IT help desk
The staffed function that answers and resolves day-to-day technology problems for employees.
Searching for a help desk mostly returns software: ticketing systems, queues, SLA dashboards. That is what you buy when you already employ the people answering the tickets and need to organise them.
If you do not employ those people, the software solves nothing. You have bought a tidy way to store problems nobody is fixing.
The staffed version is the other thing, and for an office under about sixty people it usually arrives without any system for you to run at all. A chat link is the whole interface.
What it costs
Outsourced help desk runs $30 to $100 per user per month depending on hours and channels. Weekday chat-only sits at the bottom of that range.
Related questions
What is the difference between a help desk and a service desk?
In practice, scale. Help desk usually means fixing what is broken for individual users; service desk implies a broader function including requests, change and asset management. At small-office scale the distinction rarely matters.
Do we need help desk software?
Only if you employ the people answering. Otherwise you need the staffing, and the provider brings their own tooling.
Related service: Endpoint management · Endpoint Management Pricing