The Help Line

Everyone who has ever had to call to a company because of problem with some product has had to deal with a hotline. Keeping track of the calls coming in on the hotline not only helps solve problems faster but can actually help prevent some problems from happening in the first place. Most hotlines today use some software package to manage the calls. Although the terms hotline and help desk serve the same basic purpose, they are commonly used to refer to two different things (and sometimes the same thing). The convention is that hotline refers to the group of people who deal with requests from the outside, such as customers. On the other hand, help desk is the term used for the group of people that handle internal problems.