LMS support may be the furthest thing from your mind when first setting up your Learning Management System. But once you are ready to launch, you’ll wish you’d given it more thought.
Support requests can quickly get out of hand and easily slip through the cracks without good systems in place.
Here are some tips based on our experience setting up and maintaining LMS user support systems.
Establish your LMS Support Touchpoints
You may think that offering as many ways as possible for users to get help is a good thing; but it can become a logistical nightmare.
If you’re not careful, you could find yourself managing LMS help requests from any or all of these possible touchpoints:
- Dedicated support Email
- LMS Help forums
- Direct messaging in LMS
- Facebook and other social media accounts
- Website contact forms
- Integrated helpdesk services
Having too many touchpoints is not only difficult to manage, but diminishes your ability to respond efficiently and track common issues.Evaluate your current help-request touchpoints to see which ones to keep.
Once you’ve decided on your preferred touchpoint(s), eliminate access to the others you don’t plan to use by:
- Turning off direct messaging in the LMS
- Forwarding to support email addresses
- Removing references to generic contact forms
- Blocking or forwarding help requests on forums and social media
And put a plan in place for how to handle requests that come in outside of your established touchpoints.
Track Common Issues
Compile a list of your most common help requests, along with solutions and relevant links. This can save you time when answering requests regardless of your touchpoints.
This list will be particularly useful later as you start building snippets and knowledge bases to further streamline the process (see below).
Integrate a Helpdesk Service
Any good LMS will offer a way to integrate with helpdesk services like Zendesk or SupportBee. Using a service allows you to send users to one place for help, and even embed buttons on your LMS so the user has help at their fingertips.
These third-party services include features that save you time while greatly improving the user experience.
Here are some of the most common helpdesk service features:
- Embeddable snippets to facilitate common request responses.
- Auto-responses that can include a list of common questions or links.
- Ticketing systems to track longer-term issues.
- Knowledge base solutions for users who like to help themselves.
Build a Knowledge Base
Once you have amassed a collection of common help requests and solutions, create a knowledge base (or FAQ) so users can research on their own.
Today’s users don’t mind finding their own solutions, especially if it saves them time.
Helpdesk services typically offer a way to create your own knowledge base, and even integrate it into your contact forms.
A knowledge base or dedicated FAQ page can quickly grow into an invaluable resource for you and your users.
LMS Support for ALL Your Users
Your learners, instructors, and admins will face different challenges within your LMS. Be sure to accommodate all of your LMS users accordingly.
You may need different touchpoints for different types of users. And your knowledge base can reflect these differences as well, by categorizing solutions by user type.
How Elearning Delta Can Help with Your LMS Support
The Elearning Delta team can help streamline your user support experience and free up an amazing amount of time for you and your team.
Learn more about our LMS maintenance and support plans.
