Best Help Desk Software

Help Desk Software is an easy way to manage online communication. It allows you to automate your customers' incoming requests via different communication channels like email, request forms, website chats, phone calls, messengers, social networks, etc. Help desk apps provide more efficient organization of your customer support service.

What is Help Desk Software

Your customers sometimes may have questions about your product. How to use it, how it works and many others. They want to get technical support by phone, email, or social networks. So they start to contact your company. Help desk software, also known as IT ticketing system helps you organize your answers to customer inquiries more efficiently.

Other names of Help desk software can be customer service software, service desk software, customer support software, IT ticketing system. It doesn't matter how this kind of software is called. It’s much more important to understand that this type of app will help you improve the work process of the helpdesk.

The purpose of using Help Desk Software

When the business is small, there may be a few customers’ requests and you can keep them in your head. But when the number of requests grows up, it is necessary to manage this process. You don't like it when you contact a company asking for help and there is silence, do you? In the help desk system such requests are called tickets, and the support agent closes these tickets when the client's problem is solved. Help desk software covers several business processes:

• The ticketing system

  It is the most important element, other processes are built around it. It is very important to pay attention to all the customer requests. Your company shouldn’t miss any client calls and emails. Help desk apps help to structure all requests so that they don’t get lost. In the interface of the system, you see all requests. Thus, you have six controls: who asked, what was asked, when it was asked, from what source the request came, who is responsible, the request is open or closed.

• Customer Inquiry Allocation

  Multi-channel support systems can handle different channels: email, phone calls, messengers, social networks, web forums, website chats. All requests from these sources go into a single system, where support agents can quickly answer customers' questions or transfer them to a specific department. All service desk software systems have a cascading delegation of requests. If a support agent doesn’t know how to resolve a problem, he can pass this request to another specialist. This solution allows you to distribute a workload on all support agents and their departments.

• Self Help Knowledge Base

  It helps relieve the workload on your support department and allows customers to find answers to their questions themselves. The knowledge base posts articles and video tutorials that answer user queries. Support agents also use the knowledge base. For example, they can attach a page from the knowledge base with a previously prepared answer.

  The knowledge base can be a separate product, or it can be a part of the Help desk software. It can be provided in different formats: how-to articles, forums, FAQs, etc. Imagine that you have a "Wikipedia" about your product and the customer can find the answers to all the questions by himself. This will make the work of your support team much easier.

• Reporting

  Every business process in the company should be measured. This can greatly improve the quality of service. Help Desk tools allow you to understand a lot of things. How quickly does a customer get an answer? Which support agent is fast and which one is slow? What's the response rate? How quickly does the agent connect to the chat? How many requests are received per day? How many requests does the support agent respond to per day? Which department responds quickly and which is slow? What is the ratio of open tickets to closed tickets? Do you need more support agents or can you automate the system and save on hiring? You can find answers to all these questions in the reports.

The benefits of Help Desk Software

Increase customer satisfaction. A satisfied customer is the best Google AdWords. Happy customers will be brand ambassadors and tell their friends about you. But it requires a high Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT). Help desk software helps increase that score. Good customer support has an impact on retention, repeat sales, and overall revenu.

Improve employee productivity. The faster your employees answer customer questions, the faster they solve those problems. The faster problems are solved, the more money the company makes. Churn rate decreases and customers don't go to a competitor. The productivity of technical support directly affects the financial result of the company.

Increase company productivity. A company’s capacity to respond to its customers needs is vital to its success. Help desk software helps an organization to operate on a timely basis, and effectively. A company that provides better tools for its employees, helps them to perform better, and thus helps the company to gain success.

Business Operations. You can streamline the operation to prioritize certain actions when it’s required. The supervisor of the support department will effectively monitor the functioning of the contact center and make informed decisions.

Types of Help Desk systems

There are different ways of categorizing the help desk system in the market. They can be divided by their deployment, the size of the business, and the support function. Here are four basic types of these software:

Help Desk Software features

• Ticket system.
• User support forums where customers can help each other.
• Creating articles in the knowledge base.
• Organizing KB articles into multiple categories.
• Distribution of requests to agents.
• Transferring request to another agent/department.
• Automatic answer in chat.
• Prepared answers.
• Integration with social networks.
• Surveys.
• Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT).
• Customer Scorecard.
• LiveChat.

The cost of the Help Desk Software

So, how much does help desk software cost? Prices vary, but they mostly depend on a couple factors: the number of customer service agents you have and the number features you need.

In most cases, the help desk software has a pricing policy of "per agent/per month". The average price in the marketplace varies from $2-25 per agent per month. The knowledge base and LiveChat can be purchased separately.

When you are evaluating the cost of a specific help desk software, it’s important to remember that the main goal of your help desk is to support your business and help it grow, so keep that as a priority when making your decision.

Help Desk Software trends

• Omnichannel

  Customers today use multiple communication channels. Everyone wants to get support where it’s convenient. Previously, all support was only by phone or by request on a web form. Now technical support via Facebook messenger and other social networks is developing rapidly. Customers want to get answers without leaving social networks. Modern Help desk software integrates with all social networks and collects all requests in a single operator's window.

• Chatbot

  With the development of live chat software Chatbot began to evolve. They are virtual assistants that simulate the work of a support agent. Chatbot has a number of prepared answers to frequently asked questions. It helps to reduce the load of the technical support service.

• Artificial Intelligence (AI)

  Artificial Intelligence and machine learning are entering all areas of human activity nowadays. In the tech support industry, it can change the rules of the game. Large enterprises have thousands of technical support employees. They all answer the same basic questions. Artificial intelligence is learning quickly and will be able to replace a large number of people after a while. Chatbots are programmed by people. Artificial intelligence is created by people, then trained by people, and finally replaces low-skilled labor.

• Mobile help

  While mobile was already a large and growing channel, time spent on stay-at-home orders during the pandemic has seen mobile usage jump considerably. The average US adult is spending 23 additional minutes per day on their mobile, with many clocking hours of mobile time per day. This makes good mobile solutions a must for many help desks. Users may be choosing mobile-first as their preference.

• Work models

  Many help desks that went from co-located to completely remote in 2020. For many, this was a massive shift in their work models and routines.

  Many employees are still completely remote and missing the face-to-face interactions with their colleagues. In some areas, businesses are starting to open their offices back up, although many companies also acknowledge that they found some advantages to having employees work from home. More than half of global customer service leaders believe that remote or hybrid work models will be the way moving forward.

  The key to managing it all will be technology that is just as remote-ready as it is for work in the office. Cloud-based technology remains a leader here.