Slack, a one-time code to a registered device or a verification question set in your identity tool. The check is recorded in the ticket. Requests that fail verification are not actioned and are flagged to you, because social engineering through the help desk is the attack path that matters.
Which help desk tools do you work in?
Zendesk, Freshdesk, Help Scout, Intercom and most ticketing tools with an agent seat, plus Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace admin consoles, Teams and Slack for internal requests, and your MSP's PSA or RMM if you provide a role. The technician works in an account you create with the permissions you choose. Notion or your existing wiki holds the runbook, and articles drafted from repeat tickets go back into it.
Can you cover our queue overnight and at weekends?
Yes. The after-hours add-on staffs your queue from the group's second office in Pakistan, working the same runbook with the same escalation paths, and hands over to the day technician with an aging report. Overnight escalations follow your on-call roster. MSPs with clients in several time zones often run a small pod so the queue is never empty and no engineer is woken for a password reset.
How do escalations reach our engineers?
As tickets, not as interruptions. The technician assigns the ticket to the level-2 owner you name for that category, with the user's details, the error, screenshots, the steps already tried and the verification done. Urgent cases such as an outage or a suspected security incident trigger the call or chat path you define. The weekly review counts escalations sent back for missing information, and the target is zero.
Will the technician be the same person every day?
Yes. A named technician learns your environment, your users and your quirks, such as the finance system that locks accounts on Fridays. A trained backup covers leave and breaks with the same playbook and system access, and a team lead runs the weekly review and the monthly QA scorecard. For pods, the lead keeps the runbook current and the ticket notes consistent across technicians.
Is this the same as your technical support service?
They overlap but face different people. The help desk serves employees and clients of IT providers on accounts, devices and everyday software. The technical support service serves customers of a product or SaaS platform on how it works and when it breaks. Both use the same runbook-and-escalation model. If your queue is mixed, the discovery call sizes one desk that covers both.
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Next step
Your desk, staffed. Wherever you are.
Tell us what is overloaded. A named person replies within 1 business day with a staffing plan, and we propose your assistant within 72 hours.
Or call +1-657-777-0006 during US, UK or Australian business hours, or hear our demo receptionist.
- A named assistant proposed within 72 hours
- Employed, screened and managed staff, never freelancers
- Your hours, your tools, your data