Help request form

A help request form lets team members easily ask for support with an internal business need and provides a streamlined way to manage them. Request forms can be used for almost any issue, such as reporting a computer problem to IT, checking benefit options with HR or getting a room set up for a meeting. 

With a help request system in place, a form is submitted and routed directly to the person or department that is best suited to help. The issue can be handled efficiently, with updates tracked until it’s resolved.

You can tailor Slack’s help request form template to suit the needs of your team, helping you to streamline the help request process from start to finish.

How to use this template in Slack

It’s simple to set up the help request template in Slack. Here’s how:

• Add the template. Click on the ‘Get template’ button to add this template to a Slack channel.

• Customise the workflow. The template includes a workflow where you can make a request, set a priority and explain details. You can edit the existing fields or add more based on what information is necessary to collect. For inspiration, take a look at Slack’s Workflow Builder templates.

• Share and start collecting requests. Invite employees to share help requests via the form link.

• Manage and track requests. Use the template’s built-in tracker to organise help requests, assign owners, check progress and manage approvals. You can also review tracking data to uncover wider problems, such as an issue that’s affecting multiple people.

What is a help request form, and how is it used?

A help request form is a standardised way for employees, customers or team members to request support or resources. While one-time messages and emails can serve the same purpose, they lack the consistency and traceability of a standard form.

Here are some examples of how different departments often use help requests:

Human resources

An HR department help request form allows employees to request information about benefits, payroll and annual leave, as well as onboarding and off-boarding assistance. You can also use request forms to ask for employment verification, report workplace concerns and ask policy questions.

IT and technical support

Help request forms for IT typically have space for submitting password reset requests, asking for equipment set-up or maintenance help, and access to tools or systems. Users can also report hardware or software issues using the help request form.

Finance and procurement

Team members in accounting, purchasing or other financial-focused departments benefit from help request forms, too. Requesters can ask about budgets, invoices or expenses; request payment status updates or approvals; and submit requests for purchases or reimbursement.

Facilities and operations

Employees use the form to ask facilities and operations department leaders for workspace changes or office supplies, or request work order management such as maintenance, cleaning or repairs. You can also create a triage channel to manage urgent needs without leaving Slack.

Customer support

Your customer success team can tailor the form to collect customer issues and feature requests – and to track progress towards resolution. Customise the template with importance ratings to easily escalate high-priority tickets to the right team member quickly.

Benefits of using a help request form

Using a help request form lets you receive all requests through the same doorway, offering clarity from the start – and the chance to track needs and gather data to inform policies and procedures. The benefits of creating a help request form are many:

• Standardises the help request process. A custom form gathers the information your team needs in a format that’s easy to scan and organise. Working in Slack keeps all help requests in the same spot, instead of scattered across different formats such as email, text and DM.

• Improves visibility and accountability. A standard, digitised form – especially in a shared work operating system like Slack – lets everyone track the request’s progress and see who resolves the issue.

• Reduces duplicate and missed requests. When you’re getting help requests via email or text, it’s easy for some to slip through the cracks. A digital form collection process centralises requests, making them easy to manage and track.

• Speeds up responses. Help request forms reduce back-and-forth communications and ensure that the right owner gets promptly assigned to an issue. Faster response times and clear communication help to build trust among employees and teams.

• Generates data. A digital help request system lets you track request types, response times and trends over time. These data-based insights inform updates and improvements to the request system.

Essential components of a help request template

A successful help request template should be brief and targeted in how it gathers information.

Slack’s template includes a messaging component where requesters can interact with the help team and a help instructions section where you can add directions and edit the workflow as needed. There’s also a built-in help requests tracker, where you (and those who request help) can track the status and see who has responded. If you are a team leader, you can assign tasks to specific people in this tab.

Finally, there’s the request form itself, which can be tailored to collect information through fields, buttons and list items. Typical fields in a help request form include:

• Requester details. Include name, department, title and contact information, as needed.
• Issue summary. Share targeted questions that draw out relevant details.
• Priority level. Consider using low, medium and urgent. It’s helpful to know which issues require attention straight away and which can wait.
• Attachments. Upload photos, videos or documents to give additional background on the request.
• Current status. Update this parameter as assignees respond to and resolve the issue.

Best practices for effective help request management

Creating a help request form streamlines your help desk management process, and it’s worth taking the time to create an optimal, customised, and user-friendly form to serve your team. Keep these best practices in mind as you create a form and use it to manage requests.

• Keep forms short but detailed enough for triage. A form that’s too long or detailed might overwhelm users and discourage them from filling it in. On the other hand, make sure it includes enough detailed requests to draw out the information that you need.
• Minimise free-form fields. Use drop-down menus or multiple-choice options to reduce work for requesters and to make it easier to route requests and sort forms into different categories.
• Use conditional logic to personalise the form. Where possible, use conditional logic to make your help request form a ‘choose your own adventure’ for respondents, tailoring the next questions based on their previous responses.
• Set clear service or response expectations. Communicate what requesters should expect in terms of the response and its timing. Setting expectations at the onset avoids misunderstandings and frustration.
• Use automation for routing and notifications. Automation features within Slack let you pre-sort incoming requests and route them directly to the personnel and teams who need to see them first. You can also select certain people or teams to get notifications every time a certain type of request comes in.
• Encourage updates in the tracker to maintain transparency. Add an item to your team’s weekly to-do list to update the status of requests in the tracker. Staying current with requests, responses and updates builds trust among employees and helps the request management system to run smoothly.

Get organised with Slack’s help request template

Use Slack’s help request template to organise your team’s help requests, standardise submissions and route requests directly to the team members who are best suited to respond. When you build a more organised, efficient system, help requests will get resolved faster – making everyone happy and creating a system for ongoing support.

For more ways to streamline your work processes, explore Slack’s other templates.