# Help Desks overview (/help-desks)



An assistant should know its limits. When it cannot help, or when a visitor simply
wants a person, a Help Desk is how the conversation reaches your team. A Help Desk
is an escalation destination that belongs to your organization and groups one or
more channels a visitor can use.

You manage help desks from the **Help Desks** area in the sidebar, which lists
every desk in your organization. From there you can create a desk or open one to
edit it.

## Create a help desk [#create-a-help-desk]

1. Open **Help Desks** in the sidebar.
2. Create a new desk and give it a **name** and a **description**. The description
   matters, because an assistant can use it to decide when this desk is the right
   one to offer.
3. Add one or more channels, described below.

## Support channels [#support-channels]

A channel is a single way to reach your team. Each channel has a name, which
becomes the button label a visitor sees, plus settings specific to its type. The
available channel types cover the common ways people ask for help:

* **Email** sends the request to a destination address.
* **Phone number** shows a number the visitor can call.
* **Live chat** opens a live chat address.
* **Create a ticket** raises a case in your connected ticketing system.
* **External link** opens a web address in a new tab.
* **Salesforce Chat Handover** connects to a Salesforce embedded chat.
* **API endpoint** sends the request to a service you specify.

Add the channels your team actually monitors, and order them so the preferred
option comes first.

## New channel versus editing a channel [#new-channel-versus-editing-a-channel]

When you add a new channel, a short setup flow walks you through its essential
settings first, then unlocks the rest once the basics are in place. When you open
an existing channel, all of its settings are available at once and you can save
your changes directly.

## What comes next [#what-comes-next]

* Shape the information you collect and when a channel is open in
  [Forms and availability](/help-desks/forms-and-availability).
* Connect a ticketing system and auto generate improvements in
  [Ticketing and improvements](/help-desks/ticketing-and-improvements).
* Offer a desk from an assistant in
  [Connect a help desk to an assistant](/help-desks/connect-to-an-assistant).