
Jira
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Genesys Cloud CX creates fluid conversations across digital and voice channels in an easy, all-in-one interface. Designed to provide exceptional experiences for your customers and employees, it deploys quickly, is intuitive to use...Read more
everything HelpDesk by GroupLink is an extremely user-friendly cloud-based help desk solution that is both powerful and customizable with an architecture that integrates seamlessly with a number of third parties....Read more
TeamSupport is a post-sale award-winning customer support software company built specifically for the unique needs of B2B (business-to-business) technology-enabled companies within the computer software, hardware, information tech...Read more
Developed for IT professionals in the SMB to very large buyers' market, Spiceworks is an entirely free help desk and network management solution. ...Read more
Now part of Enghouse Interactive, SmartSupport Knowledge Management Solutions is a plug-and-play knowledge base solution that caters to businesses of all sizes across various industries. The solution lets users streamline customer...Read more
SalesOutlook's Outlook CRM is a comprehensive customer relationship management (CRM) and email marketing system that embeds into Microsoft Outlook. Our Outlook CRM automatically syncs all customer data at one place. All files and ...Read more
HappyFox is a unique system designed to simplify and streamline the client support process, with a ticket organization feature that lets client support members sort requests according to priority, improving response times....Read more
Help Scout is a cloud-based help desk solution that helps small businesses and small teams manage their customer relationships. Help Scout is designed to look like a personal email. There are no ticket numbers, case numbers o...Read more
Whether you’re a mid-market company looking for an on-demand CRM application or a large enterprise that needs a robust, end-to-end client management solution, SAP can meet the unique technology needs of your company. ...Read more
Service desk agents need to respond to a constant stream of end-user queries regarding IT issues, product information, and installations. And it's just as important to keep track of every issue/incident as it is to solve them.
Manually entering requests in a system, categorizing them, and creating support tickets wastes a lot of time and resources. Help desk software helps automate most of the steps in this process, allowing faster resolution of immediate needs, incidents, and technical issues users.
Help desk tools allows support agents to consolidate tickets from multiple channels (e.g., email, live chat, calls, self-service portals). Managers can access key information such as workload, incident turnaround time, and resolution rate.
Help desk software often integrates with customer service, customer relationship management, contact center, and knowledge base software to facilitate better customer service and support. This buyers guide explains what help desk software is and what to look for to find the best help desk tool for your business.
Here’s what we'll cover:
Help desk software helps businesses and support teams accept, manage, organize, automate, respond to, and report on customer questions or issues. These tools centralize information and support management to automate the complaint resolution process. Help desk systems can be used for external customer service or internal IT support within an organization.
Some customer relationship management (CRM) software offers help desk functionality. Help desk software can often integrate with CRM software or other tools to access customer data and facilitate customer service.
Interaction tracking in Zoho Desk software (Source)
Knowledge base management | Facilitate virtual conferences that connect multiple people remotely over the phonCreate, store and share information, FAQs, and support articles in a central database. Employees or customers can self-navigate through the knowledge base to find answers without waiting for a support agent. |
Ticket management | Consolidate and track all end-user issues from different sources (phone, email, chat, request forms, etc.) and convert them into tickets. |
Alerts/Escalation | Send notifications to support desk agents about ticket prioritization. |
Interaction tracking | Add notes, conversation history, and actions taken to each issue/incident. This helps service desk agents keep track of tickets, reference past issues, identify repeat incidents, and more. |
Reporting/analytics | Analyze customer support performance by tracking average response time, ticket volume, request/ticket sources, and more. |
Self-service portal | Allow end-users to answer their own questions without support agents by browsing knowledge base articles, using self-service forums, and easily contacting support to follow-up on past requests. |
Service-level agreement (SLA) management | Document an agreement between the provider and end-user that identifies services required and expected level of service. |
Workflow configuration | Change, adjust, and configure your workflow based on business needs and user-defined rules to help automate repetitive and manual tasks. |
Multi-channel communication | Give end-users the option to submit requests via multiple channels such as email, live chat, text, voice, online forms, and social media. This reduces customer wait time and speeds up the issue resolution process. |
Before purchasing a help desk solution, you should assess what kind of a buyer you are. Most buyers fall into two categories:
Cognitive automation of help desk software: Advancements in machine learning technology have prompted help desk service providers to add cognitive automation to their tools. This technology can help extract key phrases from employee or customer requests, categorize them, create support tickets, and route them to specific groups. Help desk providers that integrate cognitive automation into their software can help businesses save more time and money as employees have even fewer manual tasks to complete.
Note: The application selected in this article is an example to show a feature in context and is not intended as an endorsement or recommendation. It has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable at the time of publication.