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Notes on running a help desk

Setup guides, comparisons, and the habits that actually improve response times, no fluff, no fabricated statistics.

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How-to·8 min read

IT Onboarding and Offboarding Checklist for New Starters and Leavers

A practical IT checklist for new starters and leavers: what to do before day one, on day one, and on someone's last day, plus who owns each step when IT and HR share the work.

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Guide6 min read

HR Ticketing: How to Handle Employee Requests Without Losing Track

Why HR requests break a shared inbox faster than customer support does, and how to track them properly without making HR feel like a ticket queue.

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How-to7 min read

How to Set Up an Internal IT Help Desk (Small Business Guide)

A practical guide to running internal IT support for a small company: intake, categories, priorities, response targets, and getting colleagues to actually use it.

Checklist
Reply within an hour
One clear owner
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Best practices6 min read

12 Customer Service Email Templates That Don't Sound Like Templates

Copy-and-adapt email templates for the situations small support teams actually face, from first response to refunds, outages, and saying no.

Enterprise
Sales call
VS
PileDesk
5 min
Comparison6 min read

Help Desk vs Service Desk: What's the Difference?

The difference between a help desk and a service desk, where the terms come from, and an honest answer to which one a small team actually needs.

Checklist
Reply within an hour
One clear owner
Close the loop
Best practices7 min read

Email Support Best Practices for Small Teams

Seven habits that measurably improve email-based customer support, with example replies you can copy. No new tooling required, though the right tool makes most of them automatic.

Guide6 min read

5 Signs Your Team Has Outgrown a Shared Email Inbox

A shared inbox works great until it doesn't. Here are the five concrete signs it's time to move to a support ticketing system, and what the move actually involves.

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How-to10 min read

How to Set Up a Shared Support Inbox in 5 Minutes

A step-by-step walkthrough from 'we just use a shared Gmail' to a real support inbox your whole team can work from, with testing and troubleshooting. No engineer required.

Enterprise
Sales call
VS
PileDesk
5 min
Comparison10 min read

Best Zendesk Alternatives for Small Support Teams (2026)

A practical comparison of the best Zendesk alternatives for teams of 2 to 20, what each one is genuinely good at, and how to pick without sitting through a sales call.